Matthew in Oregon, 2011

Matthew arrived and almost immediately wanted the race track set up as it had been the last time he visited.

 He also wanted to work with tools in the greenhouse.

First we built a bird house

which we mounted on the barn.

Then he wanted to build a pirate ship

which we managed with scraps from around the ranch

and a few brass items from Robnett's.

Matthew was old enough this year to ride the three-wheeler by himself.  He took his first rounds in the yard

but was soon pushing for running into the pasture where he almost got lost in the tall grass.

Grandma Deb made cupcakes which Matthew frosted.

Some of the frosting actually made it onto the cakes.

Eventually the weather warmed enough to swim.

As an aside, Bogie never gets in the water.  In fact, he hates getting his feet wet.

This, a dog who has lived his entire life in Oregon.

At an estate sale, we found an Indonesian style boat kite,

 

so of course we had to drive to the coast to fly it.

We were invited to Daniel's Bar Mitzvah so we all dressed up for the festivities.  Matthew looked grown up in his new duds.

We bought fireworks, Oregon legal, of course, not like Alabama's, and started burning them early.

We set some off in the backyard.

On the evening of the Fourth, we drove to the riverfront and with the crowd watched the JC's fireworks,

went home and fired some more.

On Matthew's birthday, he ordered enough sushi at Aomatsu to last three days.

The Rudels gave Matthew a radio controlled ATV

 and after dark, we shot off the canon and lit more fireworks.  There's a special treat to have a birthday near the Fourth.

We went to the Philomath Frolic rodeo but did not manage to take the one photo that Matthew wanted to prove to his dad that clowns do not have a red circle on their butts to attract bulls.

We did, however, manage a couple of interesting shots.

Debbie Rudel brought her equipment and gave Matthew a backyard clip.

After, he looked like a new man.

With Shelley and two of her granddaughters we drove to McMinnville to Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark.

A 747 with four waterslides, a wave pool, smaller pools, waterfalls, and other attractions kept us entertained all day,

with the slides grabbing most of the attention:

a hike up flights of stairs, a wild ride down winding tubes,

a swirl round the drain,

then splash down.

On July 13, we got up at 2 a.m., drove to PDX and Matthew flew out at 5:30, anxious to return home.  On our drive back to the ranch, we decided to see if we could get into the famous Voodoo Donuts to get breakfast.  In the past, every time we've driven by, the line to the door stretched around the block and sometimes farther.  At 6 on a Wednesday morning, however, there was only one customer and there was parking right in front.  Alas, although their signature donut looks like fun, it looks better than it eats--IMHO--as the kids text.

Matthew would have loved it.