magical battle horns

I've returned to the Portland tree house after a fun little jaunt down to Bend over the weekend. As I was uploading the pictures I found the remnants of Claire's visit still tucked away in my camera. And, when I saw this one again, I knew it needed to make an appearance on the blog. When I see products like this I like to imagine the person who' s job it was to think such a thing up. This little daydream often includes a scene with a bunch of men in suits sitting around a table in a board room talking very seriously about the possibility of producing a "Unicorn vs. Narwhale" play set. There is a lot of discussion and mulling around of different options. The young new talent pipes in a suggestion about including an extra pair of "magical battle horns." In the end they all feel very confident about the idea and everyone shakes hands.

Moving on.....I had heard good things about Bend prior to the weekend, and although it was slightly different than I had imagined I was hardly let down. The overall feel was very similar to Colorado so I felt right at home. We backpacked about 8 miles into the Green Lakes area near Mt. Bachelor, and for a significant portion of the hike we were accompanied by this handsome river:
We finally set up camp in this beautiful meadow. It was pretty perfect minus the fact that the five of us neglected to bring any bug spray, so we were slightly demolished by the mosquitoes. After setting up camp, we spent a good 30 minutes trying to coordinate one of those shots where everyone is jumping in the air. I think we may have captured one good one, in the midst of a couple dozen that look much like the one below (which I think have their own sort of success to them.)