Being Moved

          Whenever a friend moves away, it always seems like they have ceased to exist until I can picture them in their new home.  So as a courtesy ... here's our new home in Bend, Oregon:

Well, actually it turns out we haven't taken any pictures of our house yet, because we've been playing outside all the time!  So, those may have to wait until winter.

   This is the Deschutes River, running through the middle of downtown, about 10 minutes from our house.  We enjoyed our first float down the river immensely.  They're in the process of removing a spillway right now and replacing it with whitewater rapids.  Most of it looks like one big, lazy river with half the town reclining on anything they can inflate.  Paul and I agree that it would be even better with cold sodas.  And if they could figure out how to get the river to flow in a continuous circle, that would be cool too.

I think we'll leave the kids home the first time we try floating this section of the Deschutes.  This was taken while hiking the Dillon Falls trail.

Mt. Bachelor, as seen from Pilot Butte.  So, this is our city.  This was taken the night we arrived.  

A piece of our backyard.  The flowers in Bend are pretty happy right now.  

To celebrate emptying all our boxes, we built a maze in the living room.

We put [C.] in the river in lieu of a thermometer.  Don't worry, you get used to it.

Watching the famous 4th of July Pet Parade.  Next year, we'll be marching. 

 And don't forget the famous ...

  ... Flying Dog.

Street fireworks.  We could see the city fireworks from our backyard.  Our neighbors threw together an awesome block party.

Rock climbing at a park.  They start 'em young.

 Hammocking in the backyard.

Swimming Hole at Tumalo Creek.  We made it in up to our necks.  Brrr.  

We have a picnic just about every day,

Or a hike, or a bike ride.  But probably, if it's a typical day, we'll do all three.  There are trails everywhere.  

We tasted our first local berries at the Farmer's Market

Lost a first tooth

And caught a first fish

  Of course the kids went back the next day so [C.] could catch her first fish.

This is South Twin Lake.  We still have so much to explore.  There is live music somewhere most evenings. The hard part about living in Bend is that we want to play all the time.  We do miss our friends and family tremendously and don't anticipate ever filling the holes you left.  So, come play with us sometime.