The Game of Life

I played Life with Charlote while in Pittsburgh last week and was struck by the amazing/true/misguided/brilliant/insightful/horrifying things that this game teaches our youth about "life".

-spin a wheel and draw a card to decide your career (is it really that random?)

-choose go to college and make more money or end up with vocational job (vocational work isn't so bad, nor is it certain you'll make the big bucks these days with a college education)

-stop at the stop sign to get married (this is a requirement?)

- choose between the family path or the career path (must one choose?)

-land on a spot and sue your opponents for 100,000$ each (let's teach them to show no mercy!)

-buy your dream home, which can only be a mansion, luxury apartment, cape style house, or a delux trailer (bigger is always better, apparently...)

-retire happily in a huge mansion if you are the player with the most money at the end (money=happiness, clearly)

Naturally, I won the game but it was close. It came down to a 20,000$ difference in our final "salaries", so I decided to teach Charlotte a lesson about coming out on top: I gave her 10,000$ so we could both win the game of life and retire happily in the mansion together. 

"See?" I told her, "It doesn't really matter who has the most money. We can still retire together and be happy just hanging out". 

I'm not quite sure the point was made.

Just a Little Camping Trip

I'm beginning to feel a bit like Jack Kerouac as its been well over a week since I've been "home", which at this point "what really is home?" since I'm moving in 2 weeks.

Upon returning to Oregon, Jason, Nate, Chloe and I set out on a little weekend camping adventure at Timothy Lake, near Mt. Hood.

Timothy Lake

Our Tent and Jason: we've got camping down at this point. Our little tent, our blow-up camping pads, and our double flannel sleeping back make sleeping a tent muy enjoyable.

A selfie, a tent, a walking stick

Jason carving sticks for smores

Sunset on Timothy Lake

Pretty Colors

Nate and Jason play ukulele by lantern light

Burnt mallow

We did a nice little 6 mile hike in the Mt. Hood wilderness area on Elk Meadows Trail

Pretty hike scenery

The crew

Me on a bridge

Dangerous crossing!

Don't fall in, Chloe!

Little Crater Lake

Quesadilla game on fleek

Sleeping good in the tent

Breakfast Tacos!

I Can Make Pretzels

And that is all.

Nieces and Nephews

I am an only child, which means I have to make my own sisters or inherit cool sister-in-laws from my hubby (hi, Jessica!). Of my grow your own sisters, only Alex has given me nieces and nephews thus far. Despite the fact that one of them is a caterpillar larva, one is a tiny, hellacious minion, and the other is a tweener, they're pretty cool and I love them.

This one is Phoebe, she already likes to be read to by her Auntie Blaine, which is a plus. She also likes to say "No!" to just about everything else. I think I know now why they call it the terrible twos.

This is Max. He's a chill little guy. He's either doing this, eating, or sleeping.

 Max has cute smiles, and acid reflux.

And this is Charlotte, my original niece, who is now oh-my-god-how-can-it-be-we-are-so-old 11. Every time I see Charlotte, it's like she gets cooler and cooler. I can't wait till she's able to drink wine and laugh with me...legally, of course.

When it comes to Charlotte, I got things on lockdown. We can pretty much have intelligent conversations, play games, and be silly. But with the other two, it's a little trickier. They pretty much just sit there and stare or scream "No!" at you.  At this point, I think the only thing they are good for is taking selfies:

Marissa!

Marissa was here (or there, rather, because I am not in Oregon right now. I am in Pittsburgh; and more on that later) a couple of weeks ago and we had some good times exploring and laughing and generally having a good time.

Road Trip to Mt. Rainer Wilderness

Camping at White River

Marissa and some mountains

Me and Mt. Ranier

Yay!

Oh, no big deal, just a mountain and an alpine lake with a reflection of a mountain glacier in it

Animal tracks! Do you see them?
I'm thinking big cat or baby bear.

Such a beautiful time at Mt. Ranier- the wildflowers were popping' off!

Cheesin'

A baby alpine tree

I held my first chicken that week too.

We also went to the coast! I love little day trips to the ocean.
 However, I am thoroughly terrified to return to the coast any time soon before I leave OR, due to the recent New Yorker article that details the natural disaster predicted to devastate the Pacific Northwest sometime in the next 10-30 years.

Love these guys

Our little family 

Marissa and I also took a day to go wine tasting! We are quite fabulous

What a treat!

Not pictured: laughing, drinking, eating, a Eugene  butte hike, coffee, impressions, and a little trip to see Magic Mike XXL.