fruits of our labor

mount st. helen's lava caves

 adah, you're a lucky kid, getting to go camping with the wonderful woman who was your kindergarten teacher last year.

 we got to climb down into tubes of lava that were trees long ago. hard on the knees and claustrophobic, but how often do you get to do that? 

  

that's mt st helens that you can hardly see in the background. isn't it beautiful?

 60-70 feet below ground lava cave and 40 degrees of freezing. 

goodnight tickle. 

this summer was all about the butterflies

 adah giving a butterfly to my dad, with whom she normally squabbles with constantly. 

  all of the above were taken at the butterfly gardens in victoria, BC. totally magical place. 

adah got a butterfly kit for her 5th birthday, and we finally got around to ordering the caterpillars. about two weeks after they arrived, 4/5 butterflies emerged from the chrysalides. very cool thing to watch. they turned into these painted ladies, which we released a couple days later: 

friendships

 it's 3 against 1 in the sport of water balloons.

 former roomie liz came to visit, and here is adah pretending not to adore her. 

monthly i attend a small faith group, where a bunch of catholic dissidents discuss matters of faith, or lack of faith, and how to carry on lovingly in this world. we started with 11 members many years ago,  and now there are 6 lively kids who show up almost every month in their pajamas. these are a couple shots from our annual summer potluck.

neely helped sell lemonade after hattie was hit by a car and racked up some insane veterinary bills. doggie is doing well, and i'm still recovering from the trauma of watching her run into traffic as i was putting on her leash. 

adah and opal at the river. 

maddy love

 very much appreciative of the tag team approach, and the things that anne gives adah that i cannot.