Come and Knock on Our Door

There is nothing like waking up from a blissful good night's sleep (so very rare) to a warm Portland Saturday morning spent finding amazing deals at yard sales with a pit stop at Stumptown for iced-espressos and a final stop at Freddy's for their 50% off sale on summer clothes. Summer in Portland, when we're all together and especially when guests are around, is total euphoria for me.

My mom was commenting to me last week about the revolving door that our summers are and wondering if it's tiring for me. It's actually not at all. Every summer since we've been married, we've had pretty much constant house-guests. This is what Buddy thinks of the summer weather and fresh dirt in the yard.

We really love showing people around Portland, and last week--can't remember the day as they all run together in the summer--we took Rusty and Carrie to Multnomah Falls with a stop first at the Vista House.

Abe inside the Vista House.

We got to Multnomah Falls and decided to go on all the way up to the top, a hike I'd always wanted to do but hadn't yet. It's only a mile but it's a pretty steep climb, and we were happy that R and C were game.
(this photo to the right was taken in the same place that we "sledded" down on our tushies last winter when it was all frozen over).

Proof that we all made it to the top

The view from the top of the falls. Really beautiful, and a little scary.

Dad's hilarious "trail banter" on the way down helped to put Abe to sleep. I made Ted strap the whole jogger to his belt and no pointing was allowed the whole way down--both hands on the babe at all times. That narrow path and steep drop-off were slightly scary.

Here we are the bottom of the falls. Rusty is my oldest friend in the world (we met when we were 13), so later that evening over dinner outside on the lawn at Edgefield, I got all weepy (imagine that) talking about our friendship, how proud I am of him, of where he is in his life and mostly how amazing it is that he and Carrie have found each other.

A favorite story people tell about Boy-Wonder-Rusty is the time that our friend Jessica met Rusty's mom Ava for the first time. She said, "Oh! So you're Rusty Spell's mother? Congratulations!" Well, when we got home from our trip to the falls, I checked my voice-mail and had a message from this very same Jessica. She was in Oregon for a wedding (they live in Mississippi)! Amazing. I called her back and handed the phone to Rusty while it was still ringing just so I could hear her scream through the phone.

The next morning, Jessica rented a car and high-tailed it from Eugene to Portland for a mini-high school reunion.

We're the best, can't you see? We're the class of '93!

The next day, R and C headed out for a few days to the Oregon coast, and we got the chance to meet Joy and her two sweet girls. What a sweet, kindred spirit that Joy is, especially about understanding the pitfalls of being an introvert. Oh, and she feeds her girls green beans for a snack! The Rooneys think that is way-cool.
Finally, we also took Abe for his 12-month check-up, and he's made his way up to the 12th percentile for weight (that's up from the lower 3%). Our boy likes to eat. Here he is trying pizza for the first time:

We've got the backyard pool all set up, and we're looking forward to trying that out and to Rusty and Carrie getting back from the coast tomorrow morning. R and C are the masters of funny voices, as you can see here:

And now, how many of you like me, have the Three's Company theme song stuck in your heads?