Four Part Harmony

Thought I’d make a quick post with some pictures from Milo’s first hike last weekend, out along the Clackamas River.

We hiked a short section of the Clackamas River Trail.

The weather was beautiful, and neither Nicki or I had ever been on the trail (not that we could recall anyway, though we’ve both spent quite a bit of time out around there). Several kinds of berries were ripe so we pretty much snacked the whole walk. The blackcap raspberries were the tastiest, but the thimbleberries (my personal favorite) were also good. There were also dewberries, trailing blackberry, salmonberry, and red huckleberry. I feel like I might be forgetting some too. There were a lot of berries, and all native too!

Anna of course had fun. She especially liked the wild raspberries and the salmonberries. She rode in the pack most of the way, but got out and walked here and there. Our pace slowed considerably when she was walking, but we had nowhere in particular to be. Milo was pretty calm and quiet the whole hike. He slept pretty much the whole time we were walking, then woke up when we stopped for lunch. I have to think that being snugged up in a sling with the sounds of a forest and a river all around you would be pretty comforting at that age. He seemed pretty content.

We ended up hiking out about 2 miles or so, and stopping for a lunch/snack on the side of the river (where we took that first family photo). I took a brief dip in the icy cold river, and then Anna and I kept our eyes out for boats coming by. There were a handful of people coming down in rafts and kayaks, which fascinated Anna to no end. It would have been a great day for a boat ride. Anna’s pretty excited about boats and kayaks and canoes, so we’re all looking forward to when we can get her into a lifejacket and out into a canoe somewhere.

Since we really didn’t get many pictures on the hike where you could actually see Milo’s face, here’s one Nicki took this morning. He’s growing and changing daily, I had forgotten how fast this happens.

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Well, I’m sure you’re all not too surprised, but it’s been a little tough to get around to keeping the blog updated.
Summer’s been busy and it’s going by in a blink.
We’ve had family in town, been down to Eugene for the Oregon Country Fair and to see friends, been working in the garden and around the house, and I’ve been busy with softball, playing music some, and (unfortunately) very busy with work.
I’d like to be able to put a few pictures up here every week or so, but it just hasn’t been happening lately.
With that said, I uploaded a bunch of recent pictures to our flickr page and photo gallery, and made a little slideshow. Maybe in a month or so I’ll have time for more leisurely posting….
So long for now.

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Well we’ve finally shaken off our long, wet, cold spring, and summer is in full swing in Portland. The last week of June was pretty hot here. We hit 100 last weekend and it’s been pretty consistently up around 90 or so during the day lately. On the bright side, the tomatoes and summer veggies have finally started to show some signs of life and are really taking off.

We’ve been spending a bunch of time with Dawn and Doyle and Kadin lately. Anna and Kadin have been getting quite a bit of swimming in on these hot days. Here they appear to be sitting down to a lovely dinner.

Milo still sleeps quite a bit. Eats a lot too. He’s started smiling those random huge baby smiles that some out of nowhere and then disappear in an instant.

I guess maybe all babies do this little scrunchy pose, but when he does this he makes the exact same expression Anna used to make.

Anna’s still pretty fond of her baby brother. She hugs and kisses him like crazy. Anna and I have been practicing our signs (the ones we can remember) so Anna can teach Milo when he’s older. She’s also planning on teaching him to crawl, walk, talk, eat, and a bunch of other stuff too.

This is the true expression of Anna’s love right here though. Here she has Milo covered up with the cloths that she usually reserves for covering up her dolls and stuffed animals. If he’s laying on the floor while she’s in the middle of playing the “let’s put covers on everybody” game, then Milo has to get covered up too.

Here’s a nice picture that Corrie must have taken when they all went on a picnic in the park yesterday. I was stuck at work, so missed out.

More sleepy Milo.

Hope you all have a nice long weekend and 4th of July. Talk to you again real soon.

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