Hitting the Summer Stride

Yesterday was a really great Sunday - I was actually struck mid-day with the realization that we were heading toward a near-perfect day according to my personal perfect day criteria. I didn't say anything to keep from jinxing it midway through...

We all woke up early and decided to head out for breakfast, but being weary of the Kountry Cafe, we set out for a slightly more cultured (table cloths) yet laid-back (Hawthorne) breakfast at Bread and Ink Cafe in Portland. We got there minutes after they opened, so we had most of the restaurant to ourselves. The high potential for the day became obvious when the next table to sit down was a couple with FOUR kids, thus reducing any noise or commotion that my two little angels might produce to a mere buzz in the ear of other patrons. Maggie had perhaps the best Belgian waffles that I have ever tasted, and I got to eat a good amount of them because they were served with a heaping portion of whipped cream, and since said whipped cream was on her plate, I had a hard time convincing her that the waffles were the main point of the meal...

After breakfast, we parked at the corner of 37th and SE Stark in the shade of a tree next to my old apartment and crossed the street to Laurelhurst Park to play for a bit. The girls liked the playground, and especially enjoyed communing with the ducks and dogs. Ellie "entertained" countless passers-by by talking with the ducks. It went like this: She'd get a little too close to a duck. The duck would quack, "Get away from me, you little cretin!" Ellie would think he was saying, "Hi, my name is Mac. What's yours?" To which Ellie would shout, "WACK! WACK! WACK!" until the duck hopped in the pond and swam away.

After the park, Jay suggested that we go to Portland Nursery to look for bean plants. The Meager Garden has three bean plants that are all doing fabulously well, but once it became clear that they were thriving, I remembered that the joy of having bean plants in the first place is getting to pick and eat lots of beans. Three plants, no matter how fabulous, aren't going to cut it. So, Saturday, I drove around Clark County looking for bean starts to no avail. But, Portland Nursery is a place like none other, and I was able to successfully score 5 new 4" pots, each with 3 starts, thereby boosting our potential bean production exponentially - right when I was about to give up on finding any.

All that activity, and it was still only 10 in the morning. When we got home, the weather was sunny and hot, and Jay was able to spend some time with Ric's tractor mowing the "front 40" in preparation for a year-round path he wants to create out to the tall trees (and future camping spot) in the front of the yard. The girls were fascinated by the activity - Girls love guys on tractors, after all.

We had decided that we wanted the girls to take early naps, so I gave them popsicles because popsicles drip on small children which easily leads to a quick shower to clean off, and showers easily segue into naptime. (And I thought my implication analysis skills had disappeared during my first pregnancy...) Early naptime accomplished, we were able to get the girls up and out in time to go to the English Estate Winery next to the giant gravel pit right in Vancouver. They were having an "Art and Wine" weekend, and we've always been a little curious about what they're doing out there. We got a couple of bottles of wine and headed out just as Ellie completely lost it because she had to leave the horsie swing that had become her new favorite thing in the universe. (Picture Jay carrying her off as she screamed, "NOOOO, HOOORRRRRRRRRRRRSIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!!!!! HORRRRSSIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!)

Yummy dinner together. Hot day turned into a cool evening. Jay put the kids to bed while I planted the new bean plants. Then, a few last words in the Sunday crossword before bed, and voila: great day.