A New Year Begins

It is always a little daunting to look at the first round of credit card bills after our summer. Rental cars, hotel rooms, and an entire year's worth of shopping! I made myself feel a little better with my first trip back to my regular spa. But (yes, the masseusse's name) made it all go away! Had a mango smoothie on the way home and didn't even think about those bills for the rest of Saturday.

Yes, we are back. After a whirlwind tour of the western United States and some solid time at the place we love most, we came back to our apartment with the air conditioning on for us and the refrigerator stocked. Pleasures of life in Vietnam.

Here are my favorite quotes of the summer:

#1 - Maeve (Out of the blue, listening to the XM movie station in the rental car.)

"Why do all of the movies we watch at home in Vietnam have shadows in front of the movie and the movies here don't?"

#2 Aunt Jen (Maeve aspires to make movies some day and likes listening to the music from movies to try to envision them. That's why we listened to XM radio movie station as much as she would let us. Then she grills you about what the movie is about and tries to connect it all. One night, Aunt Jen rode home with Charles and the girls. )

"You should have warned me! I had to explain Saturday Night Fever and Flashdance."

#3 (Maeve has been voariciously reading about mythology and is hooked. We were around the campfire and Sophie tried to get her hot dog off of the cooking stick, it stuck, and then launched free onto the ground. )

Maeve, " Sophie is hot dog Artemis!!!!!"

Indeed it was a fun summer. And it zoomed by us.

Before we left, we celebrated another important milestone in the Waugh family - Sophie's 5th birthday.

Maeve and Sophie are becoming seasoned travelers! It is still a brutally long trip, but they do such a great job and sleep plenty. Here they are in the Hong Kong Airport before we boarded our flight to LAX.

We got to spend lots of time at Grandma and Grandpa's hip new pad in San Diego. I had forgotten how hard jet lag can be on kids, so it was a bit of a tough week. Mission Beach won out as the best place to go.

Balboa Park was another hit. What an amazing place! Here, Maeve contemplates a reflecting pool.

And here she takes on the stage. So shy that one.

After Charles met us a week later after his class in Bangkok, we packed up a Town and Country and drove north to Oregon. Beautiful, beautiful driving! (And a pleasure to drive after not doing it all year.)

Here is one of our highlights of the trip, Crater Lake in Oregon.

It was the first time that the girls have actually stood in snow! So funny that they had their sandals on.

Their first snowball fight was a highlight of the trip. They had cold hands and feet as we were dressed for summer, but it was worth it.

We had a visit with our dear friends in Portland, Alan and Joanie. A trip to Powell's book store and some yard saleing (can that be a verb?) on a beautiful day made it a perfect visit.

Beautiful Maeve on the Oregon Coast.

We were lucky enough to stay in yurts 3 nights at Oregon State Parks. This was out first.

Here we had a yurt a 1 minute walk from the beach. A hot chocolate sunset.

The tide pools were awesome! Maeve and Sophie explore...

A tide pool wave.

Maeve wasn't too sure about the starfish...

Stars all around.

On the way back to San Diego from Oregon, we went through the Redwoods. Amazing and humbling those trees are. They are huge!

We stayed with my Aunt Wendy in Sebastapol, CA.

Sophie got a new do when we got back to San Diego.

Finally at the cabin. Charles makin' some of his famous biscuits.

Sisters on our favorite dock.

A quick trip to Mackinac Island to get our fudge fix for the year.

Reading with newly met cousin Sam. It's amazing how much we read without screens around at all. The girls, especially, rediscovered books in new ways. : )

Grandma offering a hammock push.

Welcomes to all. We got to see EVERYONE in my family at once as we celebrated my parents 50th wedding anniversary.

Swimming with the cousins. Does it get any better than that?

A spin in the old row boat.

The entire Riley crew. It was so good to see everybody!

Sophie back in San Diego, watching with Grandpa.

A new school year is underway! Sophie is in kindergarten and Maeve is in 2nd grade. They are both off to a great start with wonderful new teachers. I have a lovely new group of 5th graders.

Our favorite babysitter brought us t-shirts from her home country of Equador.

There were so many people I intended to call when I was in the states, but it was unbelievable how fast the days went and how full they were! Warmest greetings to all of our friends out there. You are not forgotten! Hopefully I will be better this year about blog updates. Tam Biet. And don't be a stranger!