We're back...sort of

Hi friends,

So sorry for the long time since the last post. All our pictures are stuck on a computer that has not had internet access, and then it is a big project to fix it. But, we got iPhones for Christmas, and so I have a few pictures we took of the festivities...so here is an interim post, until we can get some of the back pictures moved to the laptop...

Mateo got to carry up a lamb as part of the nativity scene at church. I was in the back with him, so worried that he wouldn't follow the directions, that he would stop when he saw Matt, that he would get to the front of the church and then not want to hand over the lamb. All my worries were for naught, he did exactly as he was supposed to--and by several accounts was the cutest boy in the whole procession!

Cousin Tegan also has an iPhone and took this picture of Mateo and Uncle Dan. Mateo is wearing a shirt from Tegan with "Everyone Poops", while reading a pop-up snowman book from our friends Robin & Jill.

Tia LaLa made this coat and hat for Mateo last year, and it fits way better this year!! Notice the special jingle bell adornment...he didn't want to take off the hat for anything!

We learned from our friends Jim and Marnie that a noble fir that is untrimmed, looks so nice. So we went in search of one just like their...we were in luck when we found out that our vegetable co-op supplier had trees just as we wished for. This was the before picture...no after picture, because it took all day for Mateo to open his presents and then it was too dark for a pic!! He wanted to open it, play with one, have someone play with him, then onto the next one.

And the Christmas morning spread...always more to eat than time to eat it. One of the few times, I rejoice in having cookies for breakfast. Warm wishes from Oregon where it has been snowy for days, but finally, is warm enough that our street is open for the first time in more than two weeks. We love you...more posts soon, I promise.

Hugs from Oregon, Sarah & boys

California Dreamin'

Early this October, Matt and Mateo had a chance to go to their first football game together in San Francisco. Matt's been a long-suffering Patriots fan (since 1973!) and has found the last 7 years most gratifying. (Notably, the week after I first saw my good luck charm Sarah at a Boise State game, Tom Brady stepped into the starting New England QB slot, and the team's run to their first Superbowl began - can there be any greater sign that we were meant to be?!!) Pre-child, we'd done our best to get to a Patriots game each year. But we'd taken a pass for the last few years, until the vagaries of schedule put the team out on the west coast for 4 games this season, not to return for several years. So we decided try for Seattle tickets (eventually proved unavailable, due to the Ticketmaster/Seahawks legal scalping racket - Don't get me started!), and added on a trip to the bay area. Sarah's Dad's family is from Sacramento, and are still scattered around central California. We decided it would be a great chance for Mateo and family to see each other - and Mateo got to see his first football game with his Papa, who came down from Idaho for the trip, and Sarah's Aunt Cathy, as devoted and eternal a 49er's fan as Matt is for the Patriots.
We flew into Sacramento, where visited with Sarah's grandparents, Don and Pat, and her Aunt Marcia and husband Klaus. Above, Mateo puts himself in the picture at the Sacramento Zoo. I think we've tried to pose in half a dozen of these things before; This is the first time he really got it.


We picked up Mike in Sacramento, and he had a great outing with the grandson. Mateo had changed so much since the last time, and he loved the zoo and the chance to play with Papa.


Mateo was still in an animal watching mood once we got to Marsha and Klaus's, and he spent a lot of time in front of their tank, staring at the fish (and experimenting with turning on and off the lights and pumps!)

We found this little frog curled up underneath a patio lounger cushion at Marsha and Klaus's. Mateo spent ages just quietly observing it, and then we let it go in the garden.


Mateo with Auntie Marsha and Uncle Klaus. We had a wonderful visit there, great food and company, and talking into the night. Their home is on a golf course, and like many of the residents, they have a golf cart that's used to tool around the development (they don't golf, but it came with the house) Mateo really loved riding around in it, and he even got to drive.

Silverton Murals, part III

Silverton's Favorite Son

Three of our town's murals are directly or indirectly related to Silverton's most famous resident.  At the turn of the century, America's most influential political cartoonist was Homer Davenport. And his legacy is remembered in the town's annual festival, "Homer Davenport Days". Working at the Hearst papers, he helped expose some of the great scandals of the day, covered presidential elections and the sinking of the Titanic , and was so popular and  valued that he was for a time paid as much as the US president.  Ultimately, Davenport’s work became so well recognized for skewering political figures he considered corrupt, that his opponents attempted to pass a law banning political cartoons. The bill, introduced in the New York State Senate with the prodding of U.S. Senator Thomas Platt ,did not pass, but the effort inspired Davenport to create one of his most famous works: “No Honest Man Need Fear Cartoons." shown above. Behind Platt is Boss Tweed, exposed in the Tammany Hall scandals a generation earlier by Thomas Nast, an inspiration of both Davenport and his mother, who became enamored of the cartoonist's work while pregnant with Homer, and resolved that her son would follow in the man's footsteps.

