Our Eastern Oregon Adventure

Here are some of my pics from our trip to E. Oregon. Chris has some great ones on his iPhone, but I'll let him post them. But first, here's a map of where we went (G: starting point from home, B: Mitchell; C: Fossil; D: Ritter; E: Pendleton; F: Maryhill and Stonehenge in Washington.)

First stop: Mitchell, OR, only a few miles from the Painted Hills, but another world altogether. Here's a pic of one of the many crumbling businesses on Main Street:



Out at the Painted Hills:



An awesome swimming hole on the John Day near the Painted Hills:



Nature baby testing the waters:

Down the street from our cottage in Mitchell:



On the porch of the cottage:



Public art in Fossil:



Chris and Olivia digging for fossils behind the Fossil High School. We found some pretty neat fossilized things in rocks:



At the Ritter Springs Hotel. This was an incredible place. A former stagecoach stop from the turn of the 20th Century, out in the middle of NOWHERE and with no one really in charge when we were there. Payments for swimming in the hot springs-fed pool as well as overnight stays in the rooms are made by plopping cash in a box in the general store:



We started out in a room that was a little too hobo for my taste (we ended up renting the big cabin for $80/night) though it had a very cute exterior with a clothesline to hang our wet swimsuits:



The exterior of the general store that doesn't actually sell anything but ice and soda:

Inside the general store:



Olivia considering her next dance move:

Oh, there it is:

Moments before Olivia kicked her sparkly Sketchers into the John Day River. We had a hard time explaining to her that they were gone. Really gone.



After Ritter, we spent two days in Pendleton.

Our $99 view out the window of the Pendleton Red Lion!:



And of course, we did some shopping:



Chris, enjoying what he deemed "the best steak ever" at Hamley Steakhouse:



On the road again to the Stonehenge memorial near Maryhill on the Washington side of the Gorge:



It was really windy there:



So much fun, it was almost hard to come home. Almost.

Along the John Day River

Here are some pictures from our week-long trek through central and eastern Oregon.  These are from the Painted Hills, part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument near Mitchell, Oregon.  As you can see from this picture, hot and dry are major themes of this trip and everyone has done surprisingly well under the circumstances.   Alisa being so far along with the baby and Olivia being, well, three. Of course, along with the sun comes swimming pools, which Olivia can not get enough of.  

Baby Preparation: T-Minus 9 Weeks

So, this is the sum total of our baby preparation at this point. A changing table and two baskets of clothes for newborn. Well, one basket has clothes and the other has a variety of hats. For some reason, we have lots of hats from when Olivia was a baby. I'm glad that we've gotten this far because now we know that we need more clothes than just three onesies for the little guy. We do have other necessities at the ready, for instance the infant car seat Chris pulled out of the garage, but other decisions we've put off: do we want a bedside-sleeper or a mini crib? A single or double breast pump? (Not coincidentally, these are the big ticket items that we're leaving to the last minute...)

Then again, I think placing the changing table in our room is a big deal for us, psychologically speaking. It says, "This shit's for real!"

(Me, at 30 weeks.)

3 Years and 5 Months

A couple days late, but here's the latest update on Olivia.  

Has there ever been a little girls so in love with dresses?  The first thing Olivia says when she gets out of bed is "I need a dress."  She toddles bleary-eyed to the closet and tugs on her favorite.  She must have her dress before the day can proceed.  

So many dresses, so much pink, so many magic wands.  Considering myself a liberal-minded father who tries to beware of  gender bias and all, I wanted to avoid placing too much emphasis on such girly things.  But what are you gonna do.  The kid likes pink.  She loves her dresses.  I'm not about to force a pair of overalls on her in the name of gender equality.  Let her be what she is and love what she loves.  

I suppose my role is to make sure she has exposure to as many things as possible, without coloring too many things as "bad" or "yucky."  I take it as a point of pride that Olivia can pick up an earthworm without getting squeamish.  That she loves to run an jump.  She's told me a few times that her favorite color is black.  I can't wait to see if that sticks.

26 Weeks Preggers

At the photo shoot for work...The balloons just seemed appropriate for my "condition"....

3 years and 4 months!

Unfortunately, we missed a month in there. In brief, Olivia had an awesome 3.3.

On to the past month: It's been super busy around here! The biggest project is getting our yard in ship shape for the summer. We hired a landscaper to help us get rid of the ivy and weeds and then had our back patio cover removed which as a big deal to Olivia because now her bike-riding space is awesome. We've also been busy working--especially me with the magazine and finishing my thesis...which is due in five days...

What's Olivia been up to? She's been enjoying playing outside in her sand box, making bird's nests out of grass and dandelions, creating strange concoctions (she calls it making cookies) in the kitchen from large amounts of baking soda, hosting tea parties, going to soccer class with Elena and Grandma, enjoying ballet on Saturdays, and overall just being a great kid.

We've also noticed more and more her specific tastes in movies which, of course are greatly influenced by how much patience we have, i.e. no to sugary-sweet animation and yes to Spirited Away, Ponyo, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. In fact, Olivia's love of Jack from Nightmare surprised both of us. She regaled Chris the other night with a very thorough summary of how Sally (from Nightmare) jumped out of the window to escape her evil dad and can sew her own arm on. I don't know how to explain to her that Sally can do that because she's not human...

Another thing Olivia's been enjoying is the iPod, where she made these drawings:

Next month we get to have some vacation time and hopefully the sun will arrive soon. XXOO

Easter and 22 weeks pregnant!

We had a lovely Easter today. Chris got to organize TWO egg hunts and Olivia got to see all of her cousins on one day. And it was beautifully sunny--a great day.



And, here's me at 22 weeks. Feeling good but I could use some sleep...zzzzzzzzzz