A Spontaneous Adventure

My husband's middle brother likes to climb mountains. He has climbed most of the mountains in Colorado, and a smattering in New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, and Oregon. Last year, he climbed Mt. McKinley. The year before that it was a part of the Andes in Venezuela, and this summer he was on parts of the Alps. So yeah, serious mountain man. He is visiting us this week and planned to climb Mt. Washington - in the Cascade range - but a thunderstorm proved too dangerous. Instead, he took us to a rock climbing gym in Bend. I didn't climb, but my daughter did. Observe:


She's seven, and she has no fear. I remember the time when I had no fear. I was young, and I climbed trees with abandon, rode a three-wheeler up the face of a very large sand dune at the South Jetty, and screamed with delight at Montezuma's Revenge, the ride, at Knott's Berry Farm.


That's my baby up there! Those long, lean legs used to be chubby thighs upon which I snacked. Oh, she was a delicious baby.

Once I had a child, I fear all kinds of potential accidents: skiing into trees, carnival rides which jump their tracks, Bisphenol-A in water bottles. And that is all well and good. I am a mother, after all. I can't be reckless and for good reason. Now, I love with a kind of recklessness and protect my daughter with all the energy I used to exert on an adrenaline rush. It's nature at work.


I couldn't believe how quickly she took to it, and how high she climbed. After two hours, she was not ready to go home.

Summer, So Far

I mentioned more than once that I have pictures, then I post nothing but words, words, words. My camera's memory card filled up and I was forced to download them in order to clear up space to record more precious moments. And now, for your viewing pleasure........

A stepping stone which OC helped me paint...


Colorful...

OC rescued a dragonfly from drowning in our wading pool. The dragonfly needed some time to catch his (or her) breath, and so hung out on the rescuer's hand for about 10 minutes, allowing me to capture the moment in a half dozen shots...


OC explains the dramatic moment of the life-saving operation.


A close-up on our subject.



No wonder my memory card filled so quickly! How many shots of a dragonfly does one need? There are more that weren't posted. But, this is a pretty cool looking dragonfly.

And finally, we get to summer camp. OC spent a week in the Cascades where, among other things, she rode a BMX bike, canoed in a lake, shot a bow and arrow, and rode around on an inflatable banana behind a motorboat. Of course, I don't have photos of any of these activities, but I do have one of her camp counselor.


This is Melanie from New Zealand.

This is us on the way to camp:

Not one to waste time, husband brought his laptop in order to work out his raceway design. OC enjoys a classic Beverly Cleary story.

Not shown: Mommy, recovering from a 7-tequila sunrise hangover from girl's weekend. I'm just not as young as I used to be.

Summer Storm

A thunderstorm is passing through, and I'm listening to booms which are so loud they shake the house. The rain sounds lovely, smells wonderful.

I'm working on fixing a beaded necklace that I had half completed but the design was boring, the length all wrong. Summer has been on fast-forward and it's been a lot of fun, but, it feels good to take it slow for a bit.

We've been to two weeks of tennis lessons, four weeks of swimming lessons, a sleep-away camp in the Cascades, a week of "Alice in Wonderland" with the Missoula Children's theater; we've gone bike riding and running, and now I'm going to keel over. In a good way.

The slowdown will be short-lived: tomorrow we leave for mother/daughter weekend at the beach! I promise, pictures will show up soon. I have lots of 'em.