His memoir "The Country Boy", though poorly circulated, was compared to Twain's as americana. And he remained a simple country boy at heart, though he became a close friend of William Randolph Hearst and made his career in cities like Portland, San Francisco and New York. It is perhaps his yearning for his Willamette Valley roots that endears him to his hometown as much as does his fame.

Davenport is remembered not just by political cartoons in American History books, but also by horse enthusiasts, as he brought some of the first Arabian Horses to the United States via a "Lawrence of Arabia"-worthy adventure to the middle east. But that story's for another day (and blog, as it has its own mural.)

Davenport was an enthusiastic supporter of  Teddy Roosevelt and left the Hearst Papers for a time to support his campaign. The party considered him worth $1000 a week ( in 1904!), and then spent $200,000 to circulate the cartoon of Uncle Sam endorsing T.R. below, considered the largest vote-getting cartoon in the history of American Politics.

Mateo and I recently got back from a trip to central California, Sarah's family's ancestral homeland and the location of Mateo's first Patriots Game! We'll chronicle the adventure in the next couple of blogs....

Wild Things and Mountain Peaks

"...And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws."

That's Sarah's cousin Matt below reading "where the wild things are" with Mateo, who loves to act out the scene quoted above. (including material from the recently discovered first draft, where Sendak wrote "...and stuck out their terrible tongues!"). Mateo loves all of Maurice Sendak's books, especially this one and "In the Night Kitchen". There are plans afoot to get him into Max's wolf costume for halloween. We'd like get a "wild thing" costume for Dad, but perhaps if he just doesn't trim his hair or beard before then, it'll do.

Matt's back for his second year in the seminary at Mount Angel. We're glad to be able to be an oasis of family in a foreign land (hey, he's from California!) When his studies allow, we have him over for dinner (or to do his laundry) and he's been a great help to the other Matt in house projects - and mateo has a ball with him!

Nona had been wanting to visit Timberline lodge on Mount Hood for a while, so we took the opportunity on a sunny September day. It rises just south of the Columbia River Gorge, and is a couple hours northeast of us on back roads. Hood is one of several dormant volcanos in the Cascade range, and a big skiing destination. In fact behind them above you can see the glacier that is groomed year-round to allow summer skiing. This is about the most uncovered you'll see Hood, at the end of the summer melt and before high altitude snow starts. For a winter view, check this travelogue page (Hood Facts)
Timberline Lodge was built by the WPA (and is aptly named, as you can see from the last scattering of trees at the timberline behind Nona and Mateo) and has the kind of incredible construction and craftmanship you only see in that depression era agency's projects, when everyone from unskilled laborers to artists and architects came to the same place to get work in hard times.
We took the long way home, heading up the Hood River Valley east of the mountain, to the Gorge and back into Portland. The valley is orchard central for Oregon, and has been since shortly after pioneers arrived. It was a good time to take advantage of the apple and pear harvests, and we hit a number the stands and farms on the hood river "Fruit Loop" picking up lots of uncommon varieties of both on the cheap.

A Weekend of Fests

Mt. Angel Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest has come around once again, and we got to host friends for the festival. (Hint: you're all invited to come visit for an Oktoberfest sometime) We volunteered at our congregation's Knights of Columbus sausage booth...where you can get one on a bun with kraut or without and one on a stick if you are just serious about in-taking protein.

The Glockenspiel is a cuckoo-clock like timepiece with life-sized moving figures: Monks, Handsel-and-Gretel-dressed kids, Medievel artisans.


Matt & I at a table in Alpine Garten with my dear friend Melissa and her friend Angelina. Angelina lives in Kellogg and came to visit Melissa for the weekend but agreed to spend part of it with us at O-Fest...we've assured her that she is welcome to come back any year, with our without Melissa.


And they weren't even drunk!

Welcome to the Shrewsbury Faire, M'Lords and Ladies!

Shrewsbury Faire is a Renaissance festival outside of Philomath, OR



Mateo really hit it off with Diana & Whitney Hardin (daughter's of Sarah's old Corrections friend, Paul)

...here they're observing a grasshopper that Whitney caught.

Below is the video of an antler parade...yet another experience that Sarah thought she would never partake in...but we had a Ye Olde Time...

