Summer Dayz

It is officially September so I decided to fill everyone in on what we've been up to this past summer.

We just got back from a quick trip to the Oregon coast. We stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory (mmm...cheese curds), waded in the river, and went to beautiful Oceanside beach. The view was spectacular, but the whipping sand forced us to leave the ocean sooner than we would have liked. Luckily we retreated back to our friend's beach house where we cozied up and watched "Confessions of a Shopaholic."

My oldest sister Tarja and her three children Reagan, Kamryn, and Ethan were visiting from California for six weeks so we've taken advantage of this treat and done some fun things. My brother Teem and his family also spent about two weeks with us. Over the 4th of July we went camping up North at Riffe Lake. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Teem brought his new boat for tubing and fishing. We watched a fantastic fireworks show right at the campground since the owner's brother lives next door and does a show every year with an actual flamethrower. All the kids loved it...but I think the firewworks startled Reina a bit so we didn't keep her out too long. This was Reina's first camping trip and she did great! But of course she always does. The only thing we were worried about was sleeping in a new and unfamiliar place, but she did just as good as at home. We are glad she is so adaptive to the environment. (hmmm, now I sound like a biology teacher). We didn't have a sleeping bag for her so I had the idea to use her too big snowsuit as her sleeping bag...yes, you can use this idea!

I think Tarja and her family are head-over-heels in love with Reina. Her cousins just can't resist keeping their hands off of her; those of you who know me know how I am about hands and germs. Anywhoo, we all have had our fair share of being sick this summer. It's been rotating from Paul, to Reina, to me, and back and forth. I heard on the news that if you have had fever and flu-like symptoms this summer that it is probably the swine flu. If that's the case, then we will be immune to it this fall! So I'm a little behind on getting Reina's 6 month shots since she has been sick off and on.

We took our annual trip to Loon Lake with all of my (Aliisa's) family. We of course did the usual boating, fishing, relaxing, and taking family photos. This was Paul and my first time wakeboarding. Paul got up on his first attempt and did great! I, however, only lasted a couple of seconds up then didn't know how to stay up...next year right? Tubing was a lot of fun though because both of my sisters and I rode at the same time for 30 minutes while my brother tried to throw us off; of course I was his only success at being flipped off the tube. I could hear everyone laugh as they zoomed past me STILL on the tube. I do have a rug burn on my hand to prove how hard I was holding on. Although this has been a super-busy summer, we are glad that we have some great memories to look back on with family. We just love our family, the BIG and the small!

P.S. Here are some family pictures my sister Sanni took. She did a great job as usual, and Reina looks especially cute even though she was very hungry...as you can tell by one particular photo.