more cheese, please

Last week we went to McMinnville, OR for a family reunion to celebrate my cousin Tracey's college graduation. Now we have our own personal nurse in the family! Very convenient, if we happened to live in the Pacific Northwest.

We talked with a couple on the plane who had a 12 month old son, and were also on their way to a family reunion. They were really grumpy about it. Not us. We have been looking forward to this for months, and I'm happy to say the trip exceeded our likely-too-high expectations.

Clara was a dream-baby on the flight, and intently studied the emergency landing and evacuation procedures, just in case.


We succeeded in both embarrassing and thrilling Tracey with our unmistakable presence and- well, let's just call it spirit- during the graduation ceremony. All of the other Linfield graduates and their families must have gone home hanging their heads in shame because they don't have a family as, um, cool, as ours.


OK, maybe that's an exaggeration. But they CERTAINLY don't have a Lyman. And we do. So neener neener.