Juliet's birthday and Georgie's Pinocchio play

In late July 2018, Nann, Craig, and Reese flew out to visit us in Oregon. Georgie had the role of the villain Stromboli in the production of My Son Pinocchio at the Majestic theater, and Juliet had an 8th birthday to celebrate. We took them to the Basement, the game room of the OSU student union building. During the summer it is a great place to escape the heat and have some fun.

Isaac and Papa shootin' some pool.

This is one of the more unusual air hockey tables I had ever seen. Each of the four players has a goal that they defend. Rather than scoring points yourself, every time someone else scores on your goal, you lose a point, and once you lose five points you're out. The game continues until there is only one player left. It's a fun King of the Mountain twist.

I love the looks of concentration on their faces.

After billiards, air hockey, and bowling, we headed to an early dinner at McMenamin's, a NW chain of Irish pub restaurants. Apparently the original has a beautiful hotel on the property.

Reese and Gaga

Ashley and Isaac

After dinner we had planned on parking closer to the theater, but the van wouldn't start! Luckily, we had plenty of time to walk to the theater before the performance. Thank goodness for small towns. In fact, we had forgotten to buy Georgie flowers, so I ran back to the van, which started (!), bought flowers at the Co-op, and then parked close to the theater.

This isn't actually a shot from the play, it is a staged photo that ran in the local paper. Georgie had wanted the part of the Blue Fairy (on the left), but she was perfect as the evil Stromboli, who abducted Pinocchio and tried to make money off of him, a la P.T. Barnum.

Here she is after the show. Those are some serious eyebrows.

Some fellow cast members. Pinocchio was a good friend also named Reese, and la Professora Buonragazza (in green) is a friend named Sara. Great story from after the play: as we were pulling away, Georgie saw Sara on the sidewalk and wanted to say hi/bye. Problem was, Georgie was in the way back and Isaac was sitting by the open window facing Sara. She yelled out, "Hi, Sara!" Sara turned and made and eye contact with Isaac, who is a grade ahead of Sara at school and broke eye contact as fast as he could. It was embarrassing for the two of them but hilarious for all other passengers in the van.

The next day we had Juliet's birthday party at the house. We invited friends from school, soccer, and one lonely boy whose parents are our friends. Ashley bought several cans of cheap shaving cream and we pulled out my old T-shirts so the kids could have a huge shaving cream fight.

Early on, before the glasses came off.

Getting more serious now. In the blue on the left is Eli, the lone male. Thankfully, he is already kind of girl crazy and didn't mind spending the day with bunch of females.

Kayleigh and Brennan from school.

Juliet with Katie, from soccer.

The birthday girl!

It was inevitable that they would end up on the trampoline.

Georgie is bodily expressing how we all felt after the party.

The next day was Juliet's actual birthday, July 29th, and we spent it with the family in pursuit of the ideal swimming hole.

This one comes pretty close. A covered bridge passes over it and the water is very still with no current to speak of. It was warmer than the other one we briefly stopped at, but not warm enough for Ashley to get in.

Goofing off in the water

I took Naxi out into the middle and made her swim back. She is a good swimmer and doesn't mind running and jumping in the water, but hates being so deep that she has to swim.

The Petteys at the covered bridge.

After some good days off I had to go back to my livelihood, so the Petteys went to Suttle Lake Lodge in the Cascade mountains. It is just a few minutes from our local ski resort, Hoodoo, and reminded Ashley of the resort from Dirty Dancing.

I wasn't there and I used some of these pictures in the post about Liz's visit, but they are just too good to not include and comment on. This is the main lodge.

Naxi heading towards the girls on the dock

This photo of Juliet is outstanding. The pose, the facial expression, the hair, the romper. Just perfect.

Isaac provides a nice contrast. But still, a lovely place to eat breakfast with Gaga.

Papa and Reese

Playing corn hole, one of the highlights of the lodge. The mountain in the background is Hoodoo.

Not sure if this is an artistic shot or a selfie botched by the wind.

Having ice cream in the twilight at a great resort by the lake with your cousin. Can life get better?

