An Evening Stroll

I care about Mom and Dad's health, so every once in a while I try to get them out for a walk around the town. Dad needs it because he spends most of his day sitting around in a classroom or studying at home. Mom needs it because she's growing my little brother or sister in her tummy which she say's is still not back to normal from me being in there. Walking is a good way for me to whip them into shape.

Usually we will walk down to Burgerville so that I can get some french fries, but Dad was feeling ambitious and said that we should walk an extra 1/4 mile to a place called "K-Mart". Mom was so excited that she tried to run to K-Mart. Unforunately by the time we got out of the parking lot of our apartment complex she decided walking was a better idea.

Now, sometimes when we go for a walk I like to play a little game with Mom and Dad called "Hide the sock in NE Portland". It goes like this: while we walk I will kick off a sock somewhere in NE Portland and they get to backtrack for anywhere up to a half hour looking for it. This particular night I thought it would be clever to drop it outside of an overpriced little Japanese restraunt called Yuki & Song on NE 122nd Ave. That must have been a great spot because when we found it Dad said, "Dang it Taylor!" (Could somebody please e-mail me and let me know exactly "Dang it" means).

K-Mart was a very interesting place. It is very big and bright inside. Its a place that people go when they want to play some good games. My favorite game was the one where you try to grab clothes off of the rack while Mom or Dad pushes your stroller by them. I think I scored like 100 or 1,000 points. Mom and Dad's favorite game was one where Mom would walk up to something and say, "Oh look this is nice and it's on sale!" Then Dad would tell her we can't afford it. When it was Dad's turn he would find something and say "Hey we need one of these!" and Mom would tell him that we're broke.

During the walk back we all became very hungry. Apparently Dad was the hungriest because he suggested that we stop and eat dinner at the liquor store even though we don't drink. (I think it was just because it was close). But in the end we decided to go to Round Table Pizza. It was my treat, using Dad's credit card. We had a lot of fun eating pizza and hangin out. The best part is that we burned off every last calorie on the walk home.

I love being with my Mom and Dad. Plus they are getting into good shape! But I hope it doesn't happen too quickly.... I like our evening strolls.

Woooow.... K-Mart 

Round table is fun. 

Yuki & Song's a great place for socks. 

It's a good game.... Really. 

That's more like it! 

Dinner? Naaaah... 

Walking in NE 

Mom is ready to run! 

That's Me. 

My First Family Vacation

This weekend my family went on something called 'vacation'. Mom and Dad were really excited about it because Mom says we are all pretty stressed. So we were going to go to a place called Bend so that we could relax. I don't know where Bend is, except that it's what Dad says over and over when I want to stand up but he wants me to sit down.

Apparently to get to Bend you have to put everything that you own into your car and drive for a hundred years over a thousand mountains. I decided that this was a perfect time to take a nap. Normally I would have some fun with Mom and Dad be screaming my head off and listening to them make the sound, "Rrrrrrr!!!". But vacation sounded interesting so I thought I'd be on my best behaviour just in case something cool was happening.

When we got to Bend there was snow all over the ground. I've only seen snow once. It's really cold stuff that you have to sit in and take pictures. Anyway it was everywhere and I wasn't too thrilled about it. But I didn't want to disappoint Mom and Dad so I gave a lot of spontaneous laughs and smiles. (Did you know I have two teeth?) They bought it.

Dad and I dropped Mom off at the spa for a 2 hour manicure/pedicure/massage treatment. It was a gift from Dad. Whenever he told her about it a week ago she flipped out about it because it cost a lot of money, but later when Dad had left for school she started dancing around the house and singing, "I'm going to the Spaaaaaa. I'm going to the Spaaaaaa." After we dropped her off Dad and I went to the condo to fix dinner and watch the NBA Allstar game. We bet on them game and now I owe him $100,000 because Ray Allen couldn't hit enough 3-pointers *sigh*.

Later, after we had picked up Mom, my friend Jessica Turner and her family showed up. While Mom and Dad and Jessica's parents all ate dinner Jessica and I threw, spat, and rubbed food everywhere. I think the adults really liked it because they got really excited and it was all they talked about during dinner.

Whenever Dad and I were unpacking I spotted a Jacuzzi bathtub in the master bedroom. So Jessica and I decided that it would be a good idea to splash around a bit before bed. BUT this was just a warm-up for the highlight of the whole trip. The next morning we got to go swimming. It was my first time but I caught on quickly. I splashed around with Dad and Jessica and her parents in the big pool. It was a good time up until a lady who worked at the pool came and told us we had to move to the kiddie pool. (I think it's because Dad isn't a very good swimmer).

So that was my first vacation! Another 100 years and one thousand mountains later and we were home. I was so happy to see all my toys again. Even though the drive was long, I had a really good time. Mom was right.... we were too stressed and we needed to relax! So I'm going on vacation again tomorrow.

-Taylor Marie Young

My morning laps 

Busted by the man (or the pool lady) 

Swimmin! 

Me in the snow....