Long Distance Relationship

Carter has been carrying on a long distance relationship via email with a good friend in Wisconsin, Katie. Letters from 4-5 year olds are just too cute not to share...


Nov 2010
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Carter,
I made a zebra hat.  It is cute.  I drew black stripes and white stuff.  I really love you.  Sometimes, I like to wear bows and play and jump and pick up--which I should do.  I just love to do what is right--when I dance, when I play, when I pick up. 
Your baby is in your Mommy's belly.  Sometimes they eat breakfast and we go to bed.  Sometimes, I like to dance and play with you and dance with you. 
love, Katie
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Katie,

I want to make a zebra hat. I want to give you an alligator hat.  I'll send you an alligator hat in the mail. I like to play with you and I like to do fun stuff with you.I like to be good too and do what is right.


These stickers are for your Birthday.

We made rice crispy treats today, and banana bread. I painted two pictures today. I missed you when I moved. We got a new game from somebody.We are going to get a baby in a long week. But our baby is going to come. I'll give you a baby card soon to tell you that our baby is already here.

Love,
Carter

Dec 2010
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Carter,

I like the stickers you sent.  The princess one is my favorite.  This one is for you.  I'm going to get presents for Christmas.  I want to give you a heart .  I like playing with my little sister.  I like to play with my Mom.  I like to play with my Dad.  I like to play with my brother.  I like to play with my friends.
I think you're going to be a big brother.    There's going to be 2 big brothers.  The first one is Jordan, the other one is you.  If someone goes in a baby room, they will wake up the baby. 
Those are pink lips.  I like pink lips.  I have a "k" in my name.  Your house is far away.  And wrestling.
love,
Katie
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Katie,

These pictures are for you to put on your alligator hat.
We just got a real Christmas tree already. I go to school now. There is a lot of fun at my school. We get to feed ducks at our house because we have a pond at our house, cause it's all day raining. It doesn't snow at Portland. I got shoes that are polished and I can zip them by myself, cause there's a button that is from the strings and you pull the string and it ties. We're making the alligator hat already for you. We use to have a little TV and now we have a big TV. I'm going to get presents from Christmas too. My birthday is coming up in a long week. I would like it if you were here. I hope you have fun wrapping presents for Christmas.



Love,
Carter

Apr 2011
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Carter,
I had a dance recital.  I did tap and I did a teddy bear dance.  I don't know what else I did:  star jump & jumping, & bouncing.  I got to dress up.  I wore a pink skirt and a tiara for my teddy bear dance.  At the tap, I wore a yellow dress and a yellow wreath on my head.  That's all.  I want to put stickers on now.    
love, Katie
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Katie,

What do you have in your dance recital do you have a trampoline??
Do you know that I always can go to school, but I really like going to school. So I just wanted you to know that I like going to school, and I really do want to move again because that's so fun. And do you know that we have the Wii. Do you know we went to the Zoo and I buyed a Zoo Key and whatever you put it in it makes the noise that tells you a lot about the animals, and there's also a jeep that you put it in and it makes the noise.  And did you know it was hot at the Zoo, and I really wanted some water. Now I want to put stickers on!



Love,
Carter

March Madness

...meaning the OTHER March Madness...the insanely low prices during the month for bicycles from the previous model year! Seriously, if you're ever in the market to buy a new bike, do it in March. Your pocketbook will thank me.

Cynthia is now the proud owner of a 2010 Diamondback Lux Trail with a SRAM X-3 groupset, suspension fork, and disc brakes...plus it's purple and has flowers on it. yeah.

I got a new bike too. I've finally made the full transition from a mountain bike to a road bike. It's a 2010 Cannondale CAAD9 4 with a SRAM Rival groupset.

I was planning on building a bike instead of buying, but I test rode this and it was the greatest ride I've ever had. It's responsive, really light (16 lbs), wicked stiff but not harsh, and has perfect geometry for my size. Color me dork, I named it KITT.

I still have my old bike, Chaplin...but its role is now my winter/rain commuter bike. My bike commute time went down by 29% just by switching to the new bike. I'm also scheduled to ride my first century on it in early June!

Rice Museum

I've been trying to write this post for a solid year now. Why did it take me so long? Beats me. But it's ready now.

We've been to lots of museums in our days. LOTS of museums, good and bad. If I had to name the best 'sleeper museum' (a good one that no one knows about), it would be the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals. That's right, a museum full o' rocks...not rice.

The Rice Museum is actually the old residence of the Rice family. I think those guys had more money than they knew how to use. Their home is VERY extravagant and almost the whole museum is their own personal collection. Above is the front yard of the home. Wowza.

Does anyone else see a quail, or is it just me?

A lone pine on a cliff overlooking a snowy, mountainous landscape? There are a number of these 'variety picture jasper' pieces to play Rorschach with. Last time I went back, I saw one that looked exactly like a desert road winding on forever.

This is Tucker, a fossilized Psittacosaurus baby. This is too awesome to be real.

This lovely piece is the Alma Rose - the centerpiece of the whole museum. Those red rocks are some of the largest pieces of rhodochrosite ever found. This one exhibit is worth a cool million bucks.

