Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Summer Vacation Photo Essay

Finally I am posting pics from our two-part vacation at the end of August/beginning of September!

We bought a new car this summer: a 2003 Subaru Outback--a car that I've been wanting since they first came out. The funny thing is, the other two families we went camping with have a 2000 blue Outback and a 2001 green Outback respectively. We looked like dorks but we didn't care!

Here she is on her maiden voyage!


This is Ruby's favorite way to travel.


But sometimes we make her go in the back with the kids.



Self-portrait with girl sticking her tongue out.


The first thing the kids wanted to do when we got there was go swimming. They were offered this raft to play on by some other people hanging around. Here are six-sevenths of the kids from all three of our families. R-L: Eli, Isaac, Jeremyah, Meadow, Michael, Caleb.


I'm so glad my kids learned how to swim...finally!

Despite his best efforts at dodging the camera, I caught this rare photo of Eli smiling.



Here are all seven kids at the table eating. R-L: Meadow, Isaac (you can only see his sleeves next to Meadow), Jeremyah, Josiah, Eli, Michael, Caleb.


Two of my best number one girls: Melanie and Meadow. Melanie is super-mom to Michael, Josiah, and Caleb.


This is Odin proving his skills. Bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills, beer opening skills. Odin is Melanie's hubby.

R-L: Jeff, Kim, and Melanie. Jeff and Kim are mom and dad to Eli and Isaac. Jeff is also the owner of the company that my hubby works for. He's probably the best boss in the world.

Odin says, "Peace out homechickens!"


Hubby and Melanie. Gawd I love these two!



A beautiful photo of two beautiful women. I love these two also!


Six out of seven kids (and a mom) adopting salute stance. I think they were saluting the hawthorn bushes. And of course, my defector daughter!

This beautiful snag was along side of the twisty-turning mountain road where we went for a hike in the hazy hills. There was a forest fire about 30 miles northwest that sent smoke all over, obscuring the ridges.

Ruby the trail dog. She had so much fun running as fast as she could and then turning around to see where we were.


The Columbia River Basin with a blanket of smoke hanging over it.


Michael turned 12 this month! He's very gifted with stringed instruments. I gave him my old bass guitar for his birthday.


Moonrise on the lake.

Jeff holding our finished-off bottle of Milagro Reposado tequila. Leyenda del milagro tequila!

Firelight sparks.



My Mellie and Me.



Kim with her lovely youngest son, both such a pleasure to have on the trip. I've only just begun to get to know Kim after being acquaintences for about 9 years. What an awesome mom and WOMAN!!


Mellie and Odin. Falling in love all over again!


On our way back to the highway from the lake we saw this cliff. Over the years people have scaled its rocky face to spray paint the year on it. Click on the photo to see it enlarged so you can see the painting. I think the earliest year we saw was 1928.



This is an old building in a settler's town that we saw on our way to my mom's house. We saw the sign for a historic town and thought it might be a ghost town, but it turned out that people live there still. It's a cute town, though.


For part two of our trip, hubby and I dropped the kids off at my mom's house and headed north to an island in the Straits. Here is hubby on the foggy morning ferry.


A month or so before, hubby and Jeff did a job on the island (they're environmental scientists doing wetland delineation and water and gas monitoring among other things) and stayed in an apartment on the piece of property they were working on. The Jeff made a deal with the owner, giving hubby and him the opportunity to bring wives to the island for a getaway, with the apartment being the accomodations. This is a big deal because accomodations on the island are sparse and expensive. It's a two bedroom, fully furnished apartment about a seven minute casual walk to the "downtown" area of the biggest town on the island.

Here's one of the bedrooms complete with a king sized bed which Ruby could sleep on with us!


A chair for Ruby.

The livingroom.


The dining area and kitchen behind it.


Cascade Lake.


A pretty pond.


Hubby, Ruby and I at the top of the highest point on the island. If you look closely you can see my hometown to the left of me across the water.


A big, beautiful cedar on the trail we hiked.


Light through stone window.


The tower at the top of the mountain.


Queen Anne's Lace. I never knew that when it goes to seed, the flowers form these little cups that look like hummingbird nests. Nature is so cool.


Lake reflection.


This was the view from our breakfast table the morning we left.


The ferry ride home.

Mountains upon the straits. These mountains have been my home since I was born. They give me comfort.

Sunset on the pond.


Thanks for scrolling through all of these pics. It was an awesome vacation. Much love to all of my companions...you all made it such a pleasure!













4 comments:

Ericson said...

Welcome to the Subaru club, hopefully yours is more reliable thatn mine! Looks like a great trip, I'm jealous.

clara said...

Wow! What gorgeous pictures, it really looked like a great vacation. The moonrise pic is my favorite.

Addie said...

Ahhh...summer. I miss it already. My favorite picture is the one of the fire & sparks.

Midwife-to-be said...

You take the most beautiful pictures. Thanks for visiting my blog and I would love to talk sometime, too. Drop me an email if you still have the address, otherwise I'll get it from Niki, or Big L.