When we were camping at Lake Wenatchee my sister asked me if I'd like to travel to Italy with her and our cousin next summer. I thought of all the tourists, the lines, the congestion, and replied that the best that life could give me is right here, camping with all my kids at Lake Wenatchee: Cooking good food, sleeping under the stars, hiking mountain trails, and canoeing still water.

When we arrived home and started preparations for George's birthday party, our neighbor Beth brought over Blood Orange Soda. I think this is about as close to Italy as I will be getting. However, I've spent years drawing little French and Italian villages and the courtyards on the Adriatic coastline. It is the old way of life that enchants me about this part of the world. I think it is swiftly vanishing.

This has been a busy week, with several more birthday gatherings. Taraz, Megan, and Rahmat came over last night to show their video of the trip. It is a collaboration of images edited by Rahmat, and put to music by Taraz. They made a copy for me, and I will add mine to the mix tomorrow. Annie, Taraz, and Ruhiyyih have their posts up now, savoring what they particularly enjoyed. Annie has a video up on her blog, Earthen Vessel - my favorite part is Annie's giggling while she is filming!

I'll finish out my post with just a few left-over images that I want to include here for 'memory purposes' so they don't get over-looked. This is an image of Ruhiyyih as we sat out in my backyard having coffee, just moments before she left Tacoma. I was fascinated by all the little dots on her cheeks, from the holes in her straw hat.

We celebrated George's birthday by watching videos. He set up his DJ equip- ment in the livingroom - huge (ugly) speakers pounded the house and Ruhiyyih and Daisy danced. Annie joined in, and they tried to pull me into it, but I only cheered them on. I'll provide Kathy Hall's Flicker album for this set, as Ruhiyyih was too animated to pick out just one photo!

Our friend Jamie and his brother Mike came over for an early breakfast. George did the cooking, and just I let the guys visit. I was tired, still in my robe and PJ's with morning coffee...I still needed time to 'wake up'. But, I have to laugh. Jamie comes over every Wednesday evening to visit, and I'm always in my robe and PJ's then, too. I think he's seen me only once wearing street clothes, and that was when we bumped into each other shopping at Fred Meyers. He's a big guy, with a long ponytail down his back, and he can have an opinion about everything!

Both these fellas are profes- sional photo- graphers. Mike does landscapes and Jamie does social commen- tary and trends.

This shot of me was taken in the late afternoon, right before dinner by Annie. Buddy, my daughter Laurel's dog, had been playing basketball with the kids. They'd tormented him for so long that when he finally got a chance to bounce the ball up in the air he tore it to shreds instead. Then, there was a hand-combat contest by Taraz and Rahmat on this log, to see who would fall into the water. Annie has a video of these antics on her blog, as well as portions of an early morning canoe glide. It perfectly captures the sounds of birds in the early morning.

Megan took this last one, of George and I canoeing through the reeds, which were just a few inches high. Come July, they will be several feet high, and the red-winged blackbirds will be singing through them. (Megan has used a filter on this shot.) That is sure 'my kind of water'!