July 10th weekend.

Just as soon as we mentally prepared to deal with the hot days of Summer, temperatures dropped again.  The weekend was still very warm and sunny, but as the following week started off, it got cooler and cooler..

On Sunday I took Larissa and Jon to a Lavender farm.  We walked through a field of flowers, checked out local vendors selling their crafts, then for $5 we got to cut our own selection of lavender.

There were many bees on the flowers, which made me wonder if there is a lavender honey for sale nearby...

on the way out we stooped by a lama farm and (very carefully) admired the animals.  Kids were afraid that lamas would get spooked and spit on them...

Independence Day 2010

Looks like the Summer is finally here!  It took a while, but now that it is here, it is stinking HOT! 
First we have a record coldest and a record wettest Summer, then , fast forward to this week, and we are breaking records with the hot temperatures.  That's Oregon for you...

This Saturday I got busy with everything I meant to do when it gets warm (and I have some free time), including cleaning a back deck, and pressure-washing the backyard cement slab, putting up Jon's "igloo" for him to play outback, and finally making those "home made pop tarts".

Jon quickly settled in his tent with a portable DVD player and pretty much spent all day there:

I had a little bit of trouble rolling out pop-tarts' dough thin enough, but I think they came out pretty good.

I think the fact that they were all gone in two days speaks for itself...

On Sunday I took kids to the store and we picked out some fireworks.  Nothing crazy (not that we could with the Oregon's laws anyway).  When it finally got dark we joined our neighbors and put up some firework show!

June 26th weekend

This weekend we had only a few (but important) things to take care off, the rest was all unplanned.

First things first, Miranda's birthday.  She is now 17 years old!  I remember her mentioning that she never had a Boston Cream pie, so instead of a traditional sugar and dough cake we got a pie to share.  I think everyone really enjoyed it!

Second important thing was to get Gabe's rental baritone horn returned to the music store and to decide if we would actually buy a Euphonium for him to use in Middle and High School band.  We decided it was better money spent on buying it, rather than continuing renting it.
On Saturday we loaded in the entire family (and the instrument too) and headed to Vancouver Washington.  We hardly ever go that way, so it was almost a big deal...
We had so much fun looking at everything.  The store is huge and if you need something, you are sure to find it there!  With all the excitement, I didn't even take any pictures!

Since we were already in Washington, I got some Sudafed, I can breathe now! (Stinking Oregon laws!)

On Sunday we realized that a strawberry season is already here and we better not miss it, it isn't very long.
Hot day, dusty roads, running through a tall grass, that's when Larissa's allergies kicked in, times ten.  Poor kid had to take Benadryl, her arms got covered with red spots, and she couldn't open her eyes till the medicine kicked in. 

Monday through Thursday Gabe attended a Lacrosse camp.  It might have been a little more than kids bargained for.  Four hours of training and playing each day...  that's some Summer vacation

(Caleb & Gabe after practice)