Raccoon Party in the Backyard

Or was it some other animal? A family of possums?

We bought August this great blow-up pool for the backyard just a few weeks ago. Do you know how hard it is to find pools in the middle of summer? Everything is cleared out to make room for back to school stuff--in early July!! Why is summer being rushed? This drives me crazy.

Anyway, Paul found an awesome pool that had two different areas to fill up, a place to attach the hose to make water spray around, a little kiddie slide, and a ring-toss game. Spiffy, huh?


The pool was filled up last Friday on yet another hot day and that was sadly the last time it would be used. Never mind that this was the pool we were to use for August's upcoming 1st birthday party.

Saturday morning I went outside to the backyard and the pool was in a heap and mostly deflated. I wondered if Paul had drained it last night, which would be odd if he did since he was in bed before me. I didn't think much of it until Paul woke up later and I asked about the pool.

He went out to inspect it and said that it had been vandalized! Big tears cut into it! Who would do such a thing? A pack of mean drunks? Angry neighbors (OK, our music doesn't get played that loud, does it?)? Upon closer inspection, we could clearly see jagged tears, pointy claw marks and holes, and other evidence that pointed to the fact that it was not a knife that made such cuts.



Did a bunch of raccoons pass by and want a drink, then decide to party down in the kiddie pool? Did they have fun, or were they scared by something which caused them to freak out and destroy the pool in multiple places? I guess we will never know, but it is one of those times where you wish you had a video to play back to see exactly what went on in the middle of the night!

Now we have to find another blow up pool for August's party, and hopefully there will be one last dusty one in some store to snag. Either that or we are hitting Ebay or Amazon for one. That and we are going to have to store it in the garage at night so it doesn't get ripped apart again.

First Family Camping Trip

Paul took off a few days from work so we could finally get around to doing some much needed camping! It has been way too long and we figured, why not give it a try? So we loaded up the Vanagon and headed south to the Willamette Valley and camped out at Salmon Creek Falls. 3 hours in the car is just about all August can take without completely freaking out, so luckily that was about how long it took to get there.


It was really an incredibly beautiful spot! The water was crystal clear--you could see all the way to the bottom of the creek, which was pretty deep in some spots.




August became filthy so quickly that I had to keep suppressing that mother instinct of wanting to clean his hands and face constantly. I found it funny at first, thinking back to when he was a newborn and making sure everything was so clean all the time. It was the dirtiest we have ever seen him.



We got to try out our new Sherpani carrier--it rocks! August even let us keep him in it for at least 30 minutes, which is a record for him.


Somehow I was able to convince Paul to jump into the freezing cold water. Luckily it was pretty hot that day or else it would have not been as, ahh, refreshing?

Yes that is me in my saggy, baggy underwear. Stop laughing.

Attack of the Sand Eater

On Saturday we drove to Cannon Beach because it was going to be 103 degrees here in Portland and only 80 or so at the coast. Luckily we got out of town fast and made it just in time to find decent parking. This was August's third time at the coast but his first time ever playing in the sand. He absolutely loved it and even found the sand to be quite delicious: