The Plowman's Folly: Oregon Fun.

So in December Anna and I went to Oregon all by ourselves. Our adventure started with a late night trip to Denver to avoid a winter storm. We spent the night at Kiki and Joe's and then had a nice leisurely day waiting for our plane to leave. One thing we did was to buy Anna a winter coat. This was good because the temperature in Denver when we left was something like 5 degrees K or something. It was cold.

Anna made sure we had our safety info correct. Luckily it was like 95 degrees on the plane, so everyone was really comfortable sitting in their sweaters and sweatshirts for 3 hours. It was the most comfortable 25 degree weather I have ever felt when we finally got off the plane in Medford.

The next morning we went to the the swanky ex-federally funded neighborhood library for storytime.

And discovered a new and exciting way to spell Anna's name.

Then we went and played in the park.

It took a lot of convincing to get Jonathan to go against his father's wishes and let Anna kick his soccer ball. I had no idea before this visit just how much of a temper Jonathan's daddy has-- especially when it comes to random close relatives kicking his son's soccer ball.

Then we went to look at sleds.

The next day everybody bathed and we headed off to Ashland for more fun.

We stopped for food.

We had a great time at Lithia park, looking at the stream...

And climbing...

And swinging...

And chasing the uppity ducks...

And posing in front of the middlin' ducks...

And fancy walkin'.

Later that night we decorated the Christmas tree.

I was a big help.

The kids had fun.

No trip to Medford is complete without a trip to the Harold and Davey store. They had this for sale:

Because nothing is more natural than humans eating grass.

I nearly missed seeing H & D's new logo, but caught it just before we left.

I don't know if I like it as well as their old logo...

Later that evening we traveled the icy roads without incident to a strange place full of strangers to eat tasty food and get ridiculed for attempting to play a perfectly legitimate (and much more fun) variation of the popular domino game, "Mexican Train."

The morning paper gave us the shocking realization that we had traveled out of the realm of organized matter and back again in order to eat our precious tasty food and fellowship with our precious strangers and get ridiculed.

It is important to read Medford's paper while you are in town to keep up with all of the exciting developments happening on the left coast. I especially enjoyed keeping up with the local agricultural economy which consists of your basics: pears, cheeses, and illicit drugs. It was very moving to read about the plight of the local illicit drug farmers struggle to survive against a backdrop of floods, fires, gang turf wars, and Federal raids. I was swept up by the story of a local Medford boy who, doing his best despite a crippling (unnamed) medical condition which the state of Oregon feels warrants regular doses of marijuana just to make it day to day, kept showing up at the wrong place at the wrong time, a stabbing here, a shooting death there. I think things will turn around for this poor boy just as soon as he and his gan... er medical marijuana coop have their paperwork approved as a licensed medical marijuana distributor.

We went sledding that day. It was hard to contain the kids' excitement.

The local sleddin' hill was okay. I guess.

It was a good time.

The next day we did some TV watchin'...

And some huggin'...

And that evening Eric and I moved the heaviest television ever made by man to yet another stranger's house to play some Halo. We even won a game or two after the teenager left.