Yes! Having ice cream in the twilight at a great resort by the lake with your cousin and your dog!

Aunt Ashley and Niece Reese

The lounge in the main lodge with a record player, vinyl albums, games, a fire place, and pets welcome.

The main doors, hand carved

Isaac reluctantly joins

Ashley framed that previous photo perfectly, but when you hand the camera over to a stranger to get a shot of the whole group, you end up with a lot of "empty space", as my dad would say. Let's fix that:

Much better!

Liz visits us in Oregon

In early August 2018 Liz flew out from Atlanta to visit us in Oregon. We hadn't seen Liz in over six years since we met up with her in Dallas in spring 2012 before we left for Italy. We did our best to show her an Ore-good time. ☺

One of our first outing was to the Oregon coast. We drove to Florence and rented sandboards for the dunes. Instead of going to the Honeyman State Park again, we drove to a spot Isaac had showed us just across the highway from the Scout camp. We hiked up the sand and found some good hills with the right pitch.

Here is Liz with a board and Georgie with Naxi

Here I am boarding down the hill with Naxi in hot pursuit

After boarding for a while, we headed north up the coast to the Cape Perpetua area, reportedly the most beautiful section of the Oregon Coast.

 Liz, Juliet, and I at one of the lookouts along the side of the highway

This is the place I had been looking for on the drive. It is the Heceta Lighthouse between Florence and Yachats. I remembered stopping here and taking a picture of the Lighthouse on our EB Trek in July 2001.

This is the picture we took in 2001.

And this is what it looks like today.

Juliet at the lighthouse

Family picture at the lighthouse

We then drove to the State Park beach below the lighthouse and hung out for a while. Here is Isaac with Naxi.

Georgie practicing her handstands, which she uses to then flop her feet over and work on her contortionist moves.

 And here is Juliet writing "❤ u mom and dad" in the sand. Hard to not have a favorite.

We then headed father north to eat fish and chips at the South Beach Fish Market, our favorite place to eat in Newport. We went to our favorite playground with the Supernova for some friendly King of the Hill competition, had fun hanging out on Nye Beach, and then walked to BJ's Ice Cream for some decadence. While we were eating ice cream, some kids were standing on a balcony across the street and yelling at the patrons outside. They weren't being rude, just annoying, as in "Hey you in the blue jacket, look up here!" It was harmless at first, then obnoxious after several minutes. As we got in the car to drive away, I rolled down the window and yelled, "Where are your parents, you mongrels?!"

Our next adventure was to Suttle Lake Lodge in the Cascade mountain range near our local ski resort Hoodoo. Ashley had been here with her parents shortly before and loved it. I didn't take many pictures so some of these are from the previous trip. Such a great place whose only downside is the price!

Here are Juliet, Isaac, Ashley, Georgie, and Liz on the lake. Motorized craft are allowed but there is a huge no-wake zone where it is very safe to swim, kayak, paddle board, etc.

Juliet on the lake.

Juliet in the kayak and Isaac on the paddle board. The mountain in the left background is part of Hoodoo Ski Resort.

Naxi on the dock.

This is obviously from the other trip, but it is a great picture of the main lodge. This place reminded us of the resort from Dirty Dancing. Like stepping back in time.

Also from the other trip, but Isaac and I played a boat load of corn hole.

This is the lounge. It has an old record player with numerous vinyl albums, a large game table and a decent stock of board and card games, a slightly overpriced but well-stocked bar, and dogs are allowed. We were all gathered around playing Heads Up when the owner walked by and gushed, "This is what I had envisioned when I bought and renovated this place! Families playing games together and having a great time!"

These are the front doors of the lodge, hand carved by an artist. It is very three dimensional and impressive. The only flaw is that the chest muscles of the First National on the right look like woman's breasts from a distance!

It was great to have Liz come visit us. A lot had changed in six years, not least of which was the fact that Isaac was the same age as Juliet is now. It felt good to reconnect and start forming new memories with Aunt Liz. We'll have to make sure that it doesn't take another six years to get together again.