Summer's End - Lake Easton

As a final family gathering for the summer, we met up with Drew and his family in the Cascade Mountains at Lake Easton for a day of hiking and canoeing. This lake about half way between Drew's home on the eastern side of the mountains and ours on the western side. It is a beautiful, pristine, alpine lake about 2200 feet above sea level. We were all surprised at how cool it was, especially since it is still August. The temperature was in the low 60's, but the wind made it feel much colder than that.
With the children starting back to school and Mark leaving tomorrow to go back to college, this was the last chance for all 7 of us to get together. We met in the morning for a 3-mile hike, had a picnic lunch, and then went canoeing in the afternoon. We finished off the day by going to a local restaurant for dinner and then we headed back home to our side of the mountains as Drew and his family headed back home to their house. It was a great day for all of us and a great way to finish the summer. Here are some pictures ......

John, Sarah, JJ, and Drew carrying Hannah, as we hiked all the way around Lake Easton


Mark with JJ and Hannah overlooking the lake

Mark, Drew, JJ, and Hannah walking through an old railroad tunnel.


John, JJ, and Mark - all seasoned canoers!



Returning from the last canoe ride of the day - Sarah, Hannah, and Drew.

Summer '08

This summer has brought more wildlife to our neighborhood than we have had in the 30 years we've been here. Most exciting was the black bear that had been reported, but not seen by us until last month. He was crossing the street seemingly unaware of us as we drove on to our street. We'll watch a little more carefully when we are out walking now! We've also had reports by neighbors about bobcat sightings. So far we haven't seen one ourselves, but our next door neighbors photographed two on their property. The usual coyotes haven't caused a stir, nor have the ever-present deer other than eating my roses and berries.

Wildlife is abundant and part of the allure of living here in the Great Pacific Northwest.

Deer on our front lawn.

We've also had a few short trips away from home. In June, we went to California to visit Mark who had a summer internship down that way. We also got to see my sister who is in that area.

Last month we went to the Oregon coast for a couple of days where our daughter-in-law's parents were celebrating their 40th anniversary. What a great place the Oregon coast is! The beaches are wide and expansive with relatively few visitors. We went on long walks, flew kites, rode beach bikes, played with the grandchildren, and roasted marchmallows on the beach as the sun set.



Houseguests have been abundant, as well. My cousin from Texas who had never been to the northwest, came for a short visit. The weather was uncharacteristically very cooperative and we had a grand time showing off the local sites. They had heard rumors about all the rain, but they were pleasantly surprised at the balmy days we had during their visit.

The grandchildren came individually for visits, which has become a much anticipated event for them and for us. They also came with their family a couple of times.

Mark is due home on Monday and will get to be with us for 2 weeks before heading back to Boston.

That's it for another session. We'll be back when there is more to say.......

Intro

Welcome to our new blog! In this first post we'll introduce you to our family and fill you in on what we've been doing this summer.

John and I still live in the same house we've been in for almost 30 years now. That will be changing soon, but for now we are still here.

Mark (with John and me in the picture) just had his 21st birthday earlier this year and attends college in Boston, so he isn't here much any more, but we do visit back and forth several times a year. No telling where he'll be this time next year. We'll let you know when we do. He gets home about 3 times a year and we get out there once or twice to see him, so it works out OK for us.

Mark is our traveller. He worked on building an orphanage in Thailand the summer before graduating high school. He trekked through Iceland after high school graduation and just recently completed a 3-week, 700+mile bicycle trip in Japan. There have been other trips, but those stand out most.

Drew married his college sweetheart, Sarah, shortly after graduating and has started his own family.

They blessed us with our first grandson - John Andrew Reed V - who quickly became known to everyone as "JJ". Three years later little Hannah came along, so now we finally have a little girl in the family.

Note: I'm tempted to fill the entire blog with adorable pictures of our grands, but will spare you that - for now, although I couldn't resist just one more..........

We know everyone says their grandchildren are the best, but ours really are.

That's it for now. This blogging thing is really time consuming, especially since we are trying to learn as we go, but we'll be back with an overview of how this summer is going.