Pumpkin season

This week has been quite a quiet week for us. Grandma Tutu has been visiting from Hawaii, so I've had someone to take care of the children while I get to go run errands. Pippa and William have someone different to play with, and they love it!

We went to the playground early one morning, and although it was already around 80 degrees, Pippa insisted on wearing her pumpkin hat...

A Tri-ing Time

Today was the big Deschutes Dash triathlon that Nick and and Jess signed themselves up for a few months ago. They have been training like dogs for 12 weeks. Nick and Jess's mom, Carol, flew in from Hawaii to visit and watch them participate. It was lots of fun watching them first swim down river, then watching them leave on their bikes to cycle halfway up Mt. Bachelor, then over 90 minutes later watching them arrive back at the transition to begin the run. OMG, it looked gruelling, however, they both did exceptionally well and finished with great times. They are a little exhausted, but pumped that they completed it without dying.

Here is the Deschutes Dash in pictures. Also, look out for the movies of them crossing the finish line!

Playing and waiting for the bike ride to finish. We're eating Tutu's muffin.

Click here for Nick's times...

Click here for Jess's times...

It was a very busy morning for Pippa! I'll tell you what though, she has the right idea as it's very tiring watching a triathlon.

Closing time

So, after being on the market for 6 months, the sale of our Chicago condo has finally closed and we are free of debt! It was fun living there, but Bend is so much better for us. It makes owing a few thousand dollars at closing an easier pill to swallow. That, and knowing there are people who have lost so much more from this lending crisis.

We are relieved and happy that the Chicago chapter can officially close! Yay!

River Rats

We've been pretty busy again this week as the weather seems to be consistently lovely. Nick and his sister Jessica have been training for the triathlon, which is on Saturday (eeekkk), so they have been practicing their swim in the Deschutes River, following the actual course they will be taking on race day. Remember that this water is a lot of snow-melt, so it is freezing. Now Nick wishes he had sleeves...

Nick and Jessica about to take the plunge

Oh, look, they're still smiling

Oh, look, now they're just cursing

Because it's been getting so warm by 11am, we can't really go to the playground later than that because the play equipment will burn. So, the other day I decided we will go for a walk before Pippa's nap and play at a playground fairly close to us. Pippa walked 2/3 of the way there, then began to get really stroppy. She did perk up when we finally got to the playground though. Here she is having some fun in the early morning sun...

I can swing higher than you

Up to the slide

Her ultimate favorite, after the swing, is the 'hang'.
She loves to hang. From bars, chairs, shelves, doors...

Then, another minor breakthrough we had over the weekend was William's naps. He seems to be fighting naps less this week. I don't know why, but I really like it. Sometimes, his and Pippa's naps even overlap by 15 minutes. Yay!

William taking a rare nap

Best French Toast Ever! Thanks Mummy

Delicious!

Museum Morning

Earlier this week we visited the High Desert Museum again (I love having a membership). Every time we go, Pippa behaves better and better. She now knows not to run inside, to stay with me, to stop when I say stop, to push the automatic door opener so I can push the stroller through easily, that she can't climb on the old wagon (even though the cat is allowed), not to touch the barbed-wire horse sculpture and not to jump into the stream. She's getting so smart.

She loved the goat the best this time and gave it a kiss on the nose... yeah, yeah, that's what I said. William enjoyed watching Pippa the whole time and really seemed like he wanted to be doing what she was doing. Here are some pictures of our morning:

Pippa and the bridge

So, this weekend we went to Benham Falls. It's maybe 10 miles down the road from us, and really we came across it quite by accident. We meant to go to Lava Butte, but we got there too late to make it worthwhile. We'll save that for another weekend.

Benham Falls has hiking trails along the river and there are some fast-moving waters and a waterfall. We didn't quite get as far as the waterfall due to a fast-fading Pippa and many hungry gnats. Our little hike began on a bridge. It was a decent sized wooden bridge, nothing too special. Pippa has always found bridges to be quite a fun time, running and jumping and stomping on them. However, this time she noticed the gaps in between the slats and was Little Miss Cautious. She trod very carefully and held onto Daddy most of the way. Joanne.

Once we got across, Pippa ran, threw rocks into the water and fell over lots. We did see a deer, but I don't know if she cared too much about that.

It was a fun hike, and because it was on an old rail/truck road, it was fairly flat. Maybe we'll go back there one day with the stroller.

A Long Weekend

This weekend was a long one. Nick had Friday off to celebrate Independence Day, so we went downtown with every other living thing in Bend to watch the Pet Parade. As the title suggests, it was a parade to bring your pets to and show them off. But no cats or rabbits, they weren't allowed. However, we did see hundreds of dog, horses, cows, chickens, ferrets and I'm sure there were some animals we didn't see.

Pippa's favorite part was the pole.

William and Nick enjoying a Graham cracker

Jessica and the "zebra" horse

Aunt Chrissy and Jack

After all the morning fun, we still had fireworks to look forward to. They didn't start until 10pm so we didn't take the babies, but I did go with Jessica and we had lots of fun watching them from Pilot Butte. 22 minutes of controlled explosions. They were pretty cool.