i was going to call this The Present, but time has dictated that its now the past, again...

Two weeks ago I embarked on a journey south, to Klamath Falls by train to visit my family with Theo and Julia. Grace and my Aunt Jean joined me on the train, and a good thing they did as I learned that traveling with two kids is 3 times as hard as traveling with one. Even when everything went according to plan. Despite the stress of travel, we had a lovely time, as evidenced below. It was so great to see Aunt Jean. I don't get out to Minnesota much these days, and so it was really wonderful to have her come visit us.

all together on the train!

Theo started saving up his poops, to be dispensed at inconvenient times, such as while on a train. Wish you were here, Daddy! (he had to stay behind to interview and hire the new elem principal)

Theo meeting Grandpoppa Jack for the first time.

and Grandmomma Dawn, for the second time. 

and meeting Great Granny for the first time too. We had a lovely dessert of lemon cake, ice cream and raspberries from her garden. No photos to show for it, but we also had a great dinner with my Aunt Christine and Uncle Mark. Everyone else went for a sail on his boat while the kiddos and I swam in the pool. 

My Granny is an amazing and prolific quilter, and while visiting her we got a show of recent works. Here's most of them, as I missed photographing the first couple ones.  

she's pretty incredible. oh, and she does all her quilting by hand. 

Julia was thrilled to bits to be with "Owaf" again. They played and played and I'm always impressed with his tolerance of her energy.  

Our friend Daniel Lund joined us

momma cooked and cooked and baked and cooked some more. 

getting ready for breakfast in the cool of the morning. It was hot hot hot!

Olaf's room is looking more grown up these days. Not just an enormous pile of legos. 

Then we loaded up and took off for the Oregon/California coast and the Redwoods! This picture is at Lake of the Woods on the way. Julia was charming some ducks with bread. 

Momma Dawn is convinced that someday a pit bull is going to eat Loki, so she scoops him up whenever she sees one. 

in a tree house along the way

after a long couple hours of driving, the temperature finally plummeted and we arrived at the beautiful coast. Here my pictures end as my camera/phone drained of all battery on the drive over and the campgrounds had nary an electric outlet to be found anywhere. We camped for two nights and had a fine time. Julia loved being in tents, and Theo did really well too, despite the chill nights and the bouncing of sleeping on an air mattress. We hiked a fairly challenging trail to the coast and had lunch at a beautiful isolated beach. We also revisited a favorite river, the Smith at Jedediah Smith State Park. The whole trip, Theo was a model of perfection. All smiles and charms and coos and long naps and sleeping at night. Well the changeling is here now, and he's all gas and fussy and put-me-down-for-one-minute-and -i'll-scream-so-loud-you'll-be-sorry. Not to mention how he saved his poops up for so many days that when he finally quietly let loose one day while sitting in my lap at lunch, I looked down and could have sworn that someone dumped a giant bowl of squash soup into my lap. unfortunately no picture of that to share, but i've since spend a good deal of time wondering what I would have done if we'd been out in public. No amount of baby wipes was going to clean up that mess.
Anyway, we traveled back by train, and again I was grateful for my sister and Aunt's help on the train.  

We stayed a night with Grandma Gini, said goodbye to Auntie Gracie,

ran lots of errands, and went home on the ferry. (Julia took this picture!) 

It was good to be home! The garden was growing in leaps and bounds! Dave started fermenting pickles, I tried starting a little batch of sauerkraut. Kale, potatoes, chard, green beans, eggs and onions and herbs are in abundance in the garden, and flowers are blooming all over the place. 

We are back into our routine of sharing childcare playdates with friends, EMT call schedules, Dave busy with work, dinners with friends, visitors, and trying to catch up on the endless list of chores. The summer is rolling by and I'm trying to remember to look around and enjoy it every now and then!