Some of July

Pearl is always down to have her picture taken. Such a sign of the times, that little mask tucked into the front pocket of her overalls. 

Darn sweet kitty. 

Vera keeps trying to convince us that we need a tortoise. 

As a family, we go on so many Pokemon walks and raids. We can't seem to get Vera on board...yet. 

 

South Sister

Kellie is for sure my adventure friend and with her encouragement we decided to climb South Sister this summer. First though, we camped in the van and ate pizza. ;) 

So excited to be starting out!

Broken Top Mountain is off to the side of Kellie in this picture. 

South Sister in the distance. 

I thought one of the best parts was walking across the crater. Fun to walk on snow and to know that we were so close to reaching the summit. 

Me, with a bunch of other mountains in the background. 

Me, with part of the crater behind me.

Me! So excited to be at the summit of South Sister. Altogether it was 5 hrs up and 4 hrs down. My knees gave me a bit of a problem and I ended up with a band-aid on my pinkie due to a confrontation with a piece of lava rock. 

Me, waiting in line at In-n-Out. Ha! We might have waited 1.5 hrs. There are only three of the fast food chain in Oregon. Sheesh. 

 

Kid Pools...

...kind of fun and kind of a lot of work. We ended up throwing our one from last year because I couldn't get it clean and it had become home to icky critters. 

 

July Randomness

A friend driving through Portland prompted a visit to the Witch's Castle with my two youngest. 

Pearl is in constant cute mode over here. 

What a lot of our days look like during all this time at home!

Keller is into bike riding with a passion. The pump track that is kind of in our neighborhood has been a good find. 

Thank you, Sis, for my new mask!!

Mike Bennett is a Portland artist who J discovered through Reddit. He runs contests all over Portland where you can find his work, sometimes just to take pictures with and sometimes to keep. Recently, he orchestrated a scavenger hunt where he put 20 art kits around Portland and you had to find them using his Instagram account for hints. 

Several false starts later...we scored! Did I have to call my sister to help me figure out the technology...I did! I am not going to admit how much yelling was happening in our car as we tried to get to the various locations. 

 

Tired Boy

We celebrated a very tired birthday boy on July 5th. 

 

Backpacking Birthday Boy

J and Keller off on their first every father and son backpacking trip, they did go with two other dads and their sons. Still, it is a crazy feeling to have them off gallivanting through the wilderness and I wasn't able to call and check to make sure they were still alive.  

J loves his selfies!

He really does!

Raft building...I think my kiddo was the only one crazy enough to try.