How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Part I)

Ok, so now that school has started again it seems appropriate to make an accounting of our summer. The big event, of course was that we went to Oregon for three weeks to visit my parents, then spent a week in Montana/Idaho at a Lisle family reunion. Mary took some awesome pictures while we were there, but since this is our blog, the pictures will be somewhat “us” focused.

Mary and her kids, Annie, Brittany, Juliette and I went to Baumann Farms while we were in Oregon. It’s a fun place near Salem with a petting zoo of sorts and a farmer’s market. Juliette was excited to meet a real live sheep. I think she was a little shocked at the difference between the “Baa” we make when talking about sheep and the sound the sheep actually made. Also, we hit Oregon during peak strawberry season, so we bought fresh strawberries and rhubarb at the farmer’s market in downtown Salem and made a pie, and also made a run to Monmouth at 10:30 AM on July 1^st to make sure we got the last of Burgerville’s seasonal fresh strawberry milkshakes. We had called Burgerville the night before and were told they probably would be out of fresh strawberries by noon the next day. 10:30 in the morning is pretty early for a milkshake, but it was worth it. Another hour or so and we might have had to have – heaven forbid – fresh raspberry milkshakes, and that would have been a disaster. Anyway, we had a lot of fun eating fresh fruit, which is truly one of the best things about Oregon’s summers.

We also got to go to Honeyman State Park with my Dad and Annie. Juliette had fun, I think, and wore a cute hat. She also ate sand, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

The big event was going to Montana/Idaho. As this event has been covered more extensively in Mary’s blog, I won’t go into too many details. It was, however, a great learning experience for Brittany and I. For example, we learned that Juliette doesn’t sleep well in unfamiliar places, especially after she’s been in the car all day. We also learned a lot about the logistics of keeping kids (and parents) happy away from the comforts of home after watching my sisters deal with their kids. For example, more snacks. We definitely need more snacks.

All in all Montana was a good time. Juliette started walking for reals (not just the two or three step thing she was doing before), we saw some nudists at a hot springs, and I discovered I’m pretty awesome at sack racing. It was fun to spend time with family. Every time we get the whole family together we say that it will probably never happen again, but somehow it always does. I guess we’re lucky that way.