Rustler's ride

We didn't go mountain biking for almost a month.

There were several reasons for this: a weekend of camping with a bunch of Chris's relatives, a trip to Oregon the next weekend for a wedding, then two weekends and the week between taken up by the rehearsal schedule for a show that Chris was in... On top of all that, it was beastly hot here with a couple weeks of highs over 100 degrees, so even when we could string together a couple of spare hours, we were too busy laying under the ceiling fan panting and sweating and complaining to load up our bikes.

Last weekend we took our boy, our bikes and the camping gear and headed up. We went to the Uncompaghre Plateau and at about 8500 feet found relief from the heat amidst the ponderosas, aspens, and wildflowers. Chris coaxed our ancient, 2WD, little pickup along a rocky rugged jeep road to a secluded campsite. From there he and I took turns biking the dirt roads and hanging out with Cailan. It was great fun until the huge thunderstorm rolled in Sunday morning while I was biking to a high exposed overlook. Chris managed to get the tent down and the truck loaded by the time I returned to the campsite; he was fueled in his hurry by visions of the road we drove in on disappearing under torrents of reddish-brown water in a flash flood. Thanks to his speed we were almost done driving the scary road when the deluge hit us.

So the no-bike spell was broken, as was the weather. It has been notably cooler this week - it's still hot, to be sure, but we're no longer eyeing each other warily for signs of spontaneous combustion. Yesterday it didn't even get above 90, so we went out to Rustler's Loop after work. Chris and Utah took the first lap while Cailan and I hung out, throwing rocks and practicing our outdoor-peeing skills. Then I took a turn (Utah always gets two turns), and Cailan showed Chris how he can line rocks up in order from biggest to smallest. When I got back to the parking lot, there was still time for Chris to get in another lap, but Utah was getting hot and tired so he had to sit out on that one.

I got an old green towel out of the Subaru and spread it out on the ground. Cailan and I pretended this was space, and we made several solar systems out of rocks. It was easy to find Mercury and Pluto, and even Earth, in the gravel parking area, but Jupiter was a bit more challenging. Cailan would stand still, scanning the area until his saw a likely target. Then he'd run over to it and return slowly, carrying the biggest rock he could possibly lift to be Jupiter.

When Chris got back, we started loading up the car. I moved the rock planets off the towel, shook it out, but left it in a heap while I put some other things in the car. Cailan saw it there and said "Can you please make space more flat again?"

We had dinner at Chipotle on the way home. I love the evenings when we do this - it feels a bit like playing hooky to abdicate all our chores, cooking dinner and cleaning up, to enjoy an evening outside exercising and playing together.

After dinner

This is the story that Cailan told us after dinner:

There is a big building. It has elephants in it. It also has hippopotamuses in it. And it has rhinoceroses in it too.

There is a special place in the building that has some bamboo in it. This is what the elephants will eat.

There is a special place in the building that has... there is a place with... what do hippopotamuses eat? It has some pumpkins in it for the hippopotamuses to eat.

And there is a special place in the building that has rhinoceros food, for the rhinoceroses to eat. The food comes in a rhinoceros.

At the back of the building you might hear a loud noise. RAWRRR! There is a tyrannosaurus rex at the back of the building. There is a special place for its food, and there is a dinosaur that is already dead in it. It is a mamenchisaurus. It will take the tyrannosaurus a very long time to eat the neck of the mamenchisaurus.

You can see a little bit, a little bit of the skin of an animal. It's a big animal. It's a bear, a big black bear. The bear is in a dark cave at the back of the building and you can see a little bit of the skin of the bear. There is a special place in the building and they put fish in it. The bear will eat the fish for its food.

The building is painted in all colors. They painted it with all colors that are mixed together so it's brown. The building is brown becuase it has all the colors mixed together.

You can see a little bit of color in the building. It's a big animal. It is a big cow, and it's in a barn. The barn is inside the building.

In the front of the building there is a big animal. It does not make any noise. It is a dinohyus.


On the outside of the building is a giant animal. It is a big dog. It is a gigantic dog, a great big white dog. It is the biggest dog I ever saw, and they are taking it for a walk. They are taking it for a walk outside of the building.

There is an ocean in the building. There are fish in it and sharks.

There are hippopotamuses in the building. There is a hippopotamus, and next to it there is the skeleton of a hippopotumus. There is a cow, and next to it is the skeleton of a cow.

There is a bathroom in the building, just in case. There is a bathroom, in case you need to go to the bathroom. It has a bath tub in it. The bathroom has a bath tub so someone can take a bath.

There is another building. This building has a chicken in it. There is a special part of the building where the chicken can lay its eggs. That is in the second building.

Through the second building, you can see there's another building. The third building has lots of animals in it like the first building. There is a rhinoceros. There is a map in the third building to show where the rhinoceros is.

There is another tyrannosaurus rex in the third building. There is a map to show where the tyrannosaurus is.

There is a thing walking around on two feet. It has a big mouth, little arms, a long tail, a big body, and a big head. It's an allosaurus.

There are other things in the building that I haven't said yet. There is something that is on the floor. Something is running around on the floor. It's a mouse.

There is another dinohyus in this building. It's like a warthog.

A Trip to Portland

After a relatively slow June, July promises to be a bit more chaotic. We begin with a big trip to Portland for the Wedding of two of my former students, Cameron and Alyssa. Alyssa was also Cailan's nanny for several months right after Heather started working again. Cameron and Alyssa asked us to speak at the wedding and asked Cailan to be the ring bearer, so we all had jobs to prepare for. Since it was going to be a big trip, we planned a couple of extra days to have some fun. We started off with a trip to the zoo!



Much of the zoo was under construction, Cailan was exhausted and it was about 95 degrees - but we had a good time anyhow.

Next on the agenda: the beach!


Cailan is really into throwing rocks into water right now, so this was great - until a big wave splashed him... after a few tears, he recovered enough to explore and play in the sand.(Last year he didn't want to touch the sand, so we feel pretty good about this) Here are Heather and Cailan sitting on a beached ankylosaurus:


The wedding was actually near McMinnville, which is known for farms and wineries. Heather found us a place to stay that was a bit more interesting than the Best Western: the Gahr Farm. Basically it's a farm that is being returned to natural habitat, including adding some ponds for endangered frogs.


It was a very peaceful place with beautiful views.



The cabin was built to be very eco-friendly - using construction and materials to make it more thermally efficient. This probably would have worked great if we hadn't been in the middle of a heat wave. As it was, it was quite chilly in the mornings, hot during the day and great in the evenings. Cailan had a great time learning about seeds and plants.



The cabin had two bedrooms and Heather's former boss and his wife from Tacoma (Randy and Valerie) came down to visit and play with Cailan.

We failed to get any actual pictures of the wedding. We were busy and then suddenly stricken with a mystery stomach virus that laid Heather out and left Cailan and I pretty worn out. End story: they got married. We recovered enough to have cake and go to several wineries the next day. We got home more tired than we left though.