Washington was not on our list this summer; it just didn’t work with our schedule.
But then some things shifted and we had a short three-day window. We let the kids decide – was it worth the 6 hour drive each way from my parents’ house in Idaho? We would have just two full days at their house. It had been a few years since Hallie had visited their home and their son was leaving this summer to serve a mission so her vote was a definite yes. What’s another 12 hours in the car?! It was a very last-minute decision, but we made it happen even when we knew the forecast called for rain the whole time we were going to be there.
Did that stop us from picking all the fruit? No, it did not. But it did mean we had to get a little creative to keep this many kids entertained when the weather was raining on our parade.
When our kids think back to their summers in Washington, they will remember picking raspberries and eating them by the handful. And then making raspberry milkshakes.
They will remember making scary barn videos and playing hide-and-seek in the Christmas tree farm next door.
They will remember playing games together and making up dances and creating videos and making freeze-dried candy. We try to see each other every year – we’ve missed a few years – but they will remember spending their summers together.
And I will remember what it meant to watch these kids grow up living states away from each other and reconnecting every summer. I remember when Stacey came out to visit me in Milwaukee with just one small baby on her hip and I had Hallie and we were visiting the children’s museum together. And then the kids multiplied and we were quickly outnumbered in the best way possible. Totally worth the 12-hour drive added to our road trip. I’m so grateful Hallie was insistent we make Washington a priority.
As per tradition in our Washington trip, we stopped to pick blueberries as we started our drive home. (Not sure why this became the tradition, but every year we drive by the same patch to pick!)
We also visited the Adidas employee store in Portland which is their favorite shopping trip of the year and we always stock up on shoes.
One of Hallie’s good friends was serving in Portland and we happened to be driving through on his P-day. On a whim, she reached out to him to see how far out of the way he was and he was just minutes from where we were. As a parent of a missionary, it made my mom heart happy when I knew people I knew and loved were able to see my daughter while she was serving. I figured this missionary’s mom would also appreciate it if we had eyes on him so we made a quick pit stop at the restaurant he was eating at with his district to say a quick hello as we drove through.
I did not anticipate just how emotional his mom would be when I facetimed her and turned the phone to show her missionary son standing beside us. Pure joy. He only had about a month left of service at this point but it was still such a fun and joyous reunion.
After driving through Portland on our way back to Idaho, we made just one more stop to pick cherries on a beautiful countryside. We asked for a sweet variety and we were pointed to the Attika portion of the farm and they were the perfect sweetness and ripeness. My new favorite variety.
Making the drive home with buckets of raspberries, blueberries and cherries isn’t a bad way to travel!
