4th of July Weekend

It was a great 4th of July weekend here - wonderful weather for swimming, fireworks and hanging out with friends. Here's a photo album from the first part of our weekend, which culminated with a neighbor fireworks show that was so good, we didn't even bother with the official one downtown this year!

This second set of photos is from a trip we took on Sunday to Hood River in order to show our guests, Eduardo and Maxime, some of the beautiful waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge.

Bienvenue Maxime!

Maxime arrived last evening from Paris to join our family for the first portion of his stay in the US. He will only be with us a short time, but we are happy to be able to host him, along with Eduardo. Drew's only worry now is which subtitles to choose when the kids watch movies... Spanish or French!

Ape Cave

We went underground this past weekend... visiting the "Ape Cave", a lava-tube on the south side of Mt. St. Helens (named after the Mt. St. Helen's Apes - loggers who discovered it back in the 1940s).

The kids had a great time exploring both in and around the cave. It's about a mile long inside, so there was lots to explore, and the drive there provided a lovely view of the mountain's "good side".


Click here for photos from our caving trip, as well as some fun in the park. Every summer Tuesday is family night at Hamilton Park, and the nice weather these past few weeks has helped draw quite a crowd.


Happy 4th of July to all! At Jake's strong - you could even say relentless - urging, we're well stocked on fireworks for the upcoming holiday weekend. Now if only he can wait that long to use them!

Bienvenido Eduardo!

Eduardo arrived last evening from Madrid for a four-week stay with us.


We started the evening with a picnic in the park with some friends, then headed for the airport to greet our special guest. We look forward to showing him Portland both by land and water... as soon as Pat gets our new boat ready to launch!

Sailing... Sailing...

Today was Drew's first day of sailing class, and as it turned out, Jake & Emily got to sail too - and work on their capsize recovery skills - as part of a demo-day at the sailing club for some O'Pen BIC boats. If only there'd been wind! Here's a quick photo album.

Fathers Day Weekend

Our Fathers' Day Weekend included a trip to Sauvie Island for berry-picking. We're fairly confident we won't be running out of jam any time soon!


We also made a trip to Hood River for the wedding of our friends, Matt & Caroline. It was a lovely ceremony - and setting - on a farm just outside of town. The sun and the mountains came out for the celebration in spite of it being a rather cloudy day. The kids gave the wedding cake two sticky thumbs up! Click here for photos.

School's Out!

The last day of school was last Wednesday. The kids appear to be adjusting well to their new schedule, as you'll see in this photo album.