My kids are the best ever! We went to the fairly crowded DMV this morning to get the car registered in Oregon and get me a new license, and it took about two hours, but the kids were GREAT! Ok, so Weston clicked on a wrong answer on the computer test (something about running a red light) for me… And Conrad spit his gum on the floor and popped it back in his mouth, eliciting groans from the folks nearby. And Julia at one point started wrassling Weston on the ground. But nobody gave me a dirty look (pitying, maybe, but that’s not the same thing), and the kids never got more than about ten feet away from me, and I passed the test after all and got the new plates and license! But I’m also very glad I don’t have to do that again anytime soon!!!

Julia started her afternoon kindergarten class on Wednesday. She spent her first day “just watching,” she told me. No talking to anyone but the teacher. No playing on the playground. Just watching. And she didn’t want to go back. But Thursday was better because we met a cute (also shy) little Vietnamese girl in her class who catches the bus at the same stop we do, and Julia took her hand and sat by her. When she got home, she seemed excited about school — and said that she followed this little girl around wherever she went. Today at the bus stop she was even joking around with the other little boy at our bus stop. Whew! We’re also trying to set up some individual playdates with the girls in the ward. There are a whole bevy of them who all started kindergarten this year, and I think Julia is a little overwhelmed by the whole group.

Weston has a little cry every time Julia drives away in her bus. But we’ve been enjoying our “alone” time together while Conrad naps. We played chess today — I let him beat me and now all I hear is “I’m the strongest and the cleverest!” Yeah, right. He had great sound effects, though, each time he killed one of my pieces — which was an incentive for me to set my defeat up nicely for him. Yesterday we read Prince Caspian. And the day before we did baseball, soccer, and sword-fighting! Whew!

The weather has been beautiful! And last Saturday we drove out through the Columbia River Gorge to see the second-largest waterfall in the country: Multnomah Falls. It was gorgeous! And Rich wasn’t even upset with me when we got there and discovered that our camera’s battery was dead… Sheesh…

Rich is enjoying his new job. The more he sees of this firm, the more he loves it! They don’t have a specific project lined up for him until October, so he just wanders around offering his services to anyone who needs him. He’s enjoyed hanging out with the computer guys and the model shop guys.

On Labor Day we got together with the other Elders’ Quorum families at a nearby park for a BBQ. Most of the parks and schools we’ve visited so far have wild blackberry bushes in the places where Utah would have scrub oak. So the kids loved wandering through, pricking their fingers, and staining their shirts and faces with blackberry juice. There are also a bunch of U-Pik (you pick) farms not far from here, so maybe we’ll have to give those a try. Well, we miss you and hope you are doing well with the new school year!

I was able to convince Claire that we should go to the beach by proposing the alternative of staying home and painting the kitchen. There was a big annual shindig happening at Seaside where we went last year, so we opted to follow our neighbors to Cannon Beach. We were lucky to finagle a parking spot almost immediately, which turned out to be pure luck. I heard some people grumbling about how the beach was never this full, but it didn’t bother us. Weston and Julia especially enjoyed the outing asking if we could go again tomorrow? No. The next day? We may have to turn this into a family tradition of sorts. If so, we will have to incorporate a trip to the Tillamook ice cream factory.

When we went to pick up the moving truck, Claire and I were both shocked. I told her something to the effect of, “I don’t think I can drive that.” It looked like an eighteen-wheeler, and I was sure I needed special training on how to avoid driving over all the midget cars on the road. I asked what size move the truck was suited for and the lady recommended it for a 5-8 bedroom house. We looked at a size smaller, but concluded that all of our stuff from two moves would not fit. I got in and put my foot on the brake. It made a bizarre sound as though I were squishing the last breath out of some poor animal. Apparently, this is normal? Maybe the three carless years in New York had more of an effect on me than I realized. I started it up and had to resist the urge not to drive over rather than around the other cars in the parking lot. I narrowly avoided a few accidents on the way back to the in-laws’ and took out just about every corner.

As it turns out, the truck was full when we got through with it. The drive wasn’t bad at all because we drove during the day (It’s much harder on me once it gets dark). There was no wife to read Freddie and Fredericka to me, no CD player, no mP3 player, no Julia asking me what my favorite sea creature is, no Weston monologues, and no Conrad requesting that Claire constantly look at him……..just lots and lots of NPR to keep me company.

Claire seems to like the house so far — probably because we’ve heard a lot of good things about Julia’s school. Parts of the house are decorated in Classic Old Lady, so I had to do some painting before I could bear to hang up my precious “Think Different” posters. We have a lot of ideas, but most of them are lower on the priority totem pole than finding a commuter car for me (Any suggestions?) and getting the rest of our stuff out of boxes.

Our neighbors are super nice; however, we seem to be one of the younger couples in the hood. My list of reasons for moving to Oregon has expanded to include Tillamook Ice Cream. So the complete list is as follows:

1) Goonies was filmed here.

2) My best falafel experience happened in Portland.

3) Ice cream that rivals real gelato in Italy.