Portland—End of the Road

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Two-thousand four-hundred and seventy-five miles down the road from St. Paul, Minnesota, is a little place called Portland, Oregon. When we woke up in Pendleton today everyone was ready to get there and see Grammy. We bombed through the Columbia Gorge to get there. The road trip was excellent. Our … Read More

Playing

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The bus is ready to go. Headed down the 101. I feel like we’ve done this trip a hundred times, but then I feel like we’ve never done it. It all sort of runs together at times. I do know that this is the kids’ first southbound 101—out of Portland, … Read More

Bus Work

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Well it took ten days, but the bus is back and it is better than ever. Like so extremely better than ever that as I drove it down the road from the shop I actually laughed out loud. I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face. It’s ridiculous how … Read More

On Ice

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Ice skating again. Ouest has really taken off. She’s into trying to do tricks now—spins and such. Lowe is getting better too. He’s running on his skates now, but still doesn’t quite have the balance down. He’s up for about thirty minutes on the ice before he’s ready to chill … Read More

Brake Break

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From Rockaway it was just a short hop back to Portland. Another Grammy visit. The bus brakes have gotten steadily worse the past month, so it was finally time to address them and get a full brake job done. Through some contacts we ended up at a shop just down … Read More

Date with Strangers

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We had a little get-together at the pub the other day. We do these every now and again—inviting Bum friends to drop in and say hi face-to-face instead of through our usual virtual reality. People always ask us, “Isn’t it kind of weird meeting a bunch of people you don’t … Read More

Mississippi Street

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Note: If you’re in the Portland area, we’re having a little get together/bus open house at 2:00 Sunday. Hopworks on SE Powell. This is nothing new, just a re-split of an old scar. There’s something natural about a boy and a bloody cut—you know that each cut is just one of … Read More

ABCDEFGHJI…

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Peanut-butter cookies this time. I thought this was pretty funny. Ali bought this LeapFrog alphabet pad thing at Target. Just a cheapo little item for Ouest to practice her letters on. She had finished it in the car, and when she got home she brought it over to show me. … Read More

Hangin’

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Been taking a bit of a break around here this week. We’ve been doing a little bus work, taking a lot of neighborhood walks, and hanging out with friends quite a bit. I realized that every friend we have in Portland came to us through our website. Kind of weird, … Read More

Fairies

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Yesterday morning I joked with Ouest, “Do you want me to pull that tooth out for you.” “Shore,” she said, because apparently there really is nothing in this world that scares the girl. “Okay, go get me a piece of toilet paper.” She runs back in—apparently she only had one square … Read More

Miracles

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Our kids haven’t stopped asking about Mango, our fish, since Ali gave it away back in Mexico before we left last time. Six months and somehow their little heads have retained the memory of a one-inch beta fish named after a fruit. Ali secretly loved the fish too, so recently … Read More

Poopy Hands

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The other day we were at an RV park and I watched a man—for the hundredth time, at least—pull on an elbow length pair of rubber gloves before disconnecting his RV’s toilet hose. As I watched him all I could think about was what my grandpa would have thought if … Read More