Happy Inauguration Day!

Can I please burn this shirt now?

2nd Annual Wine Cellar Raid

Thanks to everyone who came to raid the cellar--and brought some great wine and food to share!

We look forward to doing this every year and it is great that so many friends come from out of town to join us.

Adventures in Florida

I know what you are thinking. Florida is hardly adventurous, right?

It is when you have a child who won't sleep on airplanes, finds eating to be boring because there is so much else to look at, and has two parents who chase after the child non-stop, until he eventually drops from exhaustion.

We flew from PDX to Seattle, then took a direct flight from there to Miami. Some pediatric website suggested to give slightly less than the suggested dose of Benadryl so your child doesn't sleep the entire flight and not at all later on. 3/4 the dose seemed like a good start. An hour later, August is still awake. Mellow, but awake. Hmmm. We give him the other 1/4 dose, still nothing. "Can we give him more?", asks Paul. That seems like a bad idea, so we entertain him as much as possible for the duration of the 6 hour flight.

We arrive in Miami at 10pm, take a shuttle bus to the car rental, take about 30 minutes to get our car (you just wander around the Alamo lot in the dark, looking for a car, with no help from any staff). We drive 1 hr. to Highland Beach, and August falls asleep. I go to the front desk to check in and a crabby employee helps me out. And he is very slow about it. August is of course not happy about being woken up since we need to get all the luggage in, set up his crib, etc. He is then fully awake and plays in the room until 1:30am. Wake-up time? 6:30am! Sad, but true. August is raring to go so we eat breakfast and then walk down to the beach.


One of the favorite spots we all seem to keep winding up in is the Jacuzzi, right off from the beach. August never went in past the first step, where he liked to play with his pool toys. One day this woman with an English accent came up to us and pointed out that August was not supposed to be in the Jacuzzi as it was bad for his heart (or something like that), pointed to the Rules and Regulations sign behind her, and said no one under 8 was to be in the Jacuzzi. (Actually, the sign said no one under 12 unless accompanied by their parents, but never mind).

"How old is he?", she asks.

"He's eight," I say, in a snotty voice.

"Oh, ok then."

Does she really believe he is 8, or is she being snotty back? Either way, she mutters something else and walks off in a huff. She never bugs us again, and we continue to enjoy the Jacuzzi.



After spending a few days in Highland Beach, we drive a few miles to Boca Raton to check into a different hotel, which is where the Bat Mitzvah festivities will be. I am lame and have no photos of the actual event, but I can tell you that my niece did a fabulous job and the party was incredible.

Our Florida adventures end in Miami, where we spent one night in the Embassy Suites hotel, 1 mile from the airport. Free open bar from 5:30-7:30! Just what we need to wrap up our vacation before another 6 hr. flight. For some reason August eats very little when we travel (too much going on, maybe?) but scarfed down a ton of steamed broccoli and grilled chicken in the tub. Yeah, we feed our kid in the tub. You got a problem with that?



I don't know if I have stayed in an Embassy Suites Hotel before, but man, whoever they hired to decorate the rooms must have taken a lot of LSD while on the job. Check out the curtains! Note the thatched green trim on the top:



Look at the snazzy artwork--it looks Masonic, no? It caught the eye of both of us, immediately.




Now this is kind of freaking me out. Look at this image (best I could find off Google):


This was the third image above our bed:



Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?

Why is the cover of an Aleister Crowley book adorning the walls of an Embassy Suites hotel? It is really freaking me out and I am dying to know the story behind this.


OK, enough for now. I will post some videos soon.

Our Punchy Child

August went to his first Halloween party and wore this cute costume that his great Aunt Ginny sent him--a Gingerbread Baby. Not something we would have picked on our own, but it looks quite adorable on him.



So all the parents lined up the kiddies for a group shot on the couch. Hmm, who is that punching a monkey in the head?


Poor monkey. Now he is picking her nose:



Here he is harassing a chicken:


I wonder if we will be invited back next year?

Camping Part 2: 4 Adults, Two Toddlers, and a Dog

After much debate about where to camp, it seemed that central Oregon would be less rainy than over here in the western part of the state. It was raining when we left Portland, and it just got worse from there. We drove a little less than 3 hours over the Santiam Pass to Camp Sherman, on the Metolius River and met up with our friends from Bend.

It was a really beautiful spot and we all did our best to keep the party going, despite the weather.
Luckily we had 2 easy-up canopies or else it would have been a disaster trying to cook and hang out in the rain.


Like the last time we camped, August found the dirt to be delicious:




There were loads of salmon flies attracted to the lanterns at night:


The next day, the weather would clear up and the sun would come out for a while, then the rain would resume. After several hours of this, it seemed best to pack it in and find a motel. No one knew if there was enough propane to keep the kiddies warm for 2 nights in a row, and we were pretty much out of dry clothes for August.

We headed to Sisters, OR and found a funky motor inn and crashed there. Breakfast cocktails* started off the day on Sunday--the sun was shining and we were happy to be dry!

*Note--this photo was taken after said breakfast cocktails were consumed.