 The fact that he's still relatively excited after 90 minutes of rocks is a good thing.

A huge thunder egg (common in Oregon, but not this size) with a pool of opal in the center.

The Eye of Sauron, donated by Mr. F. Baggins.

Last up, there's a dark room in the museum called "The Rainbow Room". It's full of fluorescent rocks and black lights. I love that the rocks still glow even after the lights turn off. 

Bump!

You requested, we deliver! By popular demand, I give you the baby bump-di-bump. Ba-bump... Bump!

TLC (The Lovely Cynthia) is 23 weeks and two days in this shot.

Silver Falls

Triumph! A pose this dramatic can only mean one thing; for President's Day we took the best hike EVAR! I've got to warn you though, there are a ton of pictures in this post. I can't find a way to trim it down - it was all too great.

I've been trying to get down to Silver Falls for quite a while, but the timing never seemed right. Silver Falls is basically a waterfall lover's paradise of ten perennial waterfalls. In just 4.8 miles, we saw nine waterfalls. NINE! The Hammonds came with us and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day; perfect for a hike.

So, let's begin. The hike starts at a very historical (and pretty) lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1941. You can purchase a hot chocolate at the cafe and sit at their beautiful (and valuable) myrtlewood tables or...

...you can warm up your tootsies by the fire or...

...you can learn about the park's history and other activities. Then the fun really gets going when you start the trail.

Here are the nine waterfalls we saw that day...

South Falls (#1) - The best known falls in the park, it's only 150 feet away from the lodge. If you look carefully, you can see that the trail goes around the back of the waterfall - one of three chances in the park to get behind (and really close to) the spray. Back in the 1920's, a local man would send an old car off this waterfall every Independence Day. Why don't they still do that???

Jordan thought it would be fun to make sketches of all the waterfalls. Cute kid. If I could draw/paint, I'd probably do the same thing.

One of the reasons Silver Falls is a State Park instead of a National Park is because heavy logging 100 years ago left a large number of stumps in the area that (apparently) are too unattractive for a National Park. But hey - the stumps sure make for great photo ops!

Lower South Falls (#2) - I think we all agreed this was our favorite waterfall. It's so perfectly flat that you'd swear it was engineered to cover some evil mastermind's secret lair...or maybe it's just me that thinks that.

Lower South Falls is another one the trail goes behind. The waterfall is incredibly wide and the trail is so close to the spray that it's quite an epic experience. Cold in February, but unforgettable.

Lower North Falls (#3) - Nice little waterfall, but it looks a whole lot better in Autumn.

Double Falls (#4) - this two-tiered waterfall is the tallest in the park at 178 feet. I hear there's usually a rainbow visible there when the sun is out.

Drake Falls (#5)

Middle North Falls (#6) - By this point on the trail, you're wishing that someone could have come up with more creative names for such pretty falls.

Here's another of Middle North Falls. In the past it was possible to go behind this falls as well, but it has since been closed off due to unsafe conditions. Boo.

Twin Falls (#7) - probably the hardest waterfall in the park to get a good picture of. We had our lunch right on the banks of the stream above it. Doritos and Twizzlers were somehow involved despite my objections. Blech.

Winter Falls (#8) - I'm guessing this was named Winter Falls because it looks like icicles on the canyon wall, but that's just a guess. This was the last planned waterfall on our trip...but...

We also caught a view of the beautiful North Falls (#9) before leaving the park. 

I'm not sure if we'll ever top this hike. Ten possible waterfalls, only $5 to get in, a modern cafe in a cozy lodge, beautiful Oregon scenery the whole way, and the hike is of variable length - anywhere from a few hundred feet up to 9 miles. If anyone reading this from out-of-state comes to visit us, Silver Falls will most likely be on the agenda. I can't wait to see it the other three seasons of the year.

As a sidenote, Jordan and Carter did great on this hike. Much better than our Ramona Falls hike last year. I'm excited to go on more longer-distance hikes with them while we're in Oregon. Way to go, boys!

Silver Falls (more pics)

Tillamook

I think we all had cabin fever during the winter, so we've gone on trips the past three Saturdays. First we went to Tillamook, OR to visit the Tillamook cheese factory. Strangely enough, even after living in Wisconsin for four years, this was the first cheese factory we visited. We hoped to purchase some grilled cheese sandwiches at the grill...but apparently the grill burned down. Oops.

Instead we got ice cream. Cynthia chomped on her classic flavor, Bubble Gum.

Jordan and Carter both got Cake Batter. It was good stuff, but if I want cake batter, I'll open up a box of Duncan Hines! What ever happened to Chocolate and Vanilla ice cream?

Carter was really excited the entire time at the cheese factory. I guess that's to be expected from a child whose three major food groups are cheese, milk, and ranch.

You're looking at a 40 pound loaf of future sharp cheddar cheese being wrapped for aging. The back of the worker's shirt says "I loaf you". Another shirt said "Loaf thy neighbor".

Of course, no trip westward would be complete without a trip to the coast. Oh, Pacific Ocean...how I love thee.

Story of My Life

Sorry I didn't post this earlier, but in case you haven't heard, we're having another boy. Yup, three boys. My life is becoming more like a sitcom every day.