Thankful For Summer Fun

It has been a fabulous summer, not worrying about what to eat, enjoying a "normal" life. We managed to totally ignore Aspen's illness for three full months! (And it was even doctor's orders) It was restful and we are thankful. So here's our summer in photos...if you've been wondering where we've been and what we've been doing...

It all started with a flurry of activities...Great Grandma R. had surgery (I won't post her picture, she'll probably appreciate that), Ken graduated, Paul had a fun birthday at Bullwinkles...then we went off to Girl Scout camp! Nora, Aspen, Steffi & Cierra outside our yurt at camp.


We went camping as a family at Cascadia. It's a beautiful spot that means a lot to us because the girls were baptized in the river there.

We had lots of visitors this summer...Great Grandma S. came up from California with Aunt Carole, and cousins Suzanne and Bruce visited from SO California. The dad's took the girls on a backpacking trip into the Opal Creek Wilderness and they checkout out some old mines. L to R: Cierra, Hannah, Gretta, Aspen & Sarah








Aspen has taken up photography quite seriously this summer and gets some poignant & well composed photos.



Cierra competed in a Feis in Seattle...here she is all ready to dance. She took a second place medal there and then we stayed with Uncle Danny & Aunt Hillary for a few days. We saw Uncle Dave and his tribe while we were there, as well as Great Aunt & Uncle, Lou and Murray.



All summer the girls have been working on their Girl Scout Bronze Award ...the highest award Junior Girl Scouts can earn. They are collecting donations of items to go in Hope Kits
...toothbrushes, soap, combs, brushes, toothpaste, washcloths, chewing gum and gallon size zip lock bags...to help families with basic needs throughout the world in conjunction with Medical Teams International. They have put together almost 50 so far. Photo by Aspen of a home in a garbage dump in Mexico simulated at MTI.






















We spent a week at Dorena Lake with Aunt Sherrie, Uncle Mike, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Blake, Grandma T., and Pop-pop where there was much skiing, tubing, boarding, fishing, reading, crossword puzzling, swimming and rescuing things from the lake...like Jake, the Fake Snake in the Lake. Aspen fished, but didn't want to touch her catch that Uncle Mike put back in the lake.
























































The girls attended Extreme Vacation...Vacation Bible School for Junior High kids. And I helped out at VBS. Then we went up to OHSU and Aspen got the perfect pic of the tram going in the opposite direction. It is a beautiful view from up there. And we met my father, Nathan and his wife, Diane for dinner.





The Girl Scouts also went together on a week long trip to Bend where they made it to the end of the lava tubes among other things.