Dog Mountain vs. Skamania

Yeah, bros, that was a miraculous hikes--replete with many dogs, and wildflowers. We ALMOST made it to the top of Dog Mtn. with Sara and Bangbiscuit and Lucia and Daniel and Aunt Butt-butt (they did), but we had to get out of there...

To go to fancy resort Skamania (thanks, Ella!).  These girls were not that surly, even though Ella left Miki in an elevator (she was later found)

Also, these girls can eat a huge amount of rolls and butter.

Not to mention s'mores!  Did I mention that they have a s'more pit at Skamania.  (Also, I thought Skamania would have more to do with those ska bands of my high school days--The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, The English Beat, etc--but it did not.  S'mores, though, yes:

We also spent about 12 of our 19 hours in the pool or the hot tub.  Ida mastered her front and back underwater flips.

Miki ate a lot of these.  Ida ate so many that she then took to toasting bare graham crackers.

But WHO is the biggest master of the s'more?

Whoa!

Many feckless strangers made the mistake of engaging our girls in conversation, only to find the highly-detailed conversation ("and then my doll Matthew was under the bed and her hair was worn off and did you know we had a cat who died?  He liked me but he didn't like my sister, Miki--here, this is Miki, she just turned four"  "And my hair is going to turn brown so I can look just like my sister and at my school there's a pinwheel and dirt mound and, wait, Ida!...") that was still going on half an hour later.

A good time was had by all!

Strengths

There was a time not long ago when I thought Ida would never get the rings or monkey bars straight.  Now she's got huge calluses on her hands and is always figuring out a way to complicate things.  Above she's "skipping rings" on the bars; meanwhile, Elsie is demonstrating how to do the monkey bars backward.  Below, Ida's doing the "double rings" which is actually much more difficult because there's less swinging, I guess.

This is what it looks like.  In general, I think Ida could learn physical things more quickly (e.g. riding a bike) if she didn't have to keep up such a monologue while doing so.  She's quite serious, as you can see, about getting this "double" straight.

You think Miki's not strong?

Here she is showing off her muscles at the climbing gym--with Sara and Daniel.

Birthday/Mother's Day

Blessed am I to travel with these devils.

Miki Frances @ 4

Today's the day,and she's really letting us know about it. Last weekend, though, she shared a party with her friend Talu. That was a wild one:

Elsie got a cupcake.  And Miki now says "cupcake" instead of "cuptake"

Bangbiscuit!  Even he got one.

Sara and Ida had some fierce fangs!

Real hot days we're having here!

Bonus:  a couple pictures of our Miki hamming it up at Tumbleweeds!

"Tell them that my birthday is May eleventh, and I'm turning 4.  Okay?  Okay, Daddy?  Okay?"

a weekend of non-stop parties and heat

Renn Fayre 2013, bro! you know the girls love to mingle with all these naked and tripping college students! So we set out to see what we could find

Certainly one of the more popular items was this transformed schoolbus that some young people are living in.  The girls got up into the top, where obviously a van's body has been attached.  That's the sleeping quarters.

The young people who lived there were very patient, and gave the girls some apples.

Soon we went out onto the front lawn, where there were other wonders to be experienced.

Like this big chair, for instance.

And then the girls entered this yurt, where they found two semi-clad women entangled in an embrace.  Ida and Miki had quite a conversation with them, and even procured a fortune from them:  "You'll be independent and successful women."

Speaking of clad, soon we found a forgotten (?) suitcase of dress up clothes!

Miki was at times unhappy with the selection:

Maggie, on the other hand, was quite pleased with what she found.

We even hit the free photo booth!

You may have heard that Arthur's been beset by a back ailment.  Yes, it's true.  He claims that he was injured when Maggie performed a "running hopper," but she claims that is not the case at all.

He did say, of this vision, "It's like my fantasy, come to life."

Wow it suddenly got hot.  We had to rush home

take off our own clothes, and eat ice cream sandwiches...

yeah!  Soon:  Miki's birthday party.

Antarctica

Last weekend the weather report promised 64 degrees on the coast. Ella bought it. So right after Ida's intense gymnastics class, we were on the road!

The girls of course have no sense of bitter cold.  The temperature hovered in the forties, while the brutal, slicing wind made it feel like the twenties or teens.  Fortunately, that wind was good for kite flying.  The kite had an M on it, so the girls decided it's name was "Metroman."  No idea.  Why.

"This is the best day ever!" Ida said.  "Aren't you glad we came to the beach?  Thanks for bringing us to the beach!"

There were a lot of mechanical and engineering setbacks as we tried to make castles, but people took them pretty much in stride.

"Mama told me it would be freezing cold, so I was 90 sure that it would be freezing and then it wasn't so cold!  Because she told me that!  Because I thought it was going to be like ice water, like I like to drink!"