Family time

This is a belated post dedicated to the time we spent with our families-of-origin in August.

Mid-August we packed up and drove to Fort Benton, MT, for a family reunion/belated 80th birthday party for Brian's Mom, Bernadine Dostal.

Grandma Bernadine

Isaiah is trying not to smile

Grandma Bernadine and 10 of her 12 children

This is as nice a picture as we've had of us in years

Samuel playing in the church hall room divider (dang, that is one cute kid if I do say so myself)

Then at the end of August we paid a visit to my parents (and brother) in Oregon:

Look Ma, I'm flying!

Uncle Daniel leading the kids on a wheatfield safari

Samuel putting a brave face on it

A teasel. I've always thought these were fascinating.

Garden of Eden, blackberry-style. If you walked into that little cavern there, the blackberries hung down over your head just begging you to pick them. The smell of warm wheat stubble mixed with the perfume of ripe blackberries is a foretaste of heaven, in my opinion.

I had truly forgotten how good a real wild blackberry tastes

Samuel, having a "most interesting man in the world" moment.