We ended the summer with a Boston-Edwards family reunion. Our family joined Sue, Rod, Emily, Tom, Ian, Caleb, and Leo for a week in Sunriver in Central Oregon. As expected, it was a loud and somewhat sleepless affair, with kids aged 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The first day started off with a bang! Four of the five kids were up at 4:00 a.m. to greet the day, and Leo was down for his midday nap at 7:30 a.m.--James hadn't even woken for the day. A few epic meltdowns later, we were back on track for vacation fun.
The highlight for the Edwards crew was the time they spent away from us on a quick day trip to Crater Lake, which we won't take personally. Our highlights were the time we spent swimming at North Twin Lake and SHARC, the aquatic park in Sunriver. After months and months of swimming lessons in preparation for this vacation, Ava swam like a fish when we were at the pool and perfected some party tricks--somersaults, hand stands, underwater picnics, cannonballs, diving for diving sticks, elementary back stroke, and some aquatic spasms she described as "butterfly." Ian was game for pool time as well and spent the bulk of his time screaming, "Auntie Helen, watch this!" and then kicking large volumes of water directly into Auntie Helen's face. I imagine Tom put him up to it.
We also spent some time at the High Desert Museum, took a long drive to a short hike by a waterfall (which the children agreed to in exchange for payment in muffins), rode bikes like crazy (including Emily, who is such a city girl she had to relearn on site), and Ava even rode a pony (almost as shocking as Emily riding a bike).
