The summer that was - Part 2

I left off the previous post in the month of July. I will start this post by apologizing for the delay in getting it out. Life got in the way of all my good intentions. The end of July was highly anticipated by all of us since DH’s brother and family were to visit us. They live in Switzerland and were celebrating their newly acquired Swiss citizenship with a trip to the US. They were in the US for a month and the final leg of their trip involved a week’s stay with us.

My niece is 7 years old and we have a 13-year-old nephew too. DD had met them last year during our trip to India and was über excited to have them visit us. To be perfectly honest, one week was just not enough time and we had a lot of tears when they left. However, we had a blast when they were here. We did a short hike, went white water rafting, shopping, berry picking, made a day trip to Seattle, went to dinner to a couple of really great places and to a very dear friend’s house, sang our hearts out at Karaoke (our 7-year-old niece belted out all Rajesh Khanna numbers, not quite what you’d expect from a child born and brought up in Switzerland) . Our nephew, DH and my BIL went ziplining, golfing and also managed to catch a movie on the night before they were to leave the US. However all 3 of the boys were so tired post their activities that my nephew was the only one that watched the movie. Both DH and his brother fell promptly asleep at the theater.

Mt. Hood as seen from Larch Point

Seattle downtown by night

We all took a dip in the cold water on a hot summer’s day during the rafting trip

Deschutes river – the location of our white water rafting trip

In the month of August, after DH’s brother and family left we threw a surprise birthday party for another friend’s milestone birthday. The poor guy went to happy Hour with all of his friends and came back home hoping for some quiet time with his wife. Before he could find his significant other and whisper sweet nothings we all yelled “Surprise” and scared the bejesus out of him . As if all this was not excitement enough, we had our big vacation trip planned for the month of August. In the 2nd week of August we made our way to Yellowstone National Park. We met up with my cousin and his family, my uncle and aunt (my cousin’s parents) and their friends for 4 days of fun and togetherness. 4 days, 4 couples ( 3 of them young and one of them, young at heart), 5 kids, a 5000 sq foot house that we rented, great food, even better liquor, music – what followed was a phenomenal time.

There were wild animal sightings, all of us being wild , the kids having the run of the house,  zip lining, seeing Old Faithful and lots and lots of pictures. What a good time was had by all.

Roosevelt elk at Yellowstone

Old Faithful

My cousin trying to scale the wall in the backyard ala Spiderman

Gibbons Falls at Yellowstone

Herd of Bison

One of the lakes at Yellowstone National Forest

The awesome sunset

The view of the ski slopes from our house

After all that excitement, going back to routine was terrible, but gone back to it, we have, albeit kicking and screaming. We are now living in anticipation of more such holidays that involve family, friends, fun, laughter, love and good times.

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