Love from Oregon, Sarah & boys (check out the post below...it's new too)

First Camping Trip as a Family!

So on Labor Day weekend, we went trekking with our friends, Miranda, Eric & Sage Traeger. I finally agreed to sleep on the ground, so we went camping to a place where Eric spent lots of time in his early days...the 4 inch memory foam mattress from Costco made it so pleasant, I think we will go again...plus Mateo had so much fun playing with Sage on the hammock...higher 'Uncle' Eric, higher...

At the headwaters of the Metolius River, with Mount Jefferson in the background. Mateo loves his Baby Carrier (Oops, that's 'Big Boy' carrier.) Straps may prevent low back injury, but also make for less than pleasant picture taking...

Tired out at the end of a long day! How I miss the days when he would crawl into my arms first thing...it doesn't happen often, but when it does, it is amazing!

When it's time to pack up, Mateo lends a hand

Mateo, Sage, Matt, Miranda and Eric feeding fish at the hatchery. Mateo loved putting quarters in the fishfood dispenser as much as feeding the fish.

Thanks to our friends for showing us how much fun the great outdoors can be!!

Love, Sarah & the boys...

The Silverton Murals, Part II

The Gallon House Bridge

Oregon has the largest collection of covered bridges in the northwest and one of the largest in the country. The tradition began in the 1850's when pioneers began using the local Douglas Firs to build the spans along with the enclosures above them that dramatically increased their useful lifetimes.
The Abiqua Creek Bridge was built in 1916 over that stream northwest of town. (for the engineers out there, it's a Howe truss structure, like most of the covered bridges here.) It survived a flood in 1964 that knocked it off its supports as well as a few restorations, some poor and some (like the most recent) that returned it to pristine condition. But it was "white lightning" that gave the bridge the history that made it mural-worthy.
Back then Silverton was a dry town, but Mount Angel to the north was 'wet' - and the Abiqua was the dividing line between districts. It didn't take long for the bridge to become an illicit distribution point for liquor. Gallons of whiskey from a distillery in Mount Angel would be left at a blind drop at the north end of the bridge. And thus the "Gallon House Bridge" was born. The practice continued with moonshine when Prohibition made the whole country dry in 1920.
That's Mateo with the mural above and again at the bridge itself below. We sometimes detour through it on our way back from his twice-weekly morning daycare.

In the detail below, and a poem (second picture below) the mural envisions the bridge "in days gone by" as more than just a locale for the illicit exchange of moonshine, but also a place for a picnic and a stolen kiss.



And there's Mateo still wielding his little camera below. It's still the only way to get him to sit still for staged photos. He's okay as long as he gets a turn to shutterbug first before posing for our shots. I'm convinced he's going to be a celebrity someday, as he's already prepared for the paparazzi ("No pictures!") The final photo is one of his better compositions.




Appropriately, Mount Angel still serves as a symbol of liquid cheer for Silverton, the Willamette Valley and Portland, as this very weekend the town will host an Oktoberfest that's the 'largest folk/harvest festival in the northwest'. Mount Angel is home to a large Bavarian population, German restaurants, a sausage company, an Abbey full of monks, a traditional Glockenspiel clock with life-sized moving figures, and a few thousand residents. But for four days, an extra 350,000 people will come to celebrate. We'll be bringing some friends from out of town, and volunteering for a shift at our church's Knights of Columbus bratwurst booth. Expect to see a detailed report in an upcoming blog. I myself will be doing some extensive research, involving a 14-ounce plastic cup and an oompa band....

Can it possibly football time already??

Mateo has been having a great summer...he's taken to practicing being a defensive line guy...or perhaps a center! Matt and Mateo are going to California in October to see the Patriots play the 49ers...it will be a great trip because Papa will fly to meet them, so there will be some good bonding time.

Matt had to make sure that Mateo would be appropriately outfitted, so he found a "sale" on a sweatsuit when he ordered the Patriots Media Guide (did you even know there was such a thing as a Media Guide and that members of the general public who aren't media purchase it...it is really just a trick to get them to purchase other paraphernalia...which Matt has fallen prey to!!

Good thing Mateo is just so cute...he wears the helmet well!

We went camping this weekend (yes in tents) for the first time in my married life...it was fun! More pictures from that adventure soon...we came home yesterday (Sunday) so that I could can and so I made 40 half pints of raspberry jam...amazing what happens when you have focus!!

Love from Oregon, Sarah & Matt & Mateo

The Murphy's Barbeque

Our friends, Greg & Angela Murphy, invited us to help celebrate their niece's 21st birthday. Angela invited Nona to join us...and she agreed. Nona is sporting a new dress...which is really much more blue & purple than this picture indicates.

