June brings Lawson for visit

Nancy, Ray, Kari, Roy, Wren, Travis and Suzanne

Toward the end of June Kari, Charles, Travis & Wren arrived in Portland for a family visit. Much of the first weekend was spent enjoying the sunny warm weather we were having. One day we enjoyed walking to some falls on the Lewis River near Vancouver, Washington. The Portland Rose gardens were the destination on Sunday afternoon and we soon found it was the destination of many.

Charles, Travis and Wren enjoy the river

With parking at a premium, we parked a distance away and then walked down a trail through the woods to the roses. An unexpected benefit of taking the back trails was crossing the zoo train track. We managed to scrape up a few pennies to put on the track to be flattened by the little train, much to Travis and Wren’s delight.

Travis, Kari Charles and Wren wait for the train.

Then it was back on the trail which just happened to come out at a playground which the kids also enjoyed. The rose gardens were beautiful and we all enjoyed seeing the many varieties in full bloom. Then it was on to Eugene so Travis and Wren could spend a few days visiting with Great Grandma. Of course Nancy and I enjoyed visiting playgrounds and parks with our grandkids.

Enjoying the Portland Rose Gardens

As is the family tradition, we had to pick blueberries and have a blueberry pancake feast, with Travis and Wren’s able help. They have been well trained by Grandpa over the years. The time in Eugene flew by and soon the Lawson’s went back to Portland to celebrate the 4th of July weekend with Brett, Kasey and Cecilia. Nancy and I were lucky enough to have another visit with them before they headed east to Tennessee. Nancy and I returned to Hansville where we found ourselves doing a lot of chores that had backed up. We continue to be entertained by wildlife that wanders through our yard. The hummingbirds are a favorite to watch and they visit our feeders regularly, as well as a variety of other birds at our regular bird feeders, but occasionally the larger animals entertain us.

Travis and Wren preparing Blue Berry Pancakes

We have a raccoon that we see regularly but so far he has been able to avoid our camera. The deer are much more cooperative. We had a couple of young bucks that were running around our back yard jumping fences until they settled down for a picture. We also had a doe and her fawn spend a lot of time in our back yard eating our plants. We were relieved that she was teaching her fawn to eat our weeds rather than our flowers and tomatoes.

Doe and her fawn weeding our garden