a surprise birthday hike. instagram edition.

When my old friend Alan sent me a secret text to invite us to a surprise 50th birthday hike and picnic for his wife Cynthia...my response was "Yes!  Of course!".  And so it was that Wally, Fritz and I drove to Timberline lodge and jumped out of the car and walked right up to an unsuspecting Cynthia and asked "May we join you?"  

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I love the King-Guffey family!  They are fun, they know how to celebrate, they love surprises, and they are loyal friends.  As you can see, it also happened to be a gorgeous day on the mountain.  Lovely.

walter waiting

Fritzi has been working a bit this summer with a speech therapist.  Just to work on a few missing sounds and be proactive before he hits elementary school.  Walter comes with us each week and works on the ipad out on the front porch of the therapist's house.  Some times he also takes 500 photos in the span of an hour.  

the herd

The house you see in the background of the photo below is where our neighbor, "the deer lady", lives.  You've heard of crazy cat ladies before, right?  Well this particular older, divorced, apparently lonely lady has found her own brand of crazy.  She feeds deer.  I'm not talking about a salt lick or a few table scraps.  She feeds the deer at least twice a day and usually in a bathrobe (I have seen her in at least 4 different bathrobes-an impressive collection!).  Buckets of food.  Potatoes, carrots, white sandwich bread, and buckets of some sort of feed that looks like sawdust.  And so it is that we have a resident herd of domesticated deer.  There are certain characters.  The patriarch with the red ear tag.  The mama who had the tiny spotted baby in June.  The "unicorn" (named by my mother) who has one antler that points straight down.  They wait at her patio morning and night for their rations.  She talks to them.  This may all sound like exaggeration, but I do a lot of dishes each day and my kitchen window looks out to her deck.  The deer lady's house has very little property.  The stone patio in the picture belongs to different neighbors and it is newly (and expensively) built and landscaped.  The deer like to sleep in the  flower bed.  If it were my patio I would not be pleased.  But as worried about these deer and annoyed with this neighbor as we first felt...I kind of get it.  We sort of like the herd.  It is fun to watch them and their presence is some what reassuring.  But I'm still not talking to them or passing out slices of bread...   

Tumalo Falls

back to school

We've started back-to-school early this year.  Our new school, River Song School, does a montessori boot camp for new students in August.  We are so excited to experience this new (to us) educational philosophy!  Let the learning begin!

School supplies (just like big kids!): check.

Lunch boxes packed: check.

Obligatory cute first day picture: check.  

weekending with Grandma Kelley

Did you catch the photo of Zena (Grandma Kelley's dog) in the last post?  That is the only photographic evidence of Grandma Kelley's Bend visit!  But it was a grand weekend, full of fun and adventures.  Brunch, Hossmer Lake, the horse show, and dinner with Kelley's sister and brother-in-law.    The horse show was immensely fun, that will definitely be a repeat for next summer.      

day trip: hossmer lake