Reunions!

     We had some great reunion time here in California once we all made it back to the states. We came in shifts, and the Iceland bunch were the last to arrive at the Montrose homestead. We obviously had had a long and exhausting travel day and were ready to plop when we arrived--luckily Thomas and Becca had turned their entire living room into one huge mattress so that for one night we could all fit here, so when Margaret surprised us in said living room by her presence that night no one was hurt as knees gave out and people (aka me) did in fact, plop.

We had thought our reunion would be grand and glorious but not quite complete, since she was in South Carolina and had recently visited when Mo was born. But somehow she had about 10 days of leave and Madeleine bought her a ticket and surprised us all! The whole family together once again.

A visit to the Griffith
Observatory with old friends!

      We split up between Mr. Bessett's house and Montrose, and spent a lot of time playing with and getting to know the nieces, swimming in the pool, playing board games, cooking and enjoying each other.

Lovely ladies

We had chances to go to Ojai and visit with old friends, and get to know some of our new neighborhood--Thomas gave us a tour of St. Monicas, and although still living out of huge suitcases and so not quite settled in, it was a good, relaxing "summer" time without too much business or logistics.

We had a great fourth of July; Thomas, Mr. Bessett, Margaret and I ran a 5k in the morning, we swam a lot and had some friends over in the evening. Madeleine was still working at Gio's, and kept bringing home boxes and boxes of pastries that weren't sold that day, so we were well supplied with sugar and joy. ;)

Finished our 5K!

     After Margaret left several of us stayed mostly at Thomas and Becca's, and we had some more relaxing weeks of free time. I started learning the banjo and looking for jobs. I had a first interview with Trader Joe's before our reunion in Oregon, and after that went well and we scheduled another, we got to go on a family vacation/reunion up to Oregon, a little break from trying to settle in and think about jobs and such.

Smelling the vanilla pine at a rest stop...

We split into two cars, Mom and Dad and the younger girls packing all their stuff up to continue up to Washington to stay after the reunion. We had a lovely, two day drive up, Gianna and Mo behaved very well and kept us entertained. PACEEDUCKY! Was a common outcry from Gianna, who wanted her pacifier and duck stuffed animal so she could take her nap. (Or more like so she could look mischievously at everybody in the car and say their names sneakily so that we would laugh. We were all trying valiantly to completely ignore her so she would fall asleep. It was a struggle.)

Mass on the way up to Oregon! 

      We arrived safely in Oregon in the afternoon and met up with Grandma and Grandpa Cassidy, Aunt Ruth, Uncle Tom and our cousin Sam, and Martin and Lael (who we'd last seen in Vienna!). It was a beautiful and spacious cabin in Bend, Oregon, with a big game room, and plenty of large animals or their horns stuck to the walls in various places (tastefully).

Arrived safe and sound!

The kitchen was big and well stocked, but it still was quite the trick to maneuver during meal time. Everybody cooperated and helped and we had delicious meals every night: Grandpa's magical microwave corn on the cob, to Lael's black bean soup and Elizabeth's--with key input from Grandma-- linguine and clam sauce. We played plenty of ping-pong and pool and board game's, Rebecca made some alarmingly quick progress on a huge puzzle, and we had several lovely guitar/banjo/ukelele/singing sessions on the front porch.

Cassidy jam session

Madeleine and I went for a few runs through the woods and houses, enjoying the deer and beautiful, fresh smells and not so much enjoying the hills. A small group of us went for a hike one evening to a mountain (near?) Mt. Bachelor, and got to the top just in time for a beautiful sunset. It was about four miles over all I think, rather steep and worth it. Their were lupines and old, slightly burnt sometimes and interesting looking trees, and miles and miles of forest to look out over from the top.

Our sunset hike.

There was still some snow on the top, and the weather was perfect. The next day the whole clan came for another hike to Smith Rocks--long, steep and magnificent.

The first part was really steep and so we all took it at our own pace, some going part way and then coming back down again to enjoy the river and day without feeling like the whole world was attempting to grind them into the dust, while others decided to continue to the top before heading down the other side. It was a beautiful hike, and it was fun meeting up with random people throughout. There were a couple guys who we kept passing, being passed by, losing and finding again, and it was pretty funny to note their interactions and conversations as we did. "Come on you old geezer! (shouted the clearly much older man who was further up than his compatriot, breathing very hard and beaming like a happy six year old) You're the one with the water and you're way down there! How's a man supposed to drink? You old man!" His friend looked like he didn't quite appreciate the joke as much as his buddy, reminding me of what a wearied babysitter might look like who'd come to the end of a long day with an energetic child who shows no signs of winding down.

Ready to hike!

We all stopped for a rest, and our energetic friend began talking to another woman who was sitting down on a rock. "That's great, I've been there! But actually we're on a visit here too from my home in.... my town uh....It's called--Hell I forgot the name! *shouts down to his friend* HEY JIM! Where do I live?" Apparently he just moved there, which makes sense. We've moved around so much lately that I often forget where I'm going home to when I'm out somewhere. Gianna mostly let herself be carried, but near the end she insisted on slowly walking in the sand and saying over and over, "I love dirt!". So now we often say, "Gianna, what do you love?" "DIRT!"

We were all grateful to see Thomas and Becca get
some fresh air in lovely Oregon...LA had done
strange things to them

   

One great and one regular Grandma. ;)

 Our last day at the cabin Grandpa treated us to the High Desert Museum which was really neat. We got to learn all about what that area was like during gold rush and covered wagon times, seeing a special exhibit about life there during WWll, the war training operations, and the development of the nuclear bomb, and then we watched some happy otters and spent a while at the at the reenactment homestead, seeing how they lived there in the 1860's and playing a cool catch game with wooden loops and sticks. After a happy time together in Oregon (although Margaret and Joseph couldn't be there with us), we said a tearful, grateful goodbye to the younger half of the family and Mom and Dad, and they went north and we went south. Till next time!