Angela's brother & parents co-own this bouncy house...which Mateo just simply could not get enough of...it even had it's own slide built in.

Greg Murphy, the host with the most, sporting a kitchen towel...what a man!!

Mateo holding Buford...he is so tired, he can barely keep his eyes open...but he wants nothing to do with sleeping!

Mateo got tired of waiting for adults to pull him in the train...so he took matters in his own hands.

Our digital camera takes decent short videos...this is proof of Mateo's love for the bouncy house!

We have lots more pictures to post of things we have been doing...so check back soon for more pics.

Love from Silverton! The Millers

The Silverton Murals, Part I

So here's the first in what I'll call the mural series. Mateo and I like to jump in the baby jogger (well, he does; I push it) and visit places in town. Now that we're enjoying summer, the "like to" above is more often becoming "do". It's good exercise for Dad, and yet another opportunity for Mateo to satisfy his most frequent request: "Outside?"
Our favorite place to visit is the park, which has a great new play structure, and a river runs through it. But pretty much on the way to any place we'd go is one of Silverton's Murals. The first was painted in 1992, and we're at 15 and counting. Along with the antique and craft shops, they help to make Silverton a destination in itself for those who are on their way to Silver Falls State Park, the Oregon Garden, or Mount Angel's Oktoberfest. They're a great piece of Americana and small town history that ratchet up the quaint factor almost as much as our penny parking meters.
So here's the first in the series. Everyone say hello to:

Bobbie, the Wonder Dog

Silverton Bobbie, as he's also known, was a scotch collie and farm dog who lived on the Abiqua River north of town back in 1922 (not far from a house we nearly bought when first moving here.) Later, when his masters sold him to the new owners of their farm and moved into town, he began walking the several miles to their cafe on weekends. Good training, because the next year, when they bought Bobbie back and took him on a cross-country trip to visit relatives, he became lost in Indiana. Six months later, he turned up back in Silverton and became a national sensation, starring in a silent movie, a Ripley's Believe it or Not cartoon, and in a few bidographies. Some claim his story inspired the book "Incredible Journey". The links below will fill out the story for you:


http://www.igougo.com/story-s1221155-Silverton-Footloose_and_Footsore_The_Tale_of_Bobbie_the_Wonder_Dog.html
http://www.silvertonor.com/murals/bobbie/bobbie_wonder_dog2.htm
http://www.silvertonor.com/murals/bobbie/bobbie_collie.htm
"Silverton's Bobbie" book
"Wonder Dog" Book




Here's the little guy at Bobbie's mural. His hands are up because he's clutching his brand new camera. He's been starting to say "no pictures" when mom and dad get snapshot happy, so I thought I'd need a little assist to get through this mural project. I found a little kid's camera with his hero "Lightining McQueen" from the movie "Cars" on it. I figured he'd be more amenable to pictures if he got to take some too. It worked. This is the first day he used the camera. For the first couple of days, his favorite subject was his own nose (he couldn't tell at first which direction to point the camera) to the extent that we could have produced an Andy Warhol-like series on his nostrils and made a killing with an exhibition at one of those art galleries in Portland's Pearl district.




Detail shots of the mural, including Bobbie's journey, and his press coverage.



Here's Mateo between Bobbie's statue and a replica of his house, one of the gifts lavished on him after his journey. The original is at the Humane Society in Portland, where he's buried (Rin Tin Tin laid a wreath on his grave.)




And finally, a shot destined to be remembered as the first, thoughtful work of a truly great photographer. his thumb and my studly calves frame the road in front of the Bobbie mural

Sister Beach Time

So last weekend (or the weekend before, I can't remember as time is flying by)...Rachel came for a weekend to visit & have some vacation. I arranged for us to spend two nights, three days on the coast. If you watched the previous beach post, you know the weather karma was "raining" upon me...this trip turned out a bit better...these are Rachel's feet on our deck.

Rachel tells me this is the standard "My Space" picture, where someone holds out the camera and takes a picture of themselves...in this case what a great background!

This is one of the best pictures we have taken...third time is a charm!!

Sun + Beach+ Oregon=Miracle...for confirmation, see previous ocean post pictures!!

Rachel in front of a big rock at Cape Kiawanda near Tillamook...what you can't tell is that she is standing in front of a Suburban which is parked on the beach...very strange!

We had a great time together and I am looking forward to it being an annual tradition.

Love from Oregon, Sarah