Relaxation Vacation

I love the tradition of family vacations. Most every summer growing up I can remember a different adventure with my family. From a relaxing cabin in beautiful British Columbia to exploring New York and D.C., it was always memorable and fun. I'm sure I'm washing over the bickering children and whines of "are we there yet," right mom?.

I wanted to start our own family vacation tradition. With a two-year old and trying to save up for a new house and all that future fun, we weren't planning any lavish adventures. Instead we decided to explore our own state.

Aside from Oregon's rain and gray, I feel lucky to live in such a beautiful place. The ocean, mountains, parks and natural beauty are never far. Neither Mike nor I had ever been to northeastern Oregon. The pictures of the Wallowas and Hell's Canyon looked stunning and it would be interesting to leave our little pocket of liberal blue Portland.

The drive to Joseph, a little town of the Wallowas where our cabin was located was about six hours away. Not too far, but the memory of Collin shrieking on our last long plane flight and longer car trip to Canada rang through my head so we decided to break up the trip and stop in Pendleton (about 4 hours away). Collin had a rotation of snacks and toys at his disposal and lucky for us napped for half the car ride.

We arrived at the Rugged Country Lodge, a motel off a strip of highway. Now, I'm not a four seasons travel snob but I do like to stay in nice places and can't remember the last time I went to a "motel." However, once inside the room was clean and seemed nice (especially in comparison to the other places in town). Collin jumped on the bed and played with the remote. They also had delicious oatmeal cookies.



We went into town and discovered Pendleton which aside from its rodeo claim to fame doesn't really have a whole lot to offer. We got ripped off at a couple stores, did have a decent meal and tasty beer at a local brewery and ended up at a small park where Collin could swing and play. Pendleton is also near two prisons and the park definitely reflected that demographic.



Bedtime was early that night and we discovered Collin outgrew his pack and play (he leaped out of it) so there went that. He ended up in between us bouncing up and down until he was finally exhausted and fell asleep.

The next day we had a pretty tasty breakfast with homemade biscuits and gravy and went back to do a little more exploring. We went to an overpriced two-room museum but there was an antique fire truck that Collin got to sit on and a caboose so that made it almost worth the $12. We also stopped and got a Pendleton blanket (Pendleton's other claim to fame) which with 90 degree weather was hard to appreciate but I know once winter hits we'll be happy with our cozy wool blanket.





With the first leg of our trip over we headed to Joseph which ended up being about three hours away with construction. The drive coming in was beautiful with snow topped mountains, lush valleys and the surrounding Wallowa Lake. Our cabin was a few minutes from Joseph, a cute artsy town that expands about five blocks. We were within walking distance to the lake and in the cabin's backyard was an actual babbling brook. Talk about soothing. We were also in land of no wi-fi or cell phone service and we could hook up to the Internet via a modem (which my laptop doesn't have). Mike and I both looked at each other in disbelief, "dial up?"

Our bear themed cabin was nicer than I expected with two bedrooms a good sized kitchen and living room. We also had a deck with a BBQ. Walking inside I instantly felt relaxed. I couldn't answer my phone! or check my e-mail! I could've done a yoga pose right there.





It was also great to stay in a place where we could eat in most of the time because Collin is at the unpredictable stage of restaurant dining. He's usually the kid that starts screaming or throwing things unless he's happy with his meal and the service is fast.

As soon as we walked outside a deer approached us.



And then another. And during our trip we probably saw at least 10 of them crossing roads, wandering into the backyard and munching on flowers. We were warned not to feed them which obviously many people ignored. But we would not be the stupid tourists that feed the deer and end up getting attacked by one. Which happened quite frequently apparently. Once they realized we weren't going to feed them they left, still they were so graceful to watch.





During our stay we walked around Joseph and the lake, drove out to see some amazing views and went to the playground where Collin could throw barkchips and swing to his heart's content.





We also did a small hike into the Eagle Cap wilderness. Poor Mike was the primary backpack Collin wearer. That thing causes me to become a hunchback with spurts of pain so until we find something more comfortable for both of us to wear it will be Mike's duty. According to the guidebook it was an easy four mile round-trip hike which ended up at a lake. We set out and with a kid strapped to his back, Mike got to experience the obstacles of balancing over slippery rocks and logs.







We had some nice views but Collin was not the best passenger. He wanted to walk for maybe 10 minutes and part of the time wiggled, screamed and slapped Mike across the face. When we reached our destination he was in toddler heaven with a beach full of rocks and a body of water for throwing them in. Mike skipped rocks and Collin dunked huge ones to his delight.

