Fourth of July

Hi, Family.

Here are a few pictures of activities here around the Fourth of July.

We had a very nice day together. In the morning, Clay and I went flying to breakfast. We hoped over the Independence - found the restaurant there closed on Monday - so we flew over to Salem and found a great breakfast special. It gave Clay a little practice landing 3 times and navigating a tower controlled airport. Clay said it was largest block of time he had to "play" since the triplets were born.

Courtney and Jason and Logan and Caden came over about noon. We put up a net and played a little badminton. Logan is getting very skilled riding the "Laufrad" - the walkbike - all over the place. Skye and Jared and Christine and Dzenick and Bryce joined us for a great dinner. I loved the colors and textures of the food and so, contrary to all expectations, I took some pictures of it. Jared was the barbecue chef and did us proud with the steaks.

Logan and Caden and I made pies. We made a rhubarb pie and an apple/marionberry pie. Logan stood next to me and made a rhubarb pie of his own. With a little help from Grampa, he did everything himself and I think it turned out pretty well. Caden helped pick the extra dough off edges of the pie shells.

In the evening, Skye and Jared took Kaaren and me and Christine and Dzenick boating on the Willamette. We motored down the Willamette to the Portland waterfront fireworks display, but not without some educational adventures along the way. First, unbeknownst to us, the bilge drain plug wasn't in place when we left. After a few minutes I notice about 3 inches of water around me feet - and rising. We made it back to the dock and quickly got the trailer in place to receive the boat only just barely before the boat was too deep in the water to load and drain it. We watched it drain for a long, long time and felt very lucky and returned to the river. Once we got anchored beneath the I-5 bridge, the navigation and night lights wouldn't come on. Also the engine wouldn't start at all. Some very unlikely looking fellows in an adjacent boat offered their help - starting with the time-honored maxim - start with simple things; check for a bad connection. That was the problem. The boat has been sitting for a long time and the starter motor connections were pretty corroded. With a well placed screwdriver, one of them was able to connect the power line to the solenoid and start the engine. We were saved and made some friends that followed us after the fireworks display down the river. Our fuel ran too low to make it back, but we found a marina with an emergency service boat willing to sell us gas - usually a $20 fee for 5 gallons but we could only come up with 13 dollars and a british 5 pound note (mine, of course). He wasn't interested in the british pound ("what would I ever do with that?"), so we got our gas. We arrived at the Cedar Oak dock in West Linn about midnight. Then my car quit (occasional electrical failure) twice on the way up the hill.

But the company was good, the firewords were good and we never lacked for entertainment the whole evening.

This last weekend, some of you saw the awesome Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband performance. I drove up to the Barlow Trail - the Oregon Pioneer Trail on the east side of Mt. Hood to help Skye with the campfire program. I wrote about that already to my Mom and send a copy to you, I think, so I'll spare you the details.

Today, Bryce and Clayton and Courtney and Kaaren and I sang "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee" for the Lakeridge Ward. They meet in our building. I was struck by how small the ward is and how few children and how many mature couples there are. Signs of a community with escalating housing prices that tend to exclude young families, and declining ward populations. How very different from the Tigard and Tualatin and Oregon City wards. Our West Linn ward is large with many children, but I believe that will change because new homes in this community are starting at $600,000. What family can afford that?

It has been raining the past few days. It is refreshing and we are glad the heat is not here and our gardens and lawn are surviving, though it may come later this week.

Enough for now,

love,

Dad

PS Will someone please help me with a blog or something where I can post these pictures rather then email them all?