Travel, 100

As noted, we've been killing it in Philly, but then you know we're sometimes just sitting around taking pictures of each other

And we think it's time to blow out of our beloved PDX for a time. Pack up the Nike suitcases and we're gone.

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Before we knew it, we were in Haddonfield, receiving presents. Excellent!

Man, G-Toko's been laying out spread upon spread, challenging my diet at every turn, saying things like "Sometimes water just gets so boring," which the girls have really caught on to.  And then Ella's old college pal Molly came to visit!

She brought Marianna and Nico with her (the boys Teo and Luis were back in Baltimore curing baldness and battling Evil).

Girls got busy with tattoos and all manner of water weaponry.

Did I say Miki's had a fever.  She's been a total pain in the butt!  And so we're not going up to CT to see our dear secret V cousins Hawk, Leigh and Hanako.  We're sad.

Okay, weather here's sticky but not unbearable.  Next...

Slip n slide!

All Action + Theo Graduates!

Some people think the constant graduations--pre-school, kindergarten, etc--are kind of out of hand, but still, at least it's a celebration!

New TPH teacher Fish brings the big drum.  Demonstrating how Native Americans and Ninjas can live in harmony.

Theo graduated!

And my friend Sara did, too!

The girls got dressed up for some reason today, and demanded that Ella document it all!

The sweet summer days

Just enjoying the summer days, here. Friday night we went to Gino's (partially as a ploy to avoid driving to Tualatin again for Elsie's barn animal skit, admittedly), the girls' favorite restaurant.

Here, Miki is looking hopefully to see if more mussels would be delivered. These girls, it turns out, love mussels. There were piles of shells everywhere!

What a procession of beauties!

The next day, after gymnastics class, we went and picked blueberries.  We picked about fifteen pounds of blueberries, froze most of them, and are still eating our way through the remainder.  A very fine berry, the blue.

Sunday, after a raucous birthday party, we headed to old Oaks Park for a work gathering of doctors.  After downing some za, even scarfing it, in Ella's (her shift:  tie-dyed by Ida) case, we headed for the rides.

Frog Hopper!

Ella really doesn't like this machine-gunning one

but the girls do.

It was an extremely hot day!  Fortunately God has created blue raspberry Icees.

Cape Lookout

Miki was so excited she ran right for that freezing Pacific Ocean:

Ida, too:

Hurray for Ella, who arranged this camping trip a long time ago.  This was down at Cape Lookout, and we were traveling with Bangbiscuit, Daniel, Sara and Lucia.  Excellent.

After dinner that first night we took a nice walk on the beach:

That first night, Miki suffered some "spirit possession" in our big tent; Ida and I got up really early and went down to the beach, so as to avoid awakening people.  There was a woman sleeping on the beach whom Ida kept wanting to rouse, but I prevented her from doing so.

The next day Long A Arthur Bradford arrived, with his prosthetic leg!  Excellent (not so excellent:  Elsie barfed, so she and Margaret stayed behind...)

Arthur likes to swim in this sock, these days.

Yeah, Theo came, too!  Excellent.  It was very campfire intensive, too.  Several days later, we've gotten most of the sand out of everything but the woodsmoke aroma is everywhere.  Our tent is still hanging up in the back yard.

Theo!  Oh yeah, the next morning it was Theo's 5th birthday!  Fantastic.  She and Arthur tried to sleep in (as you can see), but eventually all the other girls woke her up by singing Happy Birthday.

4th, etc

All four girls had a good time at Willowbrook ARt Camp in Tualatin, a mighty drive. This was last week, when all school was closed. Miki and Theo were even in a production of "Winnie the Pooh"; here they're getting in costume. Theo was a bat and Miki a poodle.

Some tender sister time with Dressa the dog; traded back and forth=later acrimony.

Like old times...

And then the usual Eastmoreland 4th parade craziness! 

Dressa came along.

And Ella was there in a low-cut blouse!  Everytime she stood up this guy behind her tried to measure to see how tall she was.

Everywhere we went there were treats, and endless free hot dogs.  Later we watched some fireworks at the block party of our hood.  Ida

decided to bust out her coyote costume.  Who knows why?

Only in America.