"Throw rocks? Daddy throw rocks?" he said over and over.



On our way back, Collin passed out on Mike's back. And all the memories of him slapping Mike's face melted away...



On the way back we stopped at a viewpoint of Hell's Canyon. Awesome. Collin ran through flowers which I noticed had a sign saying it was a protected area do not walk off the trail. Whoops. He also smelled really bad afterward. Like he walked through skunk flowers. Someone would be getting a bath when we got back.







We also decided to take a three hour train ride on the Eagle Cap Excursion Train. My logic being Collin loves trains, this would give us a chance to see the view and hopefully relax. Big mistake mama. After a stressful morning of searching for the cabin's keys--finally found shoved into the VCR by a certain toddler, we headed to the train which was about an hour and a half away. I was expecting a little more of a family friendly experience but the train, decorated with doilies and fake flowers was about 95% full of old people, many in cowboy hats. Many probably not used to a high energy two-year old running around.



There was one young family behind us with a boy about Collin's age to our relief. Of course as the train ride went on, the little boy was the nice quiet type who sat out the window pointing to the scenery unlike our child. Collin wiggled, screamed, quickly grew bored of his snacks and after finishing off a lollipop wasn't too fun. We took turns running up and down the rows and passing between cars. At least we didn't get any dirty looks, mostly just amusing glances and about five people remarked on "her beautiful golden curls."

Our one short stop was pretty random and full of long grass with an okay view of a river. We were warned to watch out for snakes. The whole train ride ended up being about four hours, we didn't get to appreciate the view because we were chasing Collin. The novelty of being on a "choo choo" wore off pretty early on in the trip. Oh well, we won't be doing any train rides again until Collin's a lot older unless it's a short city ride on the MAX.





We planned to take the tram up to Mt. Adams which apparently leads to a beautiful view but unfortunately it was closed for repairs. It just gives us another excuse to come back here. It was a little sad to leave our cabin. It was so relaxing and a perfect break from the city and work and life. Still Mike and I are definitely city people who love our 3G service and instant access to the Internet.

Our final stop for the trip was a little two day visit to Walla Walla, Washington which also broke up the trip nicely. Since we both love wine, we decided it'd be a fun little side trip. The drive to Walla Walla was full of golden fields of grain or maybe it was wheat...I'm not exactly Miss Agriculture. Lots of John Deere and farm equipment for sale, RV parks and welcome signs to towns that expanded about a mile.

A few hours later we hit Walla Walla and stayed at the Best Western which had a pool, big plus for Collin. Our room was spacious and we were hoping since we had pretty good luck with Collin sleeping on his big boy bed at the cabin that he'd sleep on the roll-away. We went off to venture the small city of Walla Wall and it was pretty cute. It definitely seemed like a wine/food town with not a whole lot of other stuff going on aside from some nice shops, mostly boutiques with clothes way out of my price range ($400 for a tunic!). We stopped at wine bar and Collin sucked on a lollipop while we did our first tasting and bought some nice whites. Dinner was tasty though Collin didn't appreciate his homemade fettuccine and we ate pretty fast. Luckily he slept on his bed and we all fell asleep about 830.

The next day we explored the Fort Walla Walla Museum which turned out to be pretty cool.



There was a pioneer village set up with genuine artifacts and period pieces set up in homes, a school house, a doctor's office, even a tee pee. Collin liked the covered wagon but was pretty peeved he wasn't allowed to climb on it. They had horse powered carriages that farmers used for agriculture in one section, an old prison cell, antique cars, and more. Collin's favorite part was definitely the kids play fort.





We met with a friend of Mike's from college for lunch who lives in town and after unsuccessfully trying to get Collin down for a nap decided to drive out to some vineyards for tastings. As soon as we started driving Collin promptly fell asleep. So we drove around for an hour and discovered a faster, scenic way to get back to I-84. After about an hour we stopped at Waterbrook, a commercial winery with a beautiful site. One of the owners (I think) was really friendly and offered to put on cartoons for Collin to watch on a cushy couch. Collin happily obliged and was content. Mom and Dad sampled wines. Most of them were pretty tasty and there were some good bargains so we ended up with a mixed case.

After our week long trip was over we headed home and the drive went pretty fast. While Collin isn't the easiest kid to travel with, I'm glad we got to experience northeastern Oregon and one of many family vacations. It was a good reminder that although I love to travel and want to see the world, there's still a lot to see close to home.

