Mid-week Quick Pic XIII

What's the best thing solution for a rainy Saturday morning?

A spot of warm milk and a piece of pumpkin cake and a smile!

Monster Cat Encounter

How many monkeys does it take to score free candy?

Just one!

All hallows eve began with a wonderful dinner with our buddies Christy and Michael who are the parents of Sylvia's good buddy Annabelle. We all trooped out the door, mostly costumed, to take the neighborhood on.

Witches and
monkeys on the move.

Sylvia, never the shrinking violet, quickly got the hang of the drill: "trick or treat" followed by immediately digging around in the bowl for a handful of sweets.

Sylvia and Annabelle with bags weighed down.

Piratical papa attempting to keep in his daughter's good graces to score candy.

Evening ended with monster cat encounter...

4,879 miles

4,879 miles.
That's the distance between Portland and Cuenca, Ecuador.
That the distance Torcasa, Juan Manuel and little Rafael traveled to visit us.


Of course we took them to the South Park Blocks,

a tasty brew pub,

the Japanese Garden,

and our back yard.

We had a wonderful time with them and this means it's our turn to travel South.

Mid-week quick pic

Time to dance!

A visit to cupcakes

There's nothing like a party to bring people together. With Aurelia at work (and with the car) it was up to the dinnertable and Sylvia to represent the Hidalgo family at our buddy Maya's cake festival (birthday).

We were lucky enough to hitch a ride with our friends Nina, Jake and Akio. Aki and Sylvia did an admirable job sharing the back seat and required only the smallest of fruit snack bribes to maintain a bit of peace.

Upon arrival we greeted the radiant birthday girl and her proud mama and...

mounted the rocking yak for a wild rampage across the steppes.

Once the steppes had been conquered, a visit to the cupcakes was required (no touching please) and then a visit to the backyard for a run about with Aki.

Once the crowd had eaten their fill of a fine brunch Maya made her way to the front, scored a smooch from tata ("papa" in Serbian) and declared the cupcakes open for business.

(No pictures of cupcakes consumption as the
dinnertable was distracted by icing and sweet cake.

As the morning drifted to noon the smallest among us began to fade.
No need for fruit snack bribes for the way home.

Summer 2010 Highlights - Part 2

The end of the break continues....

What summer would be complete without a visit to the zoo where you can even ride the hippos (bet you can't do that at your zoo),

and comparisons to bears are inevitable.

One of the major highlights of the summer was a week long visit with Nan and Uncle Ted in Newport, OR. Now the sun may have refused to shine on the beach for more than five minutes at a stretch but we persevered through the rocky shoals (sandy beaches) in search of quarry.

When reality grew stale we headed
to the Newport Aquarium to tussle with star fish.

Is that the sun,
why yes...quick everybody outside and get on your whale.

Much tasty food was had by all.

Dessert please.
(Please ignore hand of papa that is making a move to "clean" the cone which looks in danger of dripping. Thanks mom for the tip).

Followed by a walk home in the arms of your uncle.

Summer number three draws to a close.

Summer 2010 Highlights - Part 1

The Dinnertable is back from its summer break. Too much has occurred since July for a complete recap but here's a few of the highlights:

Sylvia scored her own personal bike chariot. Mush papa, mush!

The berry season began.

The pool required filling.

Time for a big girl bed with access controlled by short people.

Still passes the bounce test.

Uncle Brick, Aunt Meg, Ayla and Baby Ranger came to town.

Baths were required.

Portland's new Director Park opened.

Sylvia enjoyed the few hot days our fair city experienced with a dip.

We shared the park with our buddy Sam from Seattle,
who was visiting from that little hamlet to the north.

The sky was clear and the sun shone as brightly as my little bunny's smile.

Mid-week quick pic

Island Sweetie

An Island Full of Sand

One recent weekend, undaunted by the gray skies that refuse to give way to summer, we crossed the Willamette river onto Sauvie Island. Out the car windows passed the berry farms, modest homes and quiet lanes of this near city retreat. Our goal was a beach to walk and, for our smallest member, sand to dig.