Sunday Salon -- Central Oregon Edition

My mom and daughter hanging out at the pool. Love the hats! Photo credit: G. Ruddy

Weather: It is sprinkling this morning. It sprinkled yesterday morning, too, but the skies cleared in the afternoon. Will we have the same weather pattern today? Whatever, rain is a relief, no matter how small the amount.

Central Oregon: We just returned from a family reunion to Central Oregon. Many of the photos I'm sharing I didn't take. I may not have been present for the event either, but I loved all these photos and wanted to share them.

Elk Lake. Central Oregon. Views of Mt. Bachelor and Mt. South Sister. Several family members gathered at a cabin on Elk Lake for a day before the family reunion. We were only there in spirit. Photo credits: G. Ruddy and T. Kingsbury

Nature walk along the Deschutes River. Don is using the Merlin bird app on phone to record and identify bird songs. Photo credit: A. Bennett

Birds we saw and/or heard on our nature walks along the Deschutes River: Top-- Ash-throated flycatcher; Western Wood-pewee; Anna's hummingbird. Middle-- Belted kingfisher; Lesser goldfinch; Mountain chickadee. Bottom-- Mourning dove; House wren; California scrub jay. Not shown-- Black-headed grosbeak; Common raven; Steller's jay; American robin; Northern flicker; House finch; Red-winged blackbird; Eurasian collared dove. Also seen in the sky: turkey vultures (commonly called buzzards); osprey (in nests they built on posts strategically placed for them); hawks (probably red-tailed hawks). All the photos were from the Internet.

Family: There were 21 of us the the height of the family reunion. Eighteen of us joined mom for dinner in Bend at the Pine Tavern restaurant, where she and Dad had their wedding reception.

Mom and her "kids": Tony, Grace, Mom, Me, Kathy. Photo credit: T. Kingsbury

Hiking and mini-golf: Our grandsons, and their parents, stayed in the same condo with us. Every day was full of adventures: hiking, swimming, mini-golfing; playing games Great Aunt Grace thought up (she's a pre-school teacher and very creative!)

Smith Rock Oregon State Park and putting course at Eagle Crest. Photo credit: R.Adams

Celebrations: we celebrated the life of my mother, aged 94; the birthday of my sister, Kathy; the pregnancy of niece, Rachel; and just being together.

Books: I honestly didn't read much during the whole trip. We did finish one audiobook during a drive to and fro: The Wager by David Grann. Don, Carly, and I all in agreement the book bordered on boring. There were a few moments of excitement but even those were sort of tedious. Sigh. My rating was the highest of the three at 3 stars.

Home again: There is no place like home. We loved our trip but were happy to be home again.

George is glad his "mom" is home. Photo credit: C. Bennett

The boys were happy to be home to play with their toys. Here they donned their animal masks and were sneaking up on their mother who was ready to take a photo. Photo credit: R. Adams

Have a wonderful week!

-Anne