Sanity break and big trucks with sirens

The endless rain is finally gone and hopefully summer will stick around a while. Collin is growing, talking, seems more like a little boy and less like a toddler every day. And in September he'll transition to preschool! He talks in three phase sentences, is pretty good about "please," and "thank you," counts to 12, sort of sings the ABC's and still loves to point out shapes (his favorite being triangle). He lets us know when he wants to be changed but isn't interested in actually using the potty. We're also trying not to spoil him and give into his every whim but the whole pick your battle thing often prevails. Screams or chocolate milk? Yeah yeah I can be a pushover.

Both Mike and I switched off breaks of three days for bits of family freedom. Mike went and hung out in California and the next weekend I hit up Vancouver, B.C. to splurge on shopping and yummy food with a friend. It was a blast and both Mike and I realized the importance of getting a break (from each other and Collin)--once a year would be nice!

While I was gone, Mike took Collin on a tour of a Portland Fire Department. Thanks to Mike's firefighter friend Collin got the VIP treatment. For an hour and a half he explored different fire trucks and watched the fire fighters respond to a scene with lights blaring. He was in little boy ecstasy.

From Summer 2010

The Terribles...

I'd like to say that age two gets a bad rep, that there's so much fun and enlightenment that comes with this age bla, bla, bla.

But seriously, a lot of the time it sucks. I know we're still early in the twos so I'm hoping it gets easier. This is a typical morning:

Me: "Collin would you like some yogurt?"
Collin: "No!"
Me: "Okay, how about a granola bar?"
Collin: "Yogurt!"
(Happily gulps down yogurt thank God).
Collin: "Chocolate milk, chocolate milk?"
Me: "No chocolate milk, you can have milk or water."
Collin: "Chocolate milk, chocolate milk."
Me: "Here's some milk."
Collin: "No!" Throws himself to the ground and screams for a while, then picks up the milk and drinks it.
Collin: "O's?"
Me: "Here you go." Hands him cheerios.
Collin: Pours O's on the floor. "Fishies!"
Me: "Is it too early for wine?"




And this sort of scenario repeats itself with lunches and snacks. I realize he's a mini teenager, that he's just expressing his independence. Still it's hard not to lose it sometimes and even harder to remind myself it's a phase. He used to eat anything and happily sit with us at dinner time but now I don't even know why I bother making him anything, it usually ends up on the floor. Snacks are consumed all day long so I know he's not starving.

The tantrums aren't just centered around food though, they take place around TV time (Elmo = crack), getting ready for school in the morning, getting into the car, out of the car, etc.

He's an angel at school, with the grandparents and babysitters, which I know is a good thing. Still it'd be nice if he uh pretended we were not his parents or something once in a while.

Then there is that whole reason we don't eat our young...he's so damn charming and cute. He asks me for "o-fly and skimo kisses" every night. He helps dad build with his tools. He puts his arms around my neck in a big hug. He loves to count (up to 11), he imitates animal sounds, he loves firetrucks and is obsessed with pointing out shapes.





So I'll try to throw my rationale out the window and stop trying to analyze why he's having tantrums. As my mom says, two year olds are basically just big balls of emotion.

And hope to God people who say age three is harder than two are wrong.

A break from the mundane

Monday was typical. It was around 5pm. I was writing a grocery list. We just found out Collin had an ear infection and he was resting in his room. Mike was on his way to the pharmacy to pick up Collin's medicine. It was pretty gray and miserable, one of those days I wanted to move far away from Oregon to some place where 65 degrees was considered cold. Just as I'm debating our meal plan for the week, there's a giant crash and the house shakes. Out the window a massive Douglas Fir limb lay across our porch and Mike's work car. Another tree crashes down over the power line. My immediate response was to run upstairs in a panic to check on Collin. He sat in bed with a confused look.

There's a knock at the door and the neighbor, a retired fire fighter asks if we're all right. I'm obviously in bit of shock. Our steps are completely blocked by tree branches and debris. The neighbor managed to climb over Mike's wrecked car and make his way up here. He offers to call 9-1-1 and shortly after the fire crew shows up which is all pretty amusing to Collin. He's all smiles and mesmerized by the lights. Oh to be two.





The fire guys clear the debris and branches off our stairs with chainsaws so we have a path out of the house. I hold my hands over Collin's ears while he continues to be entranced.









