summer time!

The weekend before school ended, the cub scout pack made their annual trip to Thompson Lake.  Ben and I decided to join in on the second night of the weekend camp. Thompson Lake is a private campground owned by a timber family.  The lake was small enough to paddle across, which the boys did many many times.  It also was teaming with newts.  Four other families and their boys were with us and everyone had a great- and muddy- time.  Ben did great camping and proved to us that we could do a longer trip later in the summer.

Owen finished first grade, and he and Richard did their third annual Champoeg camping trip.  They brought their bikes and pedaled all around, to the museum and to ice cream.  All reports are that they had a blast.

Ben said goodbye to the Monroe Center, and his good friends there, Valerie and Natalie.  The boys stayed home over the summer with Lindsey, a teacher from Monroe Center.  The three of them had a great summer and went on lots of adventures around Corvallis, including hunts for construction equipment, which the boys lovingly call Mighty Machines.  The themes of the summer were Pirates and Mighty Machines.

Richard and Owen planted a garden again this year, and it was productive all summer, with beautiful berries and veggies to keep the boys snacking while they played in the yard.  Both boys would walk over, grab a leaf of kale, and munch on it while playing on the swings.  The last picture is the boys putting on a magic show for us.

end of may

Owen and Richard had a wonderful year with their Cub Scout troop, and both of them bridged to Wolf's in May.  The same troop is together this Fall, a trio of high energy boys (with a high energy leader).  Owen earned a number of badges and belt loops last year, and several more this summer (including the fishing belt loop and pin with Grandpa George).

My dad visited at the end of May and we and the Muhly's made a coast safari, staying at two different coast hotels to enjoy the pools and the coast.  Some cool sailing ships came to port while we were there, and we all enjoyed touring them.  One of them had been used in filming Pirates of the Caribbean, and this ignited all new interest in both boys about pirates which lasted all summer.  Ben is going to be a pirate for Halloween and both have awesome pirate accents.  Ben's favorite pirate: Captain Jack Sparrow, of course.

Before he left, we had a little birthday party for my dad, and then sent him back to Virginia where we'd follow him in less than a month.

anachronistic may

I have not been good this year about maintaining the blog.  And the longer I wait, the more overwhelming it feels.  So... here we go again.  I did a post for Owen's birthday in July, but missed May, June and the rest of July including our trip east.  So lets go back in time, shall we?  I am sure I've missed all sorts of awesome milestones and cuteness from the kids, but at least we have pictures!!

May 2012... Ben is still at Monroe Center, Owen is in First grade.  It's starting to get warmer, though we will still have grey rainy days till July (but we don't know that yet, so have reason to be optimistic).  The original Condo Tent got a leak last year, so we made a Costco run and got the new and improved Condo Tent XL.  The boys were VERY excited.  Richard was less than excited about wrangling a new tent, but it turned out to be quite easy.  We did a trial run in the back yard, which resulted in Owen and I getting cold and coming in half way through the night.

The morning after our night in the tent, I flew to Dusseldorf, Germany for Drupa, a big printing trade show. This trade show takes place only once every four years and is the biggest show for industrial printing.  I failed to take any pictures of our booth (or of me looking super professional in my new suits) but our newest press, the T400, was there and put on an excellent performance.  For 3 days I worked the booth and walked the 20 buildings that made up the tradeshow, and ate delicious food each night.  When the show finished, I got on the train and headed to Munich to visit with my cousin, Mallorie and her fiance Fred.  Mallorie and Fred showed me Munich for a couple of days, visiting great beer gardens, some beautiful buildings and parks, and some great food.  It was great to catch up with her, learn about her work and Fred's work, and learn about Munich.  It was a beautiful city.  I also had a quest for Germany's best pretzel, and think I found it at the beer garden with the deer.