Sunday, July 10, 2016

Summer: the beginning!

End of May was not quite Summer yet but the weather was very nice.
Nice enough to enjoy a mini-golf game with my friend L.


It was also the month when the odometer in Maman's car turned to 100 000 miles! Since it mainly goes to school and back, it took nearly 17 years to get there and it looks like it will go for a lot more miles! We celebrated with eating early strawberries from the garden!
 


A little casino-roulette party at my friend's K...


...and soon it was the end of the school year and for the last week, I decided that  I needed a very different haircut: just in time for the French spelling bee day. I wore my hair high and the tie that Papi wore on my cousin's wedding day last year.
I missed a super easy word because I mispronounced one of the letters. It was still fun.
 




July came and it was time for our first family camping trip of the Summer. We headed to Eastern Oregon, 7.5 hour drive, to spend 4 days at the top of Hells Canyon, at the Saddle Creek Campground: 20 miles of gravel road to get to it, 6000 feet/2000 meters, no water, 7 spots and YES, we got one. Perfect spot and perfect weather...

 

Admire the new bright orange tent too. It was quite roomy in there. Maman did not sleep that well but Papa and I had no problem. 


Day 2: we went to Half Top to see the Fire Lookout and to explore around. The clouds moved in after our little hike and soon it was drizzling. Perfect time to go back to camp and take a nap!







As the sun was setting in the evening, the wind would pick up and it got cool pretty fast but we still enjoyed our premium view for dinner!





Day 3: After breakfast, we walked from camp to do the Summit Ridge Hike. Amazing views and tons of wild flowers in this beginning of July. 

















On the way back up ( since the hike was down the canyon then up) I helped Maman find all the different wild flowers we had seen on the way down. Here are 15 of them but there were even more. Maman is still learning how to use the macro on her new camera...

After a 7 mile walk, where according to the Ps I did a great job of not whining , it was time to head back to camp to enjoy my most enjoyable activity: reading. 

Unbeknownst to her until the day after we came back, Maman had a guest on board: the kind that grabs on you to feed. It was her first one ever so she had it removed by a doctor and got a round of antibiotics just in case it carried bad bacteria.

Papa did not bring back any unfriendly creatures but he explored the area at night and took amazing pictures of the star and milky way that we don't get to see with the light pollution when at home. Here is just one that he shared for the blog.




It took over 7 hours to make it back home and I read 6.5 hours... It's a good thing that Libraries were created otherwise my parents would be broke with all the books they would have to buy. 
Those are the books I read during those 4 days... they all have over 300 pages!

Barely back home and it was time to have fun with my friend B. for 2 days. As part of my birthday month, instead of having a party, I get to invite my friends one at a time and decide on a fun place to go with them. 3.5 hours in a noisy game place was fun for us kids but it was a test of patience for Maman!