Because the power line is strangling a tree our electricity obviously disconnects to make it even more fun. At this point, I've gotten a hold of Mike in a shriek as he tries to calm me. "Don't worry Lyssy," he said with a good amount of cheer in his voice. "You guys are safe, it's not my car, it's the city's and it's the neighbor's tree so their insurance will cover it."

The gawkers are out in force with their cell phone cameras and the news crew is on its way. I do not want to be on the news. Why? Because anytime they interview someone on TV, that person looks a) cracked out, or b) stupid. I preferred not to be quoted as "Uh yeah I was just sitting here and the tree came down. It sure did take me by surprise." Dumb stair at camera.

Thankfully Mike pulled up and ends up telling the news guys not to film us because he's a cop, etc. so on the news that night a stunned looking neighbor we've never met gives her story of our house with pictures of our sad porch and stairs.

Mary Ann comes over to pick up Collin for the night while we try to take care of this mess. Friends in the neighborhood offer us a place to sleep and dinner for the night. We end up eating a delicious meal, drinking wine and sleeping in a comfy guest room. Not so shabby. Meanwhile Collin gets to hang out with his grandparents for the night.

The bummer of the night (besides the whole tree falling on our house) is we find out it's considered an "act of God" hence the neighbor is not responsible and it falls on us (thank God for insurance!!) The next day we get in touch with our agent and start detailing everything that needs to get done. After that things happen pretty fast. The arborist and his crew come and clear away the tree in a matter of minutes. A contractor is at the house building a new rail to be within code and checking out our porch and roof for possible replacing. The car is towed, the windshield completely shattered. Mike's boss asks him if he can drive it to work and Mike laughed and sent him a picture. Needless to say he'll get a new car.

That night after having dinner with Jon and Mary Ann (and are so grateful they spent a whole day with our cranky toddler) we head home to our house which supposedly will have power restored. Instead we find a note from Pacific Power saying the electrician's work needs to be inspected by the City before they can turn our power back on. It's cold. I'm in disbelief and Collin hears a lot of words he shouldn't repeat. I put him to bed in several layers of blankets and Mike calls the electrician. Apparently there were some communication issues and the letter he sent went to the wrong power utility. Luckily he comes back to our house 20 minutes later and restores the power for us. The next day he says Pacific Power will come by and do a permanent reconnect. Do I have any idea what this means? Nope but I'm just happy we have power.

By Wednesday things were finally normal. Power is restored for good. Our Internet is back and we're waiting for our estimate tomorrow. Once we get that hopefully we can get things fixed as soon as possible. We're looking at the upside...it'll be a chance for some remodeling and refinishing on the outside of our house! Meanwhile we would really like to compel the neighbor to cut down the rest of his tree. It's leaning against his house and according to the arborist, it's damaged and rotting and it will fall down. It's only a matter of time. Only this time it'd go straight across the street into the neighbor's roof.

You can bet when we move, I'll be looking carefully at the surrounding trees. We know it could have been much worse and are grateful to friends and family for stepping up and helping us out! I now welcome the mundane back.

Birthday party abbreviated

Our planned birthday celebration for Collin today ended up not exactly as planned after Collin (sorry too much information to follow) had several diarrhea diapers and a 102 degree fever. Mike made his delicious smoked ribs and wings which is way too much for our little family and other family members already planned to bring side dishes, and I slaved away at my first birthday cake so dammit we would still have some kind of party!



Instead of having our sit down dinner and birthday bash both sets of grandparents came over with gifts and took the food to go. Collin ended up doing better than we expected so everyone hung out for a bit and he got to blow out the candles with Mike's help. He ate a few bites of his cake but wasn't interested in food. We probably could have had our sit down dinner after all as planned but you just never know what a sick kid will be like. Spikes in fever? Projectile vomiting? Surprises like that keep parents from getting bored!












He had a bath and an early bedtime and I canceled our plans to go to an Easter egg hunt tomorrow organized by the mom's group I belong to. I was looking forward to watching Collin hunt for eggs but the crappy weather combined with Collin being around a bunch of other kids didn't sound like a good idea. Mike and I might organize our own Easter egg hunt tomorrow by dying some eggs with Collin and hiding them around the house.

Of course Collin has no idea today was a birthday party or that tomorrow's Easter. It's all just another exciting day in the world to him.

Hopefully he'll be better soon and we can check another illness off our list.

Happy Bithday Collin!

