Summer 2020

 

CET 9 yrs and 9 mo

Since the boys literally had no human contact except for Phil and I for months on end and not to mention we had among the lowest COVID19 rates in the country (and still do, woohoo!). We started off the summer by visiting my mom and sister in CA. The boys spent two, much deserved, weeks with a change of scenery. Phil and I didn't do much back at home since everything was still very much in shutdown mode, but it was a nice break from child rearing, ha!

On a day that was going to be 100F in Portland we escaped to the beach were it was 86F! The hottest we've ever experienced on the coast. You are lucky when it gets to 75F. The water was still of course ice cold but we'll take it!

CET turned 9 yrs and 10 mo old while we were camping in eastern Oregon.

Thankfully we camped near a lake because it was over 100F! The boys played their little hearts out for 5 hours straight here. They were exhausted afterwards, ha!

We canceled our big international trip due to the pandy (aka the pandemic). So we planned another big trip! First stop Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We only planned to camp here for one night on our way east because we hadn't realized how beautiful it is here. We'll definitely be back and I can't believe it's only 6 hours from Portland, like why didn't anyone tell me about this place before!

CET turned 9 yrs and 11 mo old in Glacier National Park!!!

This is a long hike we did to Hidden Lake. It was breathtaking how beautiful it was here. Phil and Eli caught some huge trout in that lake. 

We explored and fished a river in the Park. They say this is big sky country and it really does seem like the sky is so much bigger than normal!

We went backpacking just outside of Glacier. We trekked through the densest brush ever but we finally made it after 3 miles straight uphill. Caleb and I joked that it felt like 7 miles!

Caleb was the keeper of one of our bear sprays, he carried it around the whole time.

Thank goodness we never saw a single bear, I was so paranoid!

Montana spoiled us, the boys and Phil caught so many fish!

We practically had this whole lake to ourselves.

First day of virtual learning. It barely deserves a picture, ha! I couldn't even bring myself to write out "First day of 4th Grade." All it deserved was a 4. Here we go again with this nonsense...

I feel like we made the most of this summer and had a lot of fun outdoors all while avoiding "the sickness." It scares me to think what winter will be like when we can't go outside as much as we want. Our COVID19 rates here in Oregon are doing so well and if they go even lower there is a chance they could actually go back to in person learning. But with cold and flu season coming I just don't see this happening. It's going to be a tough next season in all respects so I'm glad we did so much this summer!