Africa hot

In Arkansas in July you'll often hear people proclaiming, "It's Africa hot!" And indeed it is. I think I noticed it more this trip because I (of course) worried about the baby in the heat, and because I am, ahem, carrying a few more pounds than when I was a slip of a girl at age 23. Anyway, you cope with the heat by scurrying from one air-conditioned room to another or to the nearest body of water. The saving grace of the summer swelter is that there are so many lovely ways to beat it. To that end we spent some time in the pool and plenty of time at The Lake.

 
 
 
 

Happy Family

Finally some photos of the three of us together! My sister snapped these on the veranda of the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs.

 

 

 

 

A thousand words

I'll blog about our trip to Arkansas soon, but in the meantime check out these shots my fourteen-year-old niece took when we handed her the fancy camera. My niece is poised, intelligent, and a keen observer. These are the kind of photos I aim for but usually miss because I am busy fiddling around with the whistles and bells on said camera.

 

 

 

 

Tallgirl

 
 
 
Tallgirl and her family (otherwise known as Peanuts' Parents) came to town!
But first:
I'm the one who dropped the ball on our friendship years ago. or let us fall out of touch. We met way back in the day in Little Rock in a friend's climbing gym. She was bold, funny, pretty, smart, and so much fun, PLUS she was the first female engineer I had ever met. We hung out and climbed together a lot. She was a seasoned outdoorswoman and I was a spazz, and we both talked too much to get much bouldering done at the local crag. I could go on and on--suffice to say it was such a fun, refreshing friendship. Around the time she and I met she also met the future Mr. Tallgirl. They were a great couple from the start.

So I moved to Portland and became a lousy correspondent. She and Mr. T got married, and I tried to google her a few times to no avail. So my fault.

Enter Facebook! I was so excited to stumble across her page, and so we got back in touch close to the time our babies were due and she and the fam were planning a trip to Portland. So last night I saw her for the first time in almost nine years, and it was so nice! I met their two kids--ages two and two months. We all walked to Hodas for dinner and back here for dessert. I was so happy to see them and catch up (neither of us climbs anymore). Here are some pictures of the two of us back in the day, and last night at the playground. If they moved to Portland they would fit RIGHT in, but sounds like they have a great life in Little Rock. At any rate, I'm so glad to have reconnected with an old friend and plan to be better at staying in touch, with a little help from Blogger and Facebook.

Four months old!

 

 

 

 

And now, a word from our kitties:

 
 
For the record, we don't get all the fuss over the new cat.

Cutie Pie

Anneke has been working hard on her cuteness skills. I think she's ready for the cuteness Olympics, but her dad and I think Beijing is too, too far away.