Babyup!

Shutting down the streets for a massive amounts of bike riders is kind of a Portland thing it seems. A few weeks ago Choe was a spectator on the back of Dad’s Big Bike. A week later, the magic happened and she figured out how to ride on her own. Now she’s a total bike powerhouse.

She took a tumble while trying to ride down the Broadway Bridge no-hands (Dad was trying to get her to not do that! Oh good golly.) . Otherwise, she did a good five miles which is pretty dang impressive IMHO.

While you weren’t looking, we went off to do the tour at Creo Chocolate, which was well worth it. All three of us had a good time, and I think you would too. Here we are customizing chocolate bars. We couldn’t get a photo with all three of us looking at the camera and smiling at the same time, DERP!

Here’s a good shot of Mom and Chloe at the park.

Here we are at Multnomah Falls, with Special Guest Star, Saskia Petersen.

Here’s Saskia doing pretty much what I spent my teen years doing, reading voraciously, every spare moment when I wasn’t being intellectually engaged.

We had a pretty epic time at Latourell Falls, lead by Saskia. 30 or 40 years ago I’d be that person climbing all that, but in truth, someone does have to stand back and be prepared to call for emergency services. Chloe did take a tumble, wet clothes, no permanent damage. Saved by Dad, yay me.

Here’s Chloe showing us how much of a better artist she is at 9 than the rest of us.

Here’s a bit of video of Chloe painting with mom.

This is out of order but still funny. An introduction to the riot of ground squirrels at Rooster Rock State Park where we stopped for lunch. Yes, they are cute.

There’s a reason why these little buggers are so fat. They know how to play the tourists. Honest, we were not trying to feed the wildlife. As you can see Saskia was more concerned with Fan Fiction than her sandwich.

Meanwhile… we went and visited some waterfalls.

Last time I was out in Forest Grove and took Chloe on bike riding practice she was pretty frustrated that it wasn’t working. Yet tonight, it all seemed to click and now she’s riding on her own!

Ok, she needs more practice but she’s got the basics. How exciting!

Here’s Chloe and The Saddest Tree In the World — it was relying on the vast network of brambles for support, the brambles I removed when I cleaned out the side yard. Now it’s growing downward!

Chloe is quite the little sculptor. Here’s her rendition of a s’more, a watermelon and a turtle.

Speaking of s’mores, here she is roasting marshmallows.

Parrot!

We met up with Randy and Jeane on Chloe’s actual birthday, and on Saturday we had the big kid party. Here’s some photos:

Two days after the small gathering we had on Chloe’s actual birthday with Randy and Jeane, Lisa arranged for a kid-style party at PDX Playdate, an indoor place with a huge indoor play structure for them to run, jump, crawl and climb in and private rooms for parties.

A stand-out of the experience was the hand-made birthday cards the kids made for Chloe. Take a look:

Soren and I started off Father’s day on Saturday by having most of the kids over and firing up the charcoal grill.

Here’s Chloe and Soren & Marya’s daughter Saskia showing off the fortress they’ve started building in the back yard. You’ll notice that they’ve got weapons and are prepared to stick it to any unfriendlies who try to storm the gates.

You’ll notice two things — it’s still light out in Portland in mid June, even pushing 9pm. Also, neither of these munchkins were willing to wait for the second set of charcoal to get lit to start working on their s’mores…

…and here’s some hats!

The next day we went to the Zoo. Just to prove it, here’s some flamingoes.

…and since Chloe didn’t eat her breakfast at home, we brought it along. Here she is trying to keep her chocolate pancakes from the local dragons.

Is a sunny day complete without hopping into the Willamette?

Of course, there was ice cream.

…and this was a week ago. Here’s Chloe showing off her dragon costume, viking hat and mask.

Yeah, so my old friend Soren invited me to stay with him for a bit while I work out my personal housing issues. He missed the window for free xmas tree disposal, so it was still hanging around in May. I happen to have this giant truck machine so we tried taking it to the dump… Well, let’s just say there were many misadventures and the dang thing was on top of Ford SpaceLord for nearly a week before I successfully disposed of it.