Back to the Land in Klickitat County, Washington

Ida set out to Washington today to see those famous back-to-the-landers Kristy Athens and Mike Midlo ...

(who, incidentally, sports Ida's same hairdo)...

It took a while for Ida to warm up to Mike, due to his beard, but once she got closer she knew this would be no mistake at all.

So many pleasures there, outside of White Salmon.

Ida ate everything and partied like crazy.


Here's an experimental film we made while in Washington. It involves the Athens/Midlo chickens, Ida, and a soundtrack of Kristy describing a pig fight she witnessed from close quarters at the county fair:

Ups and Downs of Summer

Now that she's almost mastered walking, Ida's working on running...


(notice how concerned I appear to be)

The Washington County Fair!



Two of Ida's favorite things are a) her idol, Uncle Arthur and b) pigs



She loves to lay a tender kiss on little cousin Theo...


...and to watch Elsie and Arthur play "Monkey-Master."

An unfortunate incident

Ida pooped in the tub again.

Lost Days of Summer

The Tin House Writer's Conference ate all of last week, causing all blog activity to pause. Meanwhile Ida was being unbearably cute--


--repeatedly--



And swimming with cousin E.



Here she looks a little like Cousin Sophie?




And here is a short experimental film Ida and I did. It's called "Why Our HOuse is So Messy"



Here is the sequel:

Cousin Theo vs. Hijinks

The three girls went to the farmer's market after swimming lessons.

Oh, look at baby Theo!

The swimming pool is in full effect!

As is one of our favorite people of all time, Big Kath!!!

Some people I don't like think Arthur has a big nose. Ida loves him.

These are the big teeth Elsie bites everyone with. I wonder where she got them???

Bonus film of destruction:

NEWS FLASH!!! GIANT BABY BORN IN PDX!

We'll withhold photo documentation for now, since that's Elsie's rightful place; but Elsie does have a new baby sister, and Ida a new cousin. Recently named "Theodotious Amory Bradford." That's not tentative.

Arthur reports from a mobile device:

9lbs 6oz
born 4am july 7th
Maggie doing great after 4 hour labor

The Clock Ticks

When will Elsie, Jr AKA Frieda McTufferson Bradford arrive?

"America's Birthday"--longest post ever

How did Ida spend it? First, she made some art...


Then she went to Jamison Park for a while, where a Great Dane peed in the water:



Later she put on this coy outfit:

And then Elsie arrived!



Elsie only bit Ida, hard, one time.


Uncle Arthur and Aunt Maggie bought the girls a million dollar pool; get ready for future posts...





And then Uncle Arthur--who, as we know, has a criminal record--went hogwild with some illegal fireworks from SOUTH DAKOTA. Check out this footage!

Heat, 2008

Summer hit Portland like a hundred degrees. Ida responded by turning to a samurai look. And pointing at the ceiling fan.



Language skills demo:



You might think her approximation of what Ichi says doesn't sound like a cat; however, this morning Ichi was speaking to/battling a neighbor cat through the screen door and they were growling like that. Ida, next to Ichi, started growling, too, and shortly thereafter Ichi scratched and bit Ida. Imagine that.

Ida vs. Rody

Just like her Dad needs three bikes, Ida likes to keep a couple horses in her stable.



This new mount, Rody, comes from Utah. Now Ida has one just like her cousins Bonnie Kate and Margo.



You may wonder if there is competition or hard feelings between Rody and Budgie--fear not, they are friends. They are actually adapted to different terrains. Where Budgie rolls, Rody bounces.



Also, Rody is Italian.

Cougar!

Yesterday our little family crossed the mighty Columbia and visited the Landers family at an opulent cabin near Cougar, Washington. Cool.



Also cool, kind of: Max and Mimi.



Make no mistake about it. It was a hot day, but we weren't grilling. We had a firepit at our disposal. Here LeRoy teaches Max some of the Manly Arts.




True, LeRoy dropped both a dog and a brat into the flames, but he did fish them out and eat them.



Here's Maeran. The whole Landers family! For now.



Ida likes chips.



Ella led us on a very short and extremely steep hike.




Later Ida swam in a very cold lake where high school boys were shooting water balloons at each other with a huge slingshot while girls in bikinis watched. This world!

Ida Loves to Swim

Chick dominates the Sellwood Pool!



She's taking swimming lessons, soon!



And she won't share the cool toys with older, envious bullies, either.

Ida vs. Soccer and Teeth

Back in the 70s, Ida's Dad, with the help of Pele, brought "soccer" to the USA.



During his prime (1976-81), Ida's Dad was known as the most devious goal scorer on the Wasatch Front. Her Uncle Jim was perhaps the fastest Rock, Aunt Jen the most photogenic, and Sara was by all accounts the best. Relatively-speaking. I mean, she played in college. Notice, Ida said "ball." The creaking noise is my knee.

Meanwhile, she is growing hella teeth, which makes a person cranky as getting too much unusable food from a hippy farm share.