Salmon River Hike

On the first weekend in December we went for a short hike along the Salmon River Trail in the shadow of Mt. Hood. It was incredible. Winter hikes are great.

There was a light dusting of snow on the trail.

Big old growth Douglas-fir trees lined the trail.

Enjoying the view of the Salmon River.

Eli was thrilled to be in the woods. She was constantly looking around checking everything out. After about 45 minutes on the trail she passed out and enjoyed a nap on my back.

Working our way back to the car.

The Salmon River looked real cold.

Stiles Cousins

This post has been in purgatory for too long. My bad. My cousins from Colorado visited back in August. We fired up the BBQ and hung out on the back deck. Good times.


Adam gets his baby Eli fix.


Jessie's turn to get her baby fix.


Patrick and Adam looking tough.


Sue and baby Eli.


The Stiles Clan.


Best of all Patrick has an awesome Stiles tattoo on his back! This is awesome Patrick. Check out the Stiles family crest on the Stiles Family of America website.

Aspen, Halloween, Floors

It's been busy since our last post: we travelled to Aspen, Halloween happened, we had the wood floors in our house redone, Eliana's two bottom teeth came in and now we are blessed with her first cold.

Team Stiles on the move with the Maroon Bells in the background. Weather was perfect!

Eli and Greg at the Continental Divide (obviously)...

It was cold and sometimes we are bad parents.

Getting ready for Halloween in her outfit from Nana.

Greg cooking up our Halloween lobster dinner.

We moved out to our friend's house for a week so that the floors could be refinished and had to remove furniture from all three of the bedrooms. This is where we slept the night we came back - in the kitchen.

The house is almost put back together and we are so pleased with the results. Jeff at Select Wood Floors did a really good job.

It's been a great fall, but now we are dreaming of powder.

The last couple of weeks...

Eliana loves her "Baby Vegas". I love it because it allows me to take a shower, dry my hair and eat breakfast. YES!

This baby has discovered her feet. She particularly enjoys checking them out when she is sans diaper.


Over the weekend, Greg and Eli raked the leaves from the maple tree in front of our house. This was her first ride in the frame pack. Both she and Greg gave it the thumbs-up.

Eli has a new favorite toy

Bringin' back the cowgirl

Yesterday Greg, Eli and I went up to our friends Carrie and Brad's place. They purchased 40 acres about a year ago near Scappoose - just a short drive from St. Johns. Carrie and I grew up in Glide and rode horses together as kids on her parent's ranch. Now she and Brad have 4 horses and so they needed an extra person to go riding with them. I, of course, was happy to oblige. I haven't ridden for at least 5 years and it felt great. It's still one of my favorite things to do and now that I have easy access to a horse, Greg might not be seeing me too much on the weekends! The idea of buying some acreage and having horses again is really tempting. Until then, I know where to get my fix.

First Bites

Today was a big day! Eliana tried her first rice cereal, we walked in the Mayor's Walk and then went to watch cyclocross at Alpenrose. All sorts of fun for Team Stiles!

Pink

I know I said I didn't want to dress her in pink. Guilty. But, have you ever seen a pink kitty that is this cute before? Seriously.

Construction Zone

A few weekends ago we got to feeling a little destructive. It started with Greg doing the necessary job of clearing the nasty, old insulation out of one of the attic spaces. Then we freaked out and tore the carpet out of our bedroom in the hallway. Guess we are committed to refinishing the floors now.

Grandpa Steve

This is a picture of Eliana and her Grandpa Steve. It was taken by my mom, Pam, up in the North Umpqua forest in early August. I know that Eliana and I will treasure this photo for many years to come.

Good times in Seattle

Being a tourist in Seattle:

1. Space Needle complete with purchasing a cheesy magnet (check)

2. Sculpture Park (check)

3. International District (check)

4. The new Seattle Link (check)

5. West Seattle's Alki Beach (check)

6. Pike Place Market (oops...ran out of time)

The weather was beautiful and time with friends was priceless. We are already planning the next trip north!

Five Years

Team Stiles is celebrating five years today! Hooray for us! We started the day off with a workout at HEL followed by coffee at the Albina Press. A bit of grocery shopping, a nap and a yummy dinner of enchiladas and plantains rounded out a very relaxing day. Over dinner we had fun thinking about highlights from the last five years. We've had trips to Maine, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Utah, New York and all around the NW. There have been lots of BBQs and parties with friends along with rafting, cycling, running, hiking, snowboarding, and camping. We bought a house, experienced job changes and best of all - added Eliana to the team! It's been an awesome five years and we can't wait to live the next forty-five like a cavalry charge!

A Baptism

Last weekend we went to Roseburg for an important event: Eliana's baptism in Rock Creek. This is a very special place for me because I went there nearly every weekend during the summer with my dad. We would take our old blue Toyota truck up Highway 138 to the river and lay in the sun, swim, hunt for rocks, catch craw-dads, paint ourselves with "rock paint", chant, sing, build rock towers, and on and on. It was a great time.

This was Eli's first trip up the river and she had quite an audience. My mom, dad, Betti (my river mother), Carl, Greg and I were all there to watch her dunk her precious little toes in the magical water. We brought back several rocks to mark the occasion. I can't wait to take her back and watch her learn to love the place as I do.

Betti, Eli and me dunking toes.

Eli was NOT thrilled.

Do you think she'll forgive us?

The whole event - complete with pissed off baby!

Another amazing thing about Rock Creek is that it is a salmon spawning ground. I love going to the deep hole where they gather. Their journey never ceases to amaze me and I always feel privileged to witness the last stage of their life.

Fun by the river

Eliana, Kimmy (my teaching partner), and I headed out to Hood River yesterday to chill by the Columbia. Kimmy's dad and a bunch of his buddies are avid windsurfers and they lease a piece of property near Stevenson, Washington. They park their motorhomes and enjoy most weekends there during the summer. Her dad's group calls themselves "Team Advil" which I find pretty funny. It was a rad way to spend a summer day and I can't wait to get out there again.

The view from our blanket.

We watched this kiteboarder for close to an hour. Watch how high he goes on the board and then pay close attention to what happens when he's up there. His board actually comes off of his feet! Don't worry, he was back on the board in less than a minute.

Eli and I roughing it.

Kimmy explains our location and how hard our lives are. Caution: she uses a bit of profanity here. Watch out folks, she's an educator and I think she learned that kind of language from her middle school students!

Such hardcore relaxing is very tiring!

Portland Festival Symphony

As you know from the previous post, we went down to Cathedral Park to enjoy the Portland Festival Symphony last Saturday. We took a picnic, met a bunch of friends, and watched Eli roll over. The weather was great, the music was beautiful and the view was fantastic. It is so nice that our city offers FREE concerts!

The crowd

The symphony and St. John's Bridge

Our friend Brooke came out with Mabel. They are both beautiful!

Tiny little thing was born 4 weeks early. She's doing great and is growing really strong. We are so happy for Brooke and Tim.

Taylor was nice enough to share her chocolate cupcakes with us. Here you can see that she is saving some of the frosting for later. I love the ballet outfit/chocolate face combo!

Look who just rolled over!

Eli decided that last night at the Portland Festival Symphony would be the right time to bring out her new trick. She chose wisely; everyone was very impressed. I'm not sure that once she got herself over she was pleased with the results. Being on her tummy is not her favorite thing. This video is of her 2nd rollover because I was too slow with the Flip to catch the first one. Way to go Eli!

Great Grandpa Duncan

Meeting Great Grandpa Duncan for the first time!

This weekend we headed down to Roseburg for a whirlwind visit with family. In less than 24 hours Eli saw her Grammie Pam, Grandpa Steve, and Great Grandpa Duncan. My Grandpa Duncan will be 90 in December and he is such an inspiring person. He is still very active and always has 101 projects going on. I love to visit with him and hear all of his stories. Eli is really lucky to have such a cool great-grandfather.

BUMBO!

Before Eli was born, our friends Caroline and McLean sent us this Bumbo chair and now she can use it! Today she kicked back for about 10 minutes. She looks like such a big girl sitting up.

Just chillin'. It's tough being a baby!

After a while in the chair we laughed about how awesome summer is.

Hot Mamas!

Here is the whole posse of HOT MAMAS! We got together this last Sunday with husbands, older kids and dogs. Super fun and very entertaining. Eliana slept through most of the party; we had to wake her up for the picture.

I should explain the naked kiddo in the front. There is a wading stream in the park and the kids were running through it despite the chilly weather. Susanna, the nudist, was super happy racing around in her birthday suit. It was awesome.

You can also see Cooper (far left) in a super stylish blanket/hoodie ensemble that will be on the runways next fall!

Fun with a Mirror

Eliana and I had fun looking at each other in the mirror last night. I never thought a simple smile could make me so happy.

Reporting from Fort Stiles

The little lady is experimenting with sounds. I spend an incredible amount of time "talking" with Eliana during the day. She cracks me up. In this clip she's sharing a very important story. The story is SO touching that she gets a little emotional at the end and is unable to finish our interview.

Meet the Grandparents

We have had a busy couple of weeks! Greg's parents arrived from Maine to meet Eli for the first time. It's been so fun to see them with her and it's been a great break for us! Eileen (Greg's mom) is an expert at holding babies and rocking them to sleep.

Howard (Greg's dad), Eileen, Greg, Eli, and I went to Astoria for the day to escape the Portland heat, check out Fort Clatsop, the Astoria Column and eat some delicious fish and chips at the Bowpicker.

View from atop the column looking out over Astoria, the Megler Bridge and the mouth of the Columbia River.

The column.

Senior tour guide Howard needs a little prompting from his understudy.

About four years ago Greg's parents did an Elder Hostel tour retracing the trail of Lewis & Clark from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River. The Corps of Discovery wintered in the woods near modern day Astoria at Fort Clatsop. The morning the Elder Hostel tour showed up to cap off their cross country trek Fort Clatsop was on fire and burned to the ground. No joke. Greg's parent were excited to revisit the rebuilt fort.

Here I am getting funky to a Jew's harp, a musical instrument carried by Corps of Discovery.

On Friday, my dad, Steve, came up to meet Eli. He was so excited to meet her! I loved seeing my dad turn into such a softie at the sight of his little granddaughter. My mom joined us, too. All of the grandparents were here for a delicious dinner on Friday, July 3rd.

On the 4th of July we (my mom, dad, Greg, Eli, and I) took off to visit Hood River, Bingen and White Salmon. We stopped off at Bonneville Dam to meet Herman the Sturgeon. It is a nice park and a great place to take a break on the way to Hood River. Here's a shot of me, Dad, and Eli.

Hooray for Herman!

Mom, me (with Eli hiding in the Ergo) and Dad.

We had a fantastic lunch in Bingen at the Solstice Cafe and then headed back to Hood River where we relaxed in the shade next to the Columbia. Eli and Greg had some great daddy and daughter time. The kiteboarders in Hood River were amazing! Greg and I are planning another trip out there to give it a try.

Here's the little miss - now 2 months old!

We took the scenic route home and travelled along the Historic Columbia River Highway with a stop at Multnomah Falls.

We love ice cream!

A final stop at Vista House. It is such an impressive view!

July 5th found us at home having a BBQ with about 35 friends and family. There was a lot to celebrate: Greg's parents just celebrated their 50th anniversary, Howard and I celebrated birthdays (we are birthday twins), and all the grandparents were here together.

Three generations of the Duncan/Stiles.

Pam, Sara, Eli, and Steve.

Eileen, Greg, Eli, and Howard.

Team Stiles looking good.

Here are Eli and her friend Parker at the July 5th BBQ. Parker was determined to eat Eli's hand. Funny, funny stuff! Parker and Eli tried to be birthday twins; they were born 3 days apart.