Westmoreland Asays

Click To Play I rode my bike to Minto Island Park, meeting the rest of family after they drove over. Aaron brought his bike, and while the two of us rode around the park, Meg, Ian, and Edward spent time at the playground and walking around near the Willamette. I then rode home.

From Little North Fork Hike Aaron and Eddie have both accompanied me on hikes along the Little North Fork of the Santiam (see 2007 and 2008 ), but Meg and I couldn't figure out if she had ever been before. But it was definitely Ian's first visit. We left the house late in the afternoon, and when you are with Ian-the-Ravenous, it's hard to accomplish much. So we made it to the "beach," a nice rocky shore along the river that provides ample amounts of sun and shade (depending on your fancy)--but, most importantly, oodles of rocks for throwing into the river. The older boys both ventured into the shallows of the river, and both fell in and got their pants/shorts soaked. Edward was wearing green sweat pants and a green sweatshirt (I encouraged his several times during the day to wear shorts and a t-shirt). But they didn't seem to care and kept playing in the shallows. But since we didn't hike very far, it didn't take long to hike back to the car (and the s...

From Schreiner's Iris Gardens 2009 Tonight we paid our usual, annual visit to Schreiner's Iris Gardens, where I spent every waking hour of eight summers working. The weather was nice until the wind started blowing hard. We brought take-out from Keizer Station, but it wasn't much fun trying to eat in the wind--plus Ian was hungry (when isn't he?). I thought we might be the only ones there, but we had to share the display gardens with the Goesch's (long-time friends from church in Keizer). On the ride home, Edward stated that he wants to do three things when he grows up: be a dad, a farmer, and a mom. Fortunately with gentle persuasion he was open to the idea of being a husband instead of a mom.

From Fishermen's Bend I took the two older boys on a camping trip to Fishermen's Bend, a large campground along the North Santiam River (which I believe is the fateful place where my dad crashed our drift boat when I was about six or seven years old), for an activity with our church. We did the same thing last year --and upon reading last year's entry, this year felt very similar, except I didn't have to change any diapers this time (thanks Eddie!). The weather was near-perfect (low-to-mid 70's and clear skies); I don't know if I'd attend if it was raining. I spent a lot of time talking with my friend Cary Takara who, upon seeing me and the boys eating rice that we had brought with us for dinner, commented "You are more Japanese than me." I tried conversing in Japanese with Cary's youngest son, but he laughed uncontrollably at the idea that a gaijin was speaking some pretty good Japanese (Cary and his wife are both 100% Japanese). Their kids a...

From Aaron's Writing Award Although Aaron doesn't remember when or why he was asked to write the story "Snow Hiking," tonight he received an award for writing it. Each elementary school in the S-K District selected one student from each grade to receive this award; Aaron represented the kindergarten from Lee. He and I attended the awards ceremony tonight, where the guest of honor was writer Eric Kimmel (a writer of childrens books and a resident of Portland). Mr. Kimmel gave a delightful reading of his story, " The Three Cabritos ." And he didn't just read his story straight-through; he paused every few pages to relate the history of how he chose the characters, the setting, the plot, and to share various techniques for writing and living a good life. I found the reading fun and educational, but I was surprised that Aaron came away with specific ideas to improve his own writing (e.g., to think about how your own experiences could translate into an inter...

Nearly three years ago I began my first attempt at teaching Aaron how to ride his bike . While only three years old, he demonstrated good balance and had a mild desire to learn. That attempt failed, however, and I think his interest completely fizzled out. He hasn't mentioned any desire to ride a bike since. Fast forward to the present, and a couple of things helped rekindle his interest. First, packs of similarly-aged kids would congregate on our front porch and ask for Aaron to come out and join their bike riding posse (somewhat akin to this Simpsons clip ). While he couldn't ride like them, he still enjoyed the camaraderie while riding his scooter, even though he was always bringing up the rear. Second, we read a book ( Yikes! Bikes! ) that talked about learning to ride a bike because the narrator was embarrassed for not being able to. Fast Forward to last Friday, and I challenged Aaron to let me give him lessons for riding (I fail to remember my motivation for challenging h...