Ida + Miki vs. Seaside

Went down to Seaside so Ida could stick her face in the beach and eat some sand.



Then these swarthies decided to fly a kite:




This water is brutally cold, and Ida kept dragging various persons out into it, far beyond their tolerance.




Witness:



It's true, Ella Rutledge Vining has not lost an ounce of her foxiness.



It's really hard to get sand off the face of someone covered in sticky sunscreen.



About the only thing that will take it off is ice cream. "Stwawbeddy."



What about Miki? You might well ask. And did she enjoy herself?

Miki, learning to sleep by herself.

Here's what big sister was looking like, back in the day:



Friends.

Vomitorium

Ida wants everyone to know that she's still alive.



Though it's been a rough few days. She and I went to the Dr. today (she threw up on both of us in the parking garage) and they say she's going to make it, one day at a time. Fortunately, this stomach flu has not gotten to Miki:



She's storing acorns in her cheeks.

Meanwhile, Ella wants you to know that she sold her favorite car and that even though we have a mini van both of our vehicles fit in our garage, so we're cool.



Whether or not all six of our strollers will fit in there, too, is hard to say. And yesterday Ella got severely hosed by a very ill-mannered craigslister when she went out to buy yet another stroller and was scooped by another woman; dude had just told everyone to come on out to Happy Valley as if the stroller was theirs, just to hedge his bets. This did not make Ella Happy, a fact she let him know. Karmically, brother, you are very dark. If you're reading this, you're not our friend.

Miki vs. Smiling

Miki Frances is growing right up. She's a very nice girl.


Her smile is hard to capture, but it exists:



Here's a flashback to Ida at a similar age.

"We Saw Two Bears"

Okay, we're not exactly generating the kind of huge life drama as Cousin Leigh, we have to create it by going to our local amusement park, which is excellent, very close, has an under-six Tuesday morning special...



...and it has an excellent Carrousel (that's how they spell it). Check out Elsie's smile:



Ida rode a dog, Elsie a cat, and Theo a rooster. Many people think Theo is very attractive. They're right.



How about this action?



Ida was the only cousin to go on the rollercoaster; it was a big favorite last year, too. That's us in the last car. It's pretty jerky and scares me.



You were wondering how fast it was?



Fast.

As for the two bears, that was dark and scary. I will attempt to document this fearsome "Lewis and Clark" ride next time.

"Miki is dirty"

Miki has a famously elastic face; lots of expressions:





Some people thought she was getting a little dirty, so all three girls took a bath!





And then she was all clean and her hair got even weirder. Hey, look, there's Ichi in the background. Many people wonder how he's doing with all the new business.



He's just fine.

Strawberries

So we loaded up the girls in the moving van and headed out to Sauvie Island for some U-Pick action.

Except Theo had to take a nap (she does have her own blog, btw, commenter) and Arthur had something more fun to do, so it was just these ladies:

We're talking here about the "Mt. Hood" strawberries, smaller, more fragile, juicier, better than their big cousins.


Ida ate about thirty dollars worth.




The girls discuss the experience:




Eventually Ida ate so many strawberries that she headed into a lengthy soliloquy about Trader Joe's and explaining to various berrypickers that her name was Ida Rock, and then she started tackling Elsie.



Around the corner? Blueberries.

Ida, Miki, Elsie, 2 Vining Sisters vs. the Rose Parade

It really wasn't much of a contest, and even though Maggie got us into a top secret bank sponsored area where we had not only bathrooms but cotton candy and donuts, etc, the truth is we got there early and left before the actual parade reached us. But Ida was the one who wanted to ride the train.



Elsie (and Maggie) gave a very good demonstration of how to comport oneself on public transportation...



...but Ida was quite a bit more squirrelly. Later, she kept insisting on flopping down on her stomach in the aisle, the middle of the street, etc. It made us fear our plane trips in July.



Anyway, there aren't really any very good pictures of Miki, here, but she came along and enjoyed herself. Even ate a hot dog. And there was a radio personality on a makeshift tower talking to the crowd, demanding the youngest baby, and just about when a five-month-old was going to claim the prize I headed over there with Miki and Ida and won the contest! (Even though they called her "Nicky" and it turned out there wasn't even any prize, even though I kept waiting around for the award--FACE on me.)

So some clowns came by and gave princess crowns to the girls:






At the train station, both Ida and Elsie insisted on walking up these stairs, backing up about a hundred very impatient people. Finally, these people beat their way through. You can see all the security personnel, at the bottom of the stairs, who were called in to convince Maggie and Ella to let the people past.



[I know that many of you readers are probably wondering, and are huge fans of Theo's enthusiasm and Uncle Arthur's PIPES--those two didn't come with us because they got on an airplane (Elsie and Ida seem to believe they're still at the airport) and flew to the East coast so Theo could meet her new cousin Emmett and so Arthur could do have a South Park character modeled after him. Check it!]

Into June

The sisters are really having some times. Ida likes to get Baby Matthew and go hang out with Mama and Miki as soon as she gets up:



A typical conversation with Ida: "Mama, are you a woman?" "Yes." "Pete, are you a man?" "Yes, Ida. What are you?" "A woman. No."



Miki's getting a lot bigger.



Ichi? Still in for some rough treatment.