Turning Five

The twins have officially turned five years old.  This happened yesterday, but, of course, there was a little confusion because their birthday party will be this Saturday.  (For the life of them, they couldn't figure out why everyone they wanted to come to the party -- including family from Portland -- couldn't drop everything and make it midweek.)

In honor of their becoming "big" kids who will be heading off to kindergarten in less than two months, I'm posting a few random pics from the past couple of weeks.  The water soakers have been a big hit at the nearby park where they open a wading pool three days a week during the summer.  The bowling experience was relatively successful, though I found it much easier to learn the candlepin way.  (I swear we also didn't bumpers when we were kids -- maybe today's parents see gutterballs as too much of a failure for kids to experience.)  Finally, the costumes -- Green Lantern and Flash for those who were wondering -- were a great gift from MeMa.  Now we just need to figure out a way keep them from wearing them every day ...

Traveling Road Show

This past week, KLC and I headed south and east to have a little road trip without the twins, who were spending a solid block of time with their Co-Parent and her mom (known since the twins could talk as "Mee-ma") who was visiting from Massachusetts.  KLC would be biking from roughly about Dayton, WA along the Lewis and Clark trail until Portland.

Even though I was a little sad not to be actually biking myself, I realized that really isn't appropriate or responsible behavior for someone who is nearly 8 months pregnant.  So Comet and I provided van support and were able to meet up with KLC at various points during the day while doing our own exploring.

We just arrived in Portland a little while ago, and KLC will be here in a couple of hours.  Here are a couple of pics from a little stop that Comet and I took in the Ainsworth State Park just outside of Portland.   There are several rather spectacular waterfalls here.  Comet, as with everything on this trip, was simultaneously curious and suspicious of these since they sprayed him with lots of mist.

There were a few things that I learned on this trip.  The first is that you can, indeed, go camping at this stage of pregnancy.  The second thing, perhaps more importantly, is do not attempt to do this on your regular Thermarest.  I learned this on our first night back in Dayton.  It wasn't a fun night since being on my back on hard ground.  Even with a little cushion of the Thermarest and sleeping bag, it just was not comfortable.

Luckily, we had the forethought to bring our queen-sized Aerobed and an enormous 'family' tent.  This meant the gigantic airbed, plus Comet's kennel, could fit in the tent.  Aside from having to find electricity to blow the huge thing up and dragging it across the campground once we did, the Aerobed made life possible in a tent for me at this stage of the pregnancy.

The last thing we experienced, which we already knew, is that after a few nights of camping, almost nothing feels better than checking into a hotel, taking a long shower that doesn't require quarters, and sleeping in relative luxury.  Especially while semi-enormous and pregnant.  This is exactly what we did and had a great 4th of July in Hood River, OR.  Hope you did too.