Summer 2025

As the school-year ended the 7th Grade took a three day trip to Ashland to attend the Shakespeare Festival, since that was a topic of study in class.  I was pretty bummed to miss out, as I had now missed the last 3 class field trips.  They are always such a fun way to see Josef, and his peers, in their element.

We went camping at Canal Creek as usual; this year was the wettest yet, and we made a sprawling tent city by lashing together 6 or 7 pop-up canopies.  We still had a blast, huddled under the shelters playing games and making music by the fire.  This is (minus the Covid year) Josef’s 12th straight summer family campout.  I wonder how many more years we can keep the streak going?

Just a few weeks later I headed east and rendezvoused with Uncle James for 5 days in the Eagle Cap Wilderness.  This had long been on my list for its remote beauty; it frequently makes many Oregonians Top 5 list of backcountry areas.  It certainly did not disappoint!  Despite the lingering snows we were able to make the summit.  Our first two cays were hellacious with mosquitoes but after the summit we were able to relocate to a much tamer lake a little bit lower down and then it was just pure bliss.

Josef took part in another summer camp musical experience: Mary Poppins Jr.  He also decided it was time to change up his bedroom, trading out the loft bed and the youthful yellow for a double bed and a classy navy color scheme.  It was fun going through his things and doing the big purge.  We did a pretty good job of not getting side-tracked with nostalgia.  I was proud of him for being ready to let go of a lot of his life’s accumulation; it’s a big deal to get rid of things when you’ve only been alive for 12 years!  The biggest part of the process was his many Lego sets.  We carefully catalogued each one, got the boxes and manuals out of storage, and took them to a resale place.  Over the course of several trips he netted about $800!

We had another big group campout in August with some of the 7th Grade, but a great misfortune occurred when I severely sprained my ankle playing capture the flag with the kids.  I couldn’t walk on it at all for a few days, and it really got me down in the dumps.  I am definitely not satisfied with the current rate at which my physical form seems to be degrading!

We ended the year with another giant group camping affair at Carter Lake.  So fun to see so many friends all in one place.  The “big kids” were especially cliquey this year, wanting to sequester themselves away from adults’ and younger kids’ prying eyes so they could discuss important teen matters and stay up as late as possible.