Ideas for improving your summer

I highly recommend urging some really nice friends to buy a boat. Then you get to ride in the boat without actually buying one and having to figure out how to fix it and all that boring grownup stuff. Plus if you're really cheeky, you can bring more friends along to share the fun, like maybe your red-haired goddaughter (maniac in bottom photo) and her family. And even if on some sunny weekend you aren't invited, as long as you know where they like to launch the boat, you could just sit there and look really pitiful and because they're so nice maybe they'll let you on board anyway. Next summer I could hedge my bets by bringing a cooler full of Pepsi and beer....or ewww, maybe not.

By the way, Lyons Ferry is a fantastic day trip from Walla Walla, but it was a pretty miserable place to camp. Nothing much but sun and rattlesnakes. Poor Claire--we always have her stay with us for the hottest week of the summer!

The Fourth of July

We couldn't think of anything to do after church, and since it was 98 degrees on our shaded front porch, we headed up to Harris Park for a cool late afternoon walk. HA. We should have known this was a bad idea when we saw only about three other cars at the trailhead. It was quite hot despite an occasional breeze from the river. So we had a very short walk (didn't even get as far as the rock fireplaces) and spent most of the time skipping rocks.


The highlight was stopping to return a couple of books and say hello to Sherry, Patrick, and Leroy, which turned into a pizza supper, which turned into fireworks way past dark. (Perhaps this is why people turn out the lights and hide when they see our van drive by? Hmmmm.)

I've read so many articles at work about Fireworks Danger ("You'll put your eye out!") that I can barely get myself to look at a fireworks stand, so Ethan was pretty thrilled when Patrick generously shared the privilege of lighting his fireworks...and Mom allowed it. Good times!