Vacation! AKA: A lot of driving and picture taking. :-)

We started off by heading to Cedar Springs, WA to help my grandparents celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. We stayed at a lovely little "retreat" center, complete with swans and very loud bull-frogs. It was wonderful to see my family again and Charlie got to meet several aunts, uncles, cousins and even his great-grandparents!

(this last pic is not Charlie, but his cousin Johnny)

Then we headed south to spend the weekend with my parents on the farm, where we relaxed and, aside from Keith getting the worst allergies of his life, generally had a very pleasant time soaking up the abundant green of western Washington and trying to convince Charlie that sleeping at night, even on vacation, is something we are in favor of. Then we packed up again and drove down a portion of the Oregon coast, starting in Astoria (hooray Goonies!), through Cannon Beach, stopping to see friends staying at "Family Camp" on Rockaway Beach, toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and finally ended up at the Dodson's in Portland for the night. Whew!

On Wednesday, we visited a park in Portland that is home to a volcano, stopped by Powell's book store (which should be one of the Seven Wonders and could have sucked us in for hours had we not had the meter running) and finally headed back to Rochester (where my parent's farm is) after catching a glimpse of this enourmous ship called The World which looked like a floating aparment building. Once we got to Rochester, we picked up a brand-new trailer, loaded it with a freezer my parent's gave us, and settled down for one last night of Vacation.

On Thursday, one week after leaving home, we nosed the Pathfinder eastward. Charlie, who really did handle most of the driving quite well, had finally had enough of his carseat by the time we were halfway home, and really let us know his feelings on the situation for the rest of the trip. Poor guy. But I will say, the day after we got home, you never saw a more cheerful baby. Good to be home, eh Charlie boy?