Vanilla Cake with Peach Preserves + Peach Sodas: Our celebration of Lucie’s 1st birthday.
On a very hot Sunday afternoon this past weekend, we retreated to the shade of the old Oak Grove at Champoeg State Park and hosted friends and family for a soda sipping, cake smashing, whew-we-made-it-a-year toasting party:
Low clouds hung over the mountains on the day we planned to ride the Whistler Blackcomb Peak 2 Peak gondola with a baby. From the perch of a cabin suspended 1,430′ above the valley on a cable strung almost two miles between towers on opposite mountains, the modern marvel of engineering offers passengers incredible 360 degree views…on a clear day.
What about a not-so-clear one?
With limited views, our trip through the skies prompted reflections on the parallels to parenting…and surprised me with discoveries along the way. Continue Reading…
Here we were, traveling north on Interstate 5 on the cusp of babyOregonian’s first border crossing, and I was fighting to keep my eyelids open.
Who’s terrific thought was it to wake her at 4am and hit the road from Portland, Oregon to Whistler, B.C. before sunrise?
Oh yeah, mine. Continue Reading…
Perfect timing: Lucie’s passport arrived on the same day we made a return trip to Italy!
Fellows on this journey who really get it make my heart feel at home, both in literal and metaphorical foreign territory. Have you met people like that? People who make you feel open with your story and at ease in your own skin? Continue Reading…
Here we are, on the far side of the sun.
At that half-way point between birth-day and birthday.
Closer to one than zero.
babyOregonian turned six months old this week, and planet earth’s orbit is headed back toward that place in space where we hung in the skies last September 17th.
And then there were threeOregonians, with new adventures ahead!
Ted and I managed Pacific Coast beach runs and northwest road trips in 2013, but last year was really all about returning from our journey around the globe, pioneering life in Oregon once again, and growing a sweet little girl from scratch.
This year, we’re pulling a few repeats, but we’re also branching out, braving border crossings, and attempting a few plane rides with a baby. (Speaking of border crossings, I need to get Passport paperwork done for the wee one.)
While this current winter snowstorm pummels us here in Portland, I’m anticipating trips out and about to Oregon’s high desert and rocky coast, rural Texas, “Beautiful British Columbia,” and (!) out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean to the warm and welcoming Hawaiian Islands. Here’s a sneak peek of where you’ll be seeing us in 2014: Continue Reading…
Our January days are flowing calm and quiet, one into the next. A bit like the Willamette River ambles through winter landscape when there isn’t excess Oregon rainwater to manage or riverbanks to break.
I’ll take it.
This rhythm.
It’s different than travel: the go-go-go of new scenes and cities each day.
Different than work: tasks and client meetings dotted through familiar Portland and surrounds.
It’s a new sort of productive meander Continue Reading…
It sounded like a romantic notion, bundling up the 2.73 month old and venturing into Oregon’s Mt. Hood National Forest to cut down a wild Christmas tree…but how did it actually go, you ask?
A December freeeeeezing snap wrapped our city in a bone-chilling cold (a dozen degrees Fahrenheit is pushing it for temperate Portland), but the skies were filled with sunshine and the Saturday roads were clear, so we borrowed a pickup, threw in a handsaw, packed a bag of dried fruit, jerky, and chocolate and a thermos of cocoa and set out as a little family of three toward the village of Zigzag, Oregon near the timberline of Mount Hood.
All we needed was a Christmas tree permit and a Christmas tree.
Seems straightforward, right? Continue Reading…
We’ve had our little babyOregonian for the span of time it took Jules Verne’s character Phileas Fogg to circumnavigate the world. It’s Lucie’s 80-day birthday!
Eight Week old Lucie at her first Oregon Ducks Game
We haven’t made a second trip around the globe, but we’ve now been around the block a time or two these past few months when it comes to diapers, baby baths, and try-it-and-see bedtime routines.
Speaking of, we’re not racing time for the sake of a wager, but we’ve certainly spent weeks up around the clock, desperate to get Lucie to shut her eyes and go to bed so we could have just a little time to ourselves. (Lesson learned: Sleep? Don’t bet on it.)
We’re not carrying carpet-bags or trundling along in steamer ships or railroad cars, but we’ve swapped our trusty backpacks for a classy diaper bag and we’re making our way just fine with a little baby carseat. Continue Reading…
