Summer Vacation

We got back from our summer vacation on Saturday, and this being Wednesday, it's probably high time that I made a post for the blog. At least I'm not obsessing and spending way too much time on it....I'm doing that with quilting and sewing. Thanks Mom. Bet you never thought that would happen when I weaseled my way out of home ec in the eighth grade. :-)

We spent our vacation in Wenatchee, WA (one night) and Tumalo near Bend, OR (five nights). Our family was there, plus my mom and dad, my niece Dory, my aunt Cindy and her family, and Cindy's friend Deena and her daughter...did I get everyone? Oh yes--Diana, a longtime friend of my parents, also joined us. Oh and Deke and Debby stopped by....Now I think I got everyone. There was a lot of people, but things went pretty smoothly. No chipmucks harvested my hair this time for their nests (very traumatic experience four years ago at this same campground).

So what'd we do? On the first day, we traveled to Wenatchee to see the Apple Run Car Show. The ride over was great--we used a technique that Sean's friend (father of five kids) uses to ensure sibling harmony on long rides. Pay the kids a quarter for every 20 minutes (or whatever length of time would hold their interest and effort) of good behavior. And when they want you to buy some little trinket souvenir or candy, they have their own money! It worked fabulously! Owen didn't earn his quarter a couple times, but slept for at least a few hours--I was tempted to pay him double during the naps.

We also made a few stops on the trip to find geocaches in the different map pages of the DeLorme maps of Washington. It's a challenge that we've been doing with geocaching (http://www.geocaching.com/), and hope to complete in the next couple years. That way, we can say we've been all over our state and seen it all.

When we arrived in Wenatchee it was SO HOT. Probably around 100 degrees. Or maybe since we were coming from the naturally air-conditioned northwest Washington, it was really only 90 degrees, but we were so *sensitive*. Sean looked around at the car show, but the boys and I just sat on our duffs for a few hours. Too hot to move. That night, we stayed at Lincoln Rock State Park, and we all took a dip in the reservoir there. COLD. Just ask Sean who tried to swim in it. We think Owen drank some...because a couple days later in Tumalo, Owen had a high fever and was hallucinating at nighttime. Thankfully, ibuprofen worked great to keep his fever down, and it passed in about 24 hours.

While we were in Bend (and Owen was healthy), we visited the city's pool (awesome!), went in the river, went to the small town of Sisters to visit the best-stocked quilt shop EVER, visted the Lava Tube Cave and Visitor's Center just south of Bend, and cheered on the Bellingham Bells at a 4th of July baseball game. A great time was had by all...I would show you in pictures, but for some UNKWNOWN REASON the pictures won't post. Hopefully I can fix that and post pictures, but until then, just take my word for it.

Love, Melinda