Puyallup

Sarah is still under the weather, so it is the boys and I out
adventuring again. We picked up a few plants at Watsons, dropped off
this years Lego entries at the puyallup fairgrounds, picked up some
food from Dons drive through and here we are picnicing at a park in
puyallup. -Gerrit

Preschool work

Perry and Oliver spent the morning with max and I picking up wood
chips and them spreading them out on the preschool playground. It was
fun, but quite a bit of work by the time we finished.

After a snack, the boys and I headed off to a preschool friend's
birthday party.

Sarah has been under the weather with a stomach bug for the past two
days, so it has been just the boys and I palling around. Hopefully
she'll be well enough to rejoin the world tomorrow. -Gerrit

Train track

Finally the boys are back fron Eugene. I spent the day Friday
indulging their every whim. Fun for all.

Henry spent much of the day building a huge brio track (he hasn't
really played with the wooden trains for a long time). We tore it
down to setup a Lego train track. Then Henry decided to build a
little circle of wooden track for the middle of the Lego track. Once
done with that small circle, he added a little siding, then another
small loop, and after an hour of "tiny additions" he had the layout
pictured.
-Gerrit

Evening at the park

This evening we took our bikes to point defiance park for a little
tour of the duck pond, rose garden and here we are entering the
playground beneath the zoo.

The boys spent the morning putt-putt golfing with teacher anne (we
bought an outing with teacher anne at the annual preschool auction).
They had a wonderful time.

Around 2:00, Sarah returned from the airport with her sister Leslie,
Andy and baby Ian (not such a baby anymore) home for a month long stay
(I think Andy only has a couple of weeks off). It is lovely to have
Ian around again (and Leslie and Andy too, of course) Looking forward
to some serious time with the nephew. Ian was massively jet lagged
and walking like a zombie, but fun none-the-less. -Gerrit

Going home

Our day of travel started with Bob driving us to Eugene. We are
currently on a bus to Portland, where we meet up with the Amtrak
Cascades which will take us to Tacoma. The boys are watching a movie,
but it will be nice to be on the train, where there is more room to
spread out.

In this picture, max is checking out the bus, Joe is playing a video
game, and Henry is watching the game.

-Gerrit

Max's turn

He turns a bit too sharp for the trailer, but otherwise a fine driver
(although bob might not think that). -Gerrit

Driving lessons

Pretty soon Henry will "get" to mow the lawn.

Covered bridge

After dinner, we walked to unity bridge, a pretty little covered
bridge on up the road a 1/2 mile from the farm. -Gerrit

Eugene childrens museum

Spent an hour in the rather small Eugene childrens museum. -Gerrit

Making pie

Joe and max helped make a blackberry and apple pie. -Gerrit

Up the creek

Went up the creek and did some wading. Ate a mice little picnic lunch
and then took a hike. -Gerrit

Tractor ride

Boys on a tractor ride at the farm.

Our train

15 minutes after we left the train, it interrupted our trip to the
farm. maybe we should have just jumped off the train as it passed by
Lowell and saved bob the bulk of the trip to pick us up (how hard can
it be to safely jump off a train going 55 mph? You just roll off into
a ditch just like in the movies).

In eugene

An hour late, but we arrived safely in Eugene.

Waiting for the train

Today we are taking a long train trip to Eugene - 6 hours and 45
minutes. Joe decided to come with us too. Poor Sarah has to stay at
home and work.

We are currently on a long stop in Portland. The boys are doing
well. Max is starting to get a bit bored, but he'll survive with the
million different activities I brought along - half my bag is books,
legos, games, workbooks, cards, etc. Luckilly Joe decided to come
along, which makes my life much, much easier.

There used to be a nice little playroom on the coast starlight we're
riding on, but it has been replaced with a little coin operated video
game arcade. Pretty lame. Last time we rode it was fun to hang out
with other kids and parents and bounce around a bit instead of being
stuck in our seats most of the time. However, we are now using the
arcade room as a play room, so I guess it isn't so bad. -gerrit

Max climbing a fountain

On another errand, we take a break by a fun fountain in downtown
Tacoma. -Gerrit

Near the tracks

Yesterday we checked the zoo geocache we maintain. Here we are
looking at a track signal on our way back to the car. -Gerrit

Blackberry picking

Getting some blackberries from the wild bushes down the street a few
days ago. The ripe berries were all too high, so the boys chose to
play in the creek instead of actually helping. Made the jam last
night. -Gerrit

max on the sailboat

Max likes the sailboat, but was pretty much done with the trip at this point. He wasn't interested in handling the tiller.

We spent a couple of days at the beach house. When we returned home on Monday, the boys were very happy to be home (we went right to the beach house from camping, and they were pretty worn out). We've had a few slow days at the house, but things get busy for the next two weeks: tomorrow over to Harry and Lucy's in the afternoon, then to the beach house for the boys, and Sarah and I will do some hiking on Mount Rainier. Tuesday next week we take the train down to the "farm", Sarah's parent's place east of Eugene. Then back home, couchsurfers after the weekend, Leslie arrives, then back to the "farm". Busy, busy, busy. -Gerrit

Henry at the helm

Henry has taken a greater interest in sailing. Here is is at the helm. We sailed from the beach house to the marina (for candy) and back. Easy sailing there (the wind behind us the whole way, as always). Coming back was a bit harder, as we tack the whole way. Henry had trouble keeping the sail from luffing, and he was glad to take a break while I rowed us under the bridge (that segment is too narrow to be much fun to sail, and the tide was high enough that I had to lower the mast to get under the bridge anyway). Here is Henry with the sail back up, taking us back to the beach house (winery museum seen behind him). -Gerrit

roasting a marshmallow

Some marshmallow roasting back at camp. -Gerrit

max swimming

Henry is wading in Hood Canal, and Max is swimming. The water is very, very warm, and nice an shallow. There is a kind of sea plant like grass that is very nice to walk on.

Cooling off

When it was near 100 degrees last week, we were off camping at Belfair State Park. We stayed a night with my friend Seth and his two kids Achem (5) and Gabriel (1). Here is Max playing in the creek.