Visiting Fam in EO

First, a few shots from late in August...



Cutie-Poo, giving smiles on her changing table. (You know, sometimes a girl just wants to feel fresh.)



Aleaha loves to cook. Here she is making "Hot Licks Chicken". She mixed the spice rub and sprinkled it on the chicken breasts. She didn't want to actually touch the chicken to do the rubbing, because "I don't want to get my hands all that icky, Mom." (Just as well, because then she'd be sliming everything else with chicken goo.)

On Friday, Mommy got brave and took the girls to visit family in Eastern Oregon over the weekend. Daddy was very sad that he didn't get to go. It sucks to have to work so hard.


The trip over was really good. Miri slept nearly the whole time. Car vibration and the white noise of the road helped a lot. Aleaha and Chocolate (the horse) got in a nap too.


There was a really bad forest fire near Mosier. I learned later that I nearly got caught in a closure of I-5. Yikes! That would have been terrible. Seems like each trip with a tiny baby I have to deal with some major catastrophe. Fortunately, we came through this trip OK.


Aleaha enjoys breakfast on Saturday....


... while Miri enjoys swinging.


Grandpa knows how to rock a little one to sleep.


Cousin Ella was so good to Miri -- she loves to hold her.


Aunt Jodi on Baby Bouncy duty. She volunteered to take Miri a lot, and Mommy really appreciated the break!!


The Project De Weekend was to build a brick enclosure/woodbox around the cookstove and behind the woodstove in the big house. Here are Mel and Dad laying out out more brick. (I didn't get any shots of Chris B. and Mike and Jodi and Kelly, but they all put in a lot of work on it too.) It's gonna be something when it's done. It's one of those things that takes so much effort, and each time you look at it over the years, you remember the process of building it.


I love this shot. On Saturday night in the mountains, after a very full day of running around (and trying to stay out of the guys' way), Tyler, Ella, Hank, Aleaha, and Sylvie enjoyed a special treat of s'mores and then got to watch a movie in Aunt Jodi's car (she has a DVD player in there). You gotta love modern technology for giving them a great end to the day -- and giving us parents a respite from watching them!!


OK, perhaps you have to be a member of the family to appreciate the, uh, irony of this. What we have here is a torn-out magazine piece on "Safe Food Storage Recommendations", which I found taped to the inside of one of the cupboards at the house in PR. The nature of the irony? Well, if you knew just how much food -- and its occasional condition-- there is stored between the house and the mountains, you'd get it. (Truth be told, I have a bit of this affliction myself. And I know I come by it honestly!) Oh, and the other interesting thing here is that it's covered up by a recipe for Cheese Broccoli Bake, for which most ingredients (first listing: Cheez Whiz) have a shelf life of about 12 years.


The Microwave Fire near Mosier was still burning on Sunday as we went home.

All in all, Miri was a great traveler. At 7 weeks old, it's amazing how alert she is. She didn't want to miss anything when we were there. She must have known it was a special place to be. She didn't sleep as long or as deeply as she usually does at home. But the night we returned home, she slept for 6 hours straight. Woohoo for Mommy!! :)