day at the beach with our friends

Eli and I spent labor day at the beach with our friends the Martins, the Anderson-Toomey clan, Susan Dieter's family, and Pete Erschen. It was a beautiful day for running in the tide, looking at starfish and spending time with our friends.

starfish in a tide pool

Eli got to hold a purple starfish

throwing rocks with our friend Kaia

Rowan!

Eli was pretending to be Dumbo with this feather

Rowan's sister Reese

Kristen, post-surfing, with Braeden

The Toomey-Anderson clan -- Chad, Rowan, Amy, and Reese in the corner

adventures with friends ...

James in DC with me

well, this adventure was with Eli's "friends" -- elk, shadow and deet-deet

Kai and Pua at Hoku's luau
Eli at the luau -- note that his lei is made out of candy!

Eli being a very good boy at Lizzie and Andrew's wedding

worn out after the wedding

Amir, Maya, Zain, and Rimmi on my recent trip to DC -- beautiful family!

Mom and Eli took a special trip to Multnomah Falls. We climbed 1 mile up to the top! I carried Eli about half-way and the top was pretty scary, this was made better by the sandwich at the top then at the bottom we got ice cream!

camping in eastern oregon

In August, we headed out of dodge for a long camping weekend in eastern oregon. We were checking it out for deer hunting season in the fall.

I worked hard the week before to finish a grant, and was putting on the final touches while we drove -- nothing like a deadline!

view from the road ...

Wallowa Lake, near our campsite

finishing the set up of our campsite

"test driving" our tent -- so far so good!

camping staples: bedtime stories and shadow puppets

Eli's "friends" kept us good company

Visiting Hell's Canyon

The tin whistle -- an unfortunate impulse by at the truck stop, was oh-so melodious in the huge, silent canyon

To the right was our picnic spot that day

the view from Jason's scope

some deer we spotted along the way -- see you in October!

marshmallows!

throwing rocks in the creek by our camp, another favorite pastime

NOT loving camping here ...

also not loving it here ...

almost time to go, putting the fire out with Dad ...

on our way back, we found a wonderful little restaurant called "Caldera's" full of beautiful bronze and glass sculptures, great food too

two lions outside "Caldera's"

more more summer

more summer 2010 ...

expert berry picker, getting raspberries at the farm

"cheese" face ...

expert berry eater too!

oh, "elk" the elephant got a "time-out" ...

sprinkler time ...

hey, that's not my cereal!

beach day with mom and dad. warm, windy and cloudy

J is flying our kite

there's a sheep in my fence!