The Great Outdoors

Nothing like a father-son camping trip. Three days, two nights at South Whidbey Island State Park.

Spider dogs



A new pie iron


Building sand castles


Playing on the beach


Lunch on the ferry ride home

Please stop calling me Surly

With the high price of gas, I am always trying to think of alternatives to using the car. Today's idea: Use the bike trailer and take the boys to the post office to mail a package. What fun this will be I thought, the outdoors, pedaling through the neighborhood, a quick stop at the post office and then off to a nearby playground. The reality: The boys are kind of surly. Every time I looked back to check on them, neither of them looked like they were having much fun and at one point, I got a "Could you please slow down?" In my defense, that was going downhill and there were a couple of bumpy spots. Of course, not until we were loading up for the trip home did I notice the top line on the warnings printed on the seat of the trailer: Not intended for infants under 18 months. That might explain why RTR wasn't having a good time... he doesn't have the physical ability to stop from slumping over in the canvas seat. Also, he's got a bad bike helmet. CSR's problem... he's probably too big for the trailer. Too big, too tiny, too surly. They were both glad when we got home.

Here Comes the Sun

Finally, some sunshine! It feels like it's been months since we've had a warm, sunny day. We went to Carkeek Park for RTR's latest photo session with our favorite ace photographer Mimi. Here's a look at our boys playing at the beach afterward. These are my pictures, not Mimi's.


RTR did pretty well, only sampling the rocks and not eating any of the sand.