Collin is two! And yes he can proudly hold up two fingers and proclaim this.

What does this age mean so far?

It's part sweet, part aggravation. The best are the questions asking me for a kiss or hug, the coherent sentences, the huge smiles and the independence, well this is both good and bad--he refuses to sit in his booster seat lately and longs after the big kids on the playground trying to jump high on the monkey-bars or go for the tallest slide. He uses a fork and spoon like a pro (most of the time). He can take his coat and shoes off, throws his dishes in the sink and sleeps in a big boy bed.

The hard parts are the flailing screaming tantrums because he's frustrated or God forbid you gave him the wrong snack. Or you put a cap on his Elmo watching. Or maybe he's just tired. Or teething. Or it just feels good to scream. Who knows. He's still torturing Hurley our poor cat and then looks shocked when Hurley finally scratches him.

Food wise he's hit or miss. For whatever reason he usually passes on pizza and toast with peanut butter or cheese which he used to love (although quesadillas are all good), pasta is a hit, as are beans, yogurt, anything fruit (especially "bluebons") and turkey. And now he eats cereal with milk--the kind I like, (the healthy Kashi stuff with soy milk), somehow that just makes me smile. This is combined with asking for "bacon" and loving spam, sausages and barbecue (obviously his father's son). He has been forgoing the veggies lately which he used to enjoy down so who knows. Bottom line we're not worried about Collin starving. Oh and Annie's fruit bunnies might as well be crack. Once I introduced those, he eagerly points to the cabinet several times a day with giddy chants of "buddies, buddies?"

Blue remains his best friend and our portable DVD player is a lifesaver (as are the Elmo movies he watches). Those 25 minutes can save my sanity and allow me to whip up dinner or grab the laundry. Rotting brain be damned.

Collin may be our future engineer. He likes to examine things and figure out how they work (he gets under the ride-on cars like a mechanic), he knows how to open doors, outsmarted the baby gate latch and is starting to figure out zippers.

He also loves "dodos" (the photo album) and points to "Papa, Nona, Mama, Dada, Uncle and baby" I don't think he's quite made the connection the baby = Collin. Toy wise his favorites are his choo choos, balls, his tool set (just like dad) and toy cars. He also loves looking at books and will occasionally have fun with blocks. Dancing is also a hit especially if it involves mom or dad lifting him in the air and spinning him around. He's definitely an energy ball and late this month will hopefully channel that into peewee soccer!

At Purple Moon he plays with his friends, does lots of cool art projects and for the most part is pretty sweet. He'll be moving out of the toddler classroom and into preschool in the fall!

For his birthday he brought cookies to school and I surprised him when I picked him up with a balloon bouquet, singing Elmo balloon included. Collin couldn't figure out where the singing came from but had a huge grin on his face. We went for dinner and beers at Hopworks Brewery (okay he had milk). Despite not eating until nearly 8pm, he was a trooper and happily played, ran around and enjoyed some spaghetti, French fries and a special birthday ice cream sundae! Not a healthy food day to say the least but birthdays are all about hedonism even when you're two, right?!


All in all he's a fun, dramatic, independent, stubborn and happy tot. A year ago he was barely walking and now he's blasting through the world.

Slow down Collin, I can't chase you forever.

At birth:


On his first birthday:



And today:

An almost two-year old!

I've been a bad mommy blogger lately. Figured we were due for some updates.

Collin acts like a typical toddler. He has his bad side: flailing, all out temper tantrums on the floor, hitting and throwing, but the sweetness reigns. Those baby toothed smiles, the two word phrases, (favorites: "Hug momma?") make it hard to stay mad at him for long. He definitely knows how to push limits. I can see why they say toddlers are little teenagers. Absolutely no regard for safety, immortality is a given. He's the kid that will step to the line and put his foot over it just to taunt you.

I'm trying to empathize more, understand the power toddlers want to exhibit when everything else in their world is pretty much powerless. But it almost makes me lose it when he tortures poor Hurley the cat. Luckily the cat is very forgiving.

Collin talks all the time and is due for another sedated hearing test though we want to find out if it's really necessary at this time. I hate the sight of the mask over his face to put him under. Considering he has other hearing evaluations that will tell us how he's responding to sound, it doesn't seem like something we need to rush to do. He repeats practically everything and is at the typical level of communication for his age. It is important to continue to evaluate him and make sure he doesn't lose any hearing in the good ear.

And now for some pictures: