Summer 2018

WOW.  What a summer!  We just had an absolutely jam-packed awesome good time.  As usual, we kicked things off with four nights of camping with family and friends at Cleator Bend on the Breitenbush River.  Josef has been there every summer of his life!  It’s fun to see him go from a dusty infant crawling around in the dirt to an adventurous little boy racing his scooter around the campground and bushwhacking off into the wilderness.  We played board games, had late-night campfire sing-a-longs, did some fishing, and had an all around blast.  Josef slept with me under the stars every night; he is shaping up to be a fine mountain man someday.

From the river, we went deeper into the woods, meeting up with a fellow father/son team to take our boys on their first ever backpacking trip.  We hiked in to Pamelia Lake in the Mt Jefferson Wilderness.  Both boys were consummate outdoorsmen, hoofing it up to camp with minimal complaint.  They spent the whole first day just climbing around on the massive ancient logjam that had collected at the end of the lake, while Chris and I fly fished and relaxed.  The environment was such that we felt perfectly comfortable letting the boys wander to the other side of the lake, playing and exploring.  I am firmly convinced that there is no better habitat for a boy than the woods!  That night we built a roaring fire and cooked out backpacking meals, and then snuggled up under a blanket beneath a canopy of towering hemlock and doug fir.  The next day Josef and I made a complete circumnavigation of lake, hacking our way through snags and crossing marshes on a network of fallen logs.  It took two hours of slogging, and we loved every minute of it.  It reminded me of just the kind of fun self-imposed challenge my friends and I would have undertaken in our youths, and I am so thrilled to think that I have a burgeoning new companion in these kinds of endeavors.  Upon successful completion of our expedition, we took a nap together in my hammock.  It was the perfect day.

We had one day at home, and then were invited to camp near some sand dunes in Florence with four other families from school.  We couldn’t pass that up, so back out to camping for a few more days!  We had never been to this site before but it was really great: there was a warm lake for swimming and canoeing, sheltered from the winds, and a vast beach about a half-mile walk through the dunes.  The children spent hours hiking to the top of a dune and then running and tumbling down.  If only we could import a massive sand dune to Corvallis, house it in a warehouse, and then serve food and drink!  We would make a fortune!

For Independence Day we kept things pretty simple; a few hours downtown at the bouncy houses and parade, a BBQ at the neighbors, and then some modest fireworks in the driveway.  A classic 4th.  Then we were off for another fantastic camping trip at Cascadia with Gramheart and some of her friends, and Auntie Sarah too.  Josef and I pitched our bedroll in a little copse of trees and had a million stars for a roof.  We went inner tubing on the Santiam and hiked to see the petroglyphs upriver.  Later, a school buddy joined us and we hiked up to the water fall and had a wild rumpus.  ThenI tried to shoot some rapids in my inner tube and darn near cracked my tailbone in half, so I got to spend the next 3 weeks easing myself gingerly in and out of chairs.  I think I got a glimpse into what it might feel like to be elderly…

After that Rachael and I got to spend a day together at the Country Fair, thanks to Auntie Sarah, and it was a blast.  We don’t get to spend too much time just having fun like that, so it was a real treat.  We spent the day wandering around taking in all the sights and silliness, and then returned to Richardson Park to swim and float in the reservoir and eat smoky-nachos by the fire.  The next day Rachael went home to be with Josef and I got to have another day at the Fair, where I spent about 5 hours making rope cordage out of reeds.  It’s a skill I have always wanted to learn.

One might assume that such was as much fun as one could reasonably expect to cram into a summer, but NO.  Summer was only half over my friends.  At this point Rachael and Josef packed up the car and drove off into the sunrise, bound for Ogden and Grammanette, where they would spent the next 2.5 weeks playing with cousins and being doted upon.  Josef went fruit picking in a family orchard, boating and inner tubing, playing at Lagoon (a local amusement park), and go to stay the night with several different bunches of cousins.  They are all the most wonderful and caring folks, I’m glad at any chance for him to be around them.  For my part, I made the absolute most of my solo time back home.  After a few days of non-stop cleaning, chores, errands and projects, I settled into a delicious summertime pace of fun and relaxation.  I basically felt like I was 16 again!  Sleeping in, riding my bike around town, hanging out with friends, walking around campus late at night, watching movies, playing video games, going up to Portland for a concert, backing packing in the Siuslaw Nat’l Forest.  Yeah.  It was good.  After grinding out that insane tax season, I was quite content to only work 2 or 3 days a week for a spell.

In August Josef got to have another cousin-fest, when family from all over came to Corvallis to celebrate Grammie’s 90th birthday.  Folks from Spokane to Escondido congregated at Mary Posey’s home, where she and Gramheart and Aunt Debeedle put on an amazing 3-day party.  It was a cousin-fest for me too; growing up with no siblings, my cousins were some of my best, most-loved friends, and it was such a delight to get so much time with them.

The woes Josef experienced during the year were largely absent this summer, mainly because he never had to wear rain gear or layers or boots, and he wasn’t in school.  So while we couldn’t claim victory, we all certainly enjoyed the reprieve from some of the stressful things we were dealing with.  If you look at the photos below you’ll probably be able to catalog the handful of garments he will tolerate.  But he also matured a lot over the summer; we had our first ever man-to-man talk about the upcoming year in school, about being six, about what it really means to be smart, to be tough, to be a big kid.  It felt like it really landed, and I am proud of him.  Rachael has gone to great lengths to make this coming school year as successful as possible, being so intentional with how his every day will unfold, keeping him nourished and secure and supported, and challenging him to bring out his best.  With such a wonderful restorative summer behind us, we are all feeling full and happy and ready to begin Kindergarten pt II with peaceful and joyful hearts

If the video won’t play, you can watch it here