Ava's 15 minutes of fame

The Sellwood Bridge (see below) in our neighborhood is old.  Eighty-five years old, and badly in need of replacing.  The west slope is failing, and the bridge is falling apart.  We avoid the bridge as often as possible, but when we do have to cross it, we say a little prayer, open all the windows for quick escape in case we plummet into the Willamette River, and then drive like mad.  The county has been looking for funding since 2004.  Yesterday, was a groundbreaking ceremony for the new bridge.  The project architects and engineers have visited the 5th grade students at Ava's school to talk with them about the design, the process, the environmental impacts of the bridge and also to help the kids make bat houses that will be hung on the new bridge.  Ava and another 5th grader were chosen to give a short speech at the dedication.

Ava practicing with all of the microphones.

Waiting in anticipation.

Receiving instruction on the microphones.  I think there were at least 5 microphones.

Ava meeting the mayor, Sam Adams.  I realize this is a bad picture.  You'll need to take my word for it that Ava REALLY is sitting behind the stooping man in the black jacket.  If you look very closely, you can just see her hair and coat.  Plus, all is not lost; I did capture an essetial part of Portland: protesters with signs.

My picture of the mayor.  I'm thinking of becoming paparazzi.

The crowd was pretty big.

Two very short video clips of the speech.   The girls stole the show; they were funny.  At one point, Mat saw a man throw his head back in laughter. 

When Mat and I arrived at the park to meet Ava and her classmates, she informed me she had a headache and was starting to feel nauseous.  She was getting a migraine (she's had 4 before).  She decided she could stay and finish her speech.  She was seated  next to the former governor of Oregon, Barbara Roberts, in the VIP section behind the podium.  I was getting pretty nervous, as Ava's color worsened.  At one point, she turned toward former governor Roberts and I thought Ava was going to lose her breakfast all over her.  Luckily, Ava made it through her speech and home...barely. 

Both girls did a fantastic job.  We're really proud of Ava, especially considering the circumstances.

Mat's Hometown

If you haven't heard, Minot North Dakota has broken the flood records since records have been kept. My (Mat's) parents are fine, but the home they owned (previously) for about 30 years was lost. My brother and I are bothered by it. We found a picture posted by the ND National Guard from this past weekend (June 25). Our childhood home is the house in the front with the light gray roof (immediately above the number "10" in the word "10th St."). There are lots of memories in that house and on that street. Our bedroom was right under the front gable, immediately above the front porch roof.

To the right is the main river channel and beyond is Oak Park - a big grove of oak trees with lots of nature trails. The very tall spruce tree to the right of the home is an out-of-character tree for Nodak. It is about 150' tall, and we cannot believe that thing is still standing.

My frame of reference for dealing with this kind of disaster is Hurricane Katrina. I was deployed to Mississippi's coastal area in late August 2005. I was involved in assessing and getting infrastructure and facilities back on-line. This is on that level of devestation.

When our plans for tubing at Mt. Hood were cancelled because of rain (on the mountain, not down here), we decided to head to the bouldering gym.

Mat, showing his extraordinary super strength.

Ava was a natural.

Jack started out cautiously (what a surprise!), but after a successful climb was all over the place!

zoo fun

We thought we'd take advantage of the beautiful weather we've been having with an after school trip to the zoo. We saw lots of active animals, and maybe only five other families.

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Perfect January day

We had a great winter day on Saturday. Both kids went bike riding with Mat, we played outside, the kids built a nest for birds (which is still unoccupied to the great disappointment of the builders), grilled our dinner and finished off the day st the neighborhood frozen yogurt place.

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