Babyup!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

That’s the present Chloe knitted for her mom.

And a doodle!

Grama Diane came out to Oregon for the week of Thanksgiving. We took the opportunity to spend two nights at the beach in Seaside, OR.

Of course, we zipped down the highway a bit to visit Cannon Beach. That’s Haystock Rock.

We also went north a bit to wander around the shops and historic district of Astoria.

That’s the Astoria Column. It’s big! It’s tall!
You can buy balsa wood airplanes at the gift shop and fly them from the top!

Chloe walked to the top of the tower.
Mom and I decided to save our knees for later. That’s us there taking in the view.

Presenting, one teenager.

What will happen with Brock, the Rock? This is a video Chloe made on her phone while we were in Astoria. YouTube detected a copyright issue with some of the music Chloe used in this video, so I had to add it to the site another way. If you have trouble with it, you can download the movie file itself here.

Chloe planned a movie about Brock the Rock’s cousins.
We shot some footage, but due to time constraints the movie remained unfinished.
Until now.
The footage was rescued and jammed together into a art film that will shake the the art world for perhaps as long as 30 seconds. Here you are now. Sit down and tune in.

Holy cow, Batman! It’s time to go find pumpkins to carve!
(new painting by Chloe)

First stop, the Giant Pumpkin Regatta

Take a giant pumpkin (above), carve a boat out of it (below) and race!

Paddle, paddle, paddle!

My personal favorite was the guy in the inflatable chicken costume.

Afterwards… chicken bake for dinner!

Step two: head out to the Jim Dandy farm stand.

Negotiate with the proprietor.

Shop!

Afterwards… hunt for frightening stuffies at Goodwill.

A new painting! This is of a candle we bought at a garage sale.

Found at Goodwill – a purse made of cleverly folded chip bags.
I really wanted to put some potato chips inside it, but Chloe wouldn’t let me.

And here we see the first day of 8th grade. This is the last year of the Swallowtail Waldorf School. We’re hoping to get Chloe into an arts high school in Beaverton for 9th. Stay tuned!

Before we headed off to PA, Chloe and her chums went to perennial kid favorite:
The Enchanted Forest!

The Enchanted Forest is a fairy tale themed amusement park just south of Portland.

Airplane! Headed to Pennsylvania!

Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton International Airport serves Bethlehem – where Peeps are made!
(Can you tell?)

Hi Mom! It is great to be back. Chloe hasn’t been here since she was too small to stand.
Grandpa Hausman, the cabinet maker and high school wood shop teacher built this house.
Pretty great to this day!

We got a bit Dutchy – visiting the old neighborhood with its covered bridge and 1860’s mill dam.

Chloe’s first encounter with Easy Cheese. It is easy, but is it really cheese?

Peck’s Pond! (Actually, it is a lake)

It’s his lake, we just visit it.

Pre-muck photo, as we start our hike down the crick.

Oddly enough, the kids at the camp Chloe went to this summer weren’t allowed to do stuff like this.

We mucked our way all the way to the lake!

Post-muck victory shots! Look at those big smiles!

Mark came to visit!

Arnold has never met a cheeseball he didn’t like. To eat.

Another day at Peck’s Pond!

But first, breakfast.

“The first canoe built by Old Town Canoe was constructed in 1898 behind the Gray hardware store in Old Town, Maine.”

Meanwhile, we uncovered the stone stairs leading to the lakefront and trimmed back the overgrown plants.

While we were at Pecks Pond in the Poconos we filmed a few soon-to-be-classic horror videos. Special guest star!

Arnold Ziffel!

The Sacrifice

Directed, filmed and edited by Chloe. Voice actors: Chloe, Dad & Mark Yeck

Down At The Lake

Directed and filmed by Chloe. Additional voices by Dad.

Hot Candy

Directed by Dad. Filmed and edited by Chloe. Voice actors: Dad & Mark Yeck

We went to the Pennsylvania German Heritage Center in Kutztown. I goofed up on my research and it turned out to be closed that day. But we got photos!

Since we’re Fancy Dutch, not Plain Dutch we don’t know how to actually farm anything these days, but it is part of our story. The last operating farms in the family date back to Chloe’s great-grandmother’s era. Most of that is now suburban housing around Allentown. For those of you who don’t know there were so many of us German settlers that the first newspaper in Allentown was printed in German. In living memory are people born here in the US but didn’t learn English until they were sent to school.
Get aught, nah!

Isn’t she such a nixnutz?

We went up to the Trexler Nature Preserve to frolic in the Jordan River for a bit. Chloe learned how to skip rocks. We got to see some bison and also were pretty close to three wild deer who had come down to the river. Chloe’s great-great grandmother Verna Peters used to talk about being hired by General Trexler to bring water to the people working at the nature preserve.