King Noah the First: August 2018

Friday, August 3, 2018

July 2018: Family & Birthday

After two weeks being gone, it was time to fill up the fridge and cook a little to be ready to welcome Papa's family. Ok, when I say "it was time to do those things", I mean that it was time for Maman to do that while I enjoy screen time, reading and pretty much doing nothing. Oh, and I slept. The first two days I did not even see the morning go by!

I was super excited to have family over and seeing my older cousin A. and meeting my little cousin for the first time. We pretty much just hang out and ate and celebrated the July birthdays: it was a very fun week-end!

The following week, I had a great camp where every day I got to go to a different place: Astoria for sea kayaking, Canon Beach for beach bikes, Gaston for Tree to tree adventure, Skibowl for Summer luge and Pittock Mansion for a visit. All that with 2 of my best friends; so it was perfect!

I was super excited about the Saturday since it was ME time! My birthday could not come fast enough. Although I really, really wanted to go to one of those places with video games and laser tags, Maman held strong: we began celebrating my birthdays with friends at home since my 4th birthday and for my 11th birthday it was home again. I was not too happy about it but it turned out that it was a great 2 day event.
-My friends arrived on Saturday and we headed to the pool for a fun afternoon!

- We went back home and after playing hide and seek for a while, it was already time to have dinner: I had chosen a burger recipe and it was peeerfect!

- Right after dinner, Papa took us to see Mission Impossible, Fallout- It was just opening in theaters.

- We were back home around 10pm, just in time to go into the tent outside. Let's say that Maman had to come back quite a few times to tell us to quiet it down. Around 11:30pm we were kind of hot in the tent and decided to set up camp on the patio, right under the stars; it led to a long conversation about the universe and our place in it!

- Some of us are early risers, so by 7:00am every body was up, whether they wanted to be or not. Papa made a bountiful breakfast of pancakes & syrup, bacon, melon and strawberries. So good!

- We seemed to really like hiding in the house ( it's true that there are tons of closets!) and that is pretty much what we did inside and outside all morning.

Pretty sure all of us slept well that night. I actually chose to spend the next 4 nights outside, without the tent. And if it was not for a risk of drizzle the 5th night, I would still have been out there.

OH, I got a phone for my birthday! Ok, ok, it is a phone but with no service and no calling plan. I really wanted something to choose my music and listen to it wherever I wanted. It is still going to require a LOT of adult spying supervision since it has internet access but the Ps installed this thing called Family Link which is cool for them, not so cool for me. But hey, I have a phone! And the Ps are soon going to be tired of hearing the same Fat Rat songs over and over again...

July 2018: Colorado Trip

It was time to leave work and home behind and explore new places. At least new places for Maman and me since Papa had already been to Colorado when he was young.

The facts first:
- 16 days
- 1car
- 3 600 miles
- 2 adults + 1 kid+ a fox & cat ( stuffed!)
- 4 states: Oregon - Idaho- Utah - Colorado
- 5 National Parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon, Rocky Mountains.
- 6 stops: Ogden, UT - Moab, UT - Durango, CO - Crested Butte, CO - Estes Park, CO - Boise, ID.
- 1534 pictures
- infinite memories...

Sorting through the pictures will take time so here are some best and favorite pics or places. Papa takes a lot of the scenic pics and we will add some of those later.
First, let's begin by the places we stayed at; we liked all of them. Some are favorites because of the views, some are favorite because of the place itself

1-MOAB, UT ; we loved this tiny house. Location was not as great but quiet.

2- DURANGO, CO - Great studio; we had some problems with heat but comfortable otherwise. A little far from everything.

3- CRESTED BUTTE, CO - Amazing views, the place needs a little bit of TLC, great location.

4- ESTES PARK, CO - Very clean and cozy place with shared spaces and walking distance to town.

FLOWERS: Now, it was July and in most places we were lucky to see many wild flowers. So here are a few, including the first one, the Colorado flower: the blue columbine.

ANIMALS:

We are not specialists in photographing animals but we saw a few that we were able to take a picture of.

VIEWS: It was all so beautiful that it is hard to pick just a few pictures than can barely render the immensity of what we saw. But that is what pictures are: just a memory jolt for the one who took them and a small glimpse for the ones who see them. There are just 3 for each site we visited as seen mostly by Maman, and that was super hard! Papa took a lot more and we will add them later.

1- ARCHES