We and our Penney friends also took the kids to a nice French restaurant for dinner. I was genuinely impressed with how well the kids behaved. No snatching, no spilling, no broken glass, nobody was yelling things about Darth Vader. And Huckleberry at mussels and loved them. It was such a pleasure to enjoy something that we love so much WITH our kids.
She would very much like to use THIS door. I think this was HER favorite thing in Walla Walla. Frankly, mine too.
This is a Douglas Fir. 500ish years old. And our tour guide's name was "Toss".
This dress was gorgeous and horrible - read the sign below. But the beadwork was amazing. Notice all the little girls in a flock by it?
I want currency like this. One coin equal to a pound of cured pork belly. Imagine the varieties of coin art you could create!
Last and least, the permanent wave machine. Yikes.
These are some examples of the beadwork and leatherwork, as well as basketmaking - the hat on the Cayuse woman bending over is made from native grass. The purse and the child's jacket are original from the late 1800s, the rest is made recently, but in the same ways.
We went on a field trip with our homeschool co-op to the Whitman Mission and Ft. Walla Walla in Walla Walla, Wa. last week. Flannery went with a big kids group and Brendan and I took the boys on a more hands on tour for the younger kids. We saw a lot of handmade, traditional Cayuse clothing, baskets, and headdresses. The boys loved the tipi and the beadwork. Brendan and I were amazed at the level of refinement that the Cayuse created out of pretty rough materials - mostly native plants. Also, my children make weird faces. The last photo of the rail fence and the tracks is where the Oregon Trail went through - right past the mission. The kids were convinced that they were looking at original wagon ruts, which was cute.
After the memorial gathering we went to Delaware to visit the campground where Brendan and Andrew spent lots of weekend as kids. In the process, Flannery and I lost our minds when we ran into the biggest spiders we've ever seen. We still shiver and groan when we think about them. Gar.
But the river was beautiful and we scattered some of Daddy-O's ashes on the tracks and the river.
We also went to NYC and rode the ferry, you can see the shipping cranes in the background. We also rode the subway and Atticus fell asleep in an exceedingly cute pose.
Posting for the first time in a while. The day after that photo of Flannery with the chicken, our beloved Daddy-O died. Brendan and the kids and I flew off to NJ for a week with Brendan's cousins, uncle, and brother. These are a few photos from the memorial gathering that Brendan's cousin Beth hosted at her home.
