Clara's Blog

Actually, I made a couple but this is the one we’re sharing right now. My second movie ever! Mommy and Daddy didn’t edit it at all. So…if you’re not my grandparent, you might want to skip it.

Mommy and Daddy say they’re glad I didn’t get pecked.

I look fabulous, don’t I?

Off to see Grandma and Grandpa. Also Uncle Jeff and Matt, Great Grandpa, and my Vermont cousins.

We went camping again! We went to Alder Flat Campground near the Clackamas River. We had to hike in about a mile but Mommy and Daddy carried most of the stuff. The dogs and I get to carry a bit of our own stuff though.

We messed around in the rocks and water and just hung out. What I like to tell people about the most is the creatures we saw: woodpecker, eagle, heron, ground squirrels (chipmunks), millipede, frogs, newt, robins, swallowtail butterfly and probably a bunch of other stuff!

The weather was nice Saturday and it was supposed to rain Saturday night and Sunday. It DID rain a little but it rained A LOT in Portland so somehow we got lucky!

The whole family went for a hike on the Lower Deschutes River Trail (that’s the end near the Columbia River and The Dalles). We went east of Mt Hood to find a little bit of sunshine and warmth. It worked!

When we drove in, we saw kids playing in the grassy campground and I just wanted to play with them. After a bit of encouraging, we were off on the trail heading to a sandy beach on the river.

They haven’t really been maintaining the trail so the grass was SUPER tall and over my head. It was kind of gross and scary and kind of an adventure. I guess hiking is that way a lot. As always, I had fun meeting people. This time there were a lot of kids too!

Anyway, the best part of the hike was the beach at the far end of the hike. I took off my pants and romped in the cold water. I threw sticks for dogs and ran up and down the beach for no reason. It was great! I was tired on the hike back but I was a trooper and other grown-ups were impressed with my positive attitude. Mommy and Daddy knew that my positive attitude was on its last legs but beautiful butterflies, almond trees, sage brush and a train across the river helped me finish the hike with a good attitude. A hot dog and fries helped me make it home too! It was a good day. Yay!

I’m five! We celebrated my birthday twice – once the day before and once on “the big day”. We invited all school friends (and Greta and Hannah, of course) to the party the day before and we wore fairy wings and played on the playground. Mommy had some other activities up her sleeve but we didn’t bother because we were having so much fun playing on the playground.

We did make time for the pinata and some cupcakes. Mommy made a pinata (with a tiny bit of my help) just the way I wanted. I didn’t want a pinata that looked like a person or a fairy or an animal. I wanted a “round one”. So, we got some balloons and used one to make the shape and glued TONS of flowers all over. We filled it with tiny horses and dogs and, most importantly, fairies! I also talked Mommy into a tiny bit of candy – some lifesavers. Oh, and stickers. Seems like everyone liked it.

On my “real” birthday, Marjon and Uncle Todd came over and had Laughing Planet burritos with us and some cupcakes. It was great! I even got presents!

It was really hard the next day to go back to not being the birthday girl and I did a lot of crying but it passed. I went to soccer and ran as hard as I could and didn’t cry when a big boy was rude to me or when I scraped my knee on the astroturf. Sometimes days can be both bad and good.

We camped near the Wilson River Trail at “Dispersed Campsite 15″ (not far from the Tillamook Forest Center and Jones Creek Campground kind of between Portland and Tillamook). I ate my first s’more, threw rocks, explored and had tons of fun. Mommy, Daddy, Scout, Reika, Marjon and Randy came too.

Mommy and Daddy say that I slept like a champ (Reika did not)! More than 12 hours! Of course, I got up REALLY early before we left because I was so excited to go camping.

I want to go again next weekend!

Mommy had a surprise for me when she picked me up from school. She said that we were going to have a Mommy and daughter field trip to the beach! We drove to Cannon Beach and stayed in a hotel! The hotel had a pool!

We were there less than 24 hours and we went in the pool twice, ate meals with french fries twice and went to the beach twice. Mommy realized that I’m getting more confident and independent and I now like to go off and explore on my own. That’s a good thing but I need to learn more about the ocean and other safety rules. In the meantime, Mommy’s happy that she knows how to use her voice and her running legs to keep me out of trouble.

Mommy really wanted to check out the tide pools and take photos. So, we got up early on Friday and went out to Haystack Rock where there are tide pools. There were a lot of interesting creatures but I also _really_ loved meeting the nice lady volunteers that teach about tide pool life. One of my favorite things is making new friends.

I really liked seeing the sea stars and the mussels and the anemone but I think I’m most interested in things that move. I really like the hermit crabs and I even got to hold one! It felt a tiny bit scratchy in my hand when it walked and I was so surprised I dropped it! The crab was fine and it is now my favorite story to tell people.

I hope we have more surprise field trips!