Quest for a Spinny Thing. . .

At the beginning of May, Gloria and I drove to Newberg to pick up Zach and all of the stuff he had accumulated over the 2 semesters at Fox.  We were barely able to fit it all in:

(Picture date: May 3, 2104)

The only thing that wouldn't fit was his huge TV so I convinced him to take it to the Youth Ranch by agreeing to buy him a small flat panel in the fall (It's now fall and I'm going to have to follow through on that!!). 

So, we said good-bye to Jered and all of his room mates, stopped for lunch and headed for Portland. . .

We were seriously packed to the hilt. . .

Gloria decided that she really wanted to find a park with a Spinny Thing.  She's always loved Merry-Go-Rounds and they are difficult to find these days.  Could be because they are stupid-dangerous but, whatever. 

I told her if she could find one in Portland we could stop for a few minutes.  She did a Google Search and we let our GPS take us on a wild goose chase through Portland.  It was at least two hours of driving around before we actually found one.  In the meantime, Zach had fallen asleep and had no idea where we were when we finally stopped in a wooded area.  I honestly had no idea either.  Thank goodness for GPS.  It was very pretty, though!!

 

Honestly, my heart aches looking at these pictures because times like these are few and far between these days.  I love watching my kids interact and call out, "Mom, watch this!!"  These are the moments that I will remember. . .

Zach's Cooking. . .

I have much to say about Zach's college experience and now that I'm blogging again, I'll do it in bits and pieces.  The second semester of his Junior year at Fox he started to do his own grocery shopping and cooking.  He's pretty thrifty to begin with but coming to terms with how much the meal plan at Fox was costing him (me) and how much was wasted, he decided to cook for himself.  He planned, budgeted, asked for suggestions, found a thrift store crock pot and started to cook for himself.  By the time he got home for the summer, he was an expert.  I'm not much of a cook or a shopper so there wasn't much food in the house for him to choose from but he still managed to pick and choose and put meals together for the family.  It was lovely. 

This is just one of his creations.  It was pretty good, too. (Picture taken May 12, 2014)

McCall Trip With Gloria and Aspen. . .

This is the second summer that Zach has been on summer staff at Quaker Hill.  It's just one more reason for me to visit McCall!  I don't remember now the point of this trip but we had a good time with Gloria's friend, Aspen.  She's great.  Very much like Gloria and they get along like sisters.  Not always a good thing.  But fun to watch. . . (Original date of photos: June 7th, 2014)

Road Trip!!!!

It was a gorgeous day but still a little bit chilly since it was early June.  There are perks to having a kid on summer staff like good beach access and kayaks!

Zach had to work so we only saw him a couple of times.  The girls didn't mind.  The water was cold but they decided to jump in together. . .

This is the girls mentally preparing to jump off the dock:

This is Gloria preparing to jump off the dock and Aspen mentally preparing to run. . .

This is Gloria poised on the edge and this is Aspen ready to totally ditch the whole idea:

This is Gloria becoming aware that Aspen is ditching. . .

This is Gloria catching herself as Aspen totally ditches!!!

This is Gloria yelling at Aspen and Aspen running away laughing. . .

Fuming maybe??

And friends again. . .

Jake got in on the fun. . .

Zach insisted we bring Jake because he didn't have a chance to say good-bye and, of course, Lulu had to come along. . .

Did I mention that I think Aspen is great?? (Of course, I think Gloria is Super Great!)

Another perk: The zip line. . .

When Zach finally got off work we went to Ice Cream Alley. . .

 

 He showed me the life journey that he created as part of a group project among the summer staff:

And now I remember why we went- Zach wanted a keyboard to play and Rob happened to have an extra.  We went up there to deliver it.  And to play, obviously. . .

We wrapped up the evening by frolicking on the beach. . .

These girls are so GREAT!!!

Lovely Lu. . .

(Photos by Gloria, taken June 4th 2014)