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Annie holding Baxter
(son of my childhood friend, Beth)

We just returned home after a trip to Oregon, the first time we have been back as a family since we left Portland in 2005. One evening, we were watching the kids play in Mt. Tabor Park, which is practically in our friends Beth and Darrell's backyard. With evergreens towering over us and Mt. Hood plainly visible in the distance, Ella asked, "Tell me again why we moved away from here?" It took me a full 30 seconds to come up with a single reason, but of course I did. We needed to be closer to our families. We wanted our children to know their grandparents. We wanted to send our kids to better public schools. And personally, I was kind of over the rain and the traffic. But, man. The physical beauty of Oregon in the summer? You can't beat it. And during this trip I loved having long conversations with old friends, meeting their new little people, and hugging their necks. The food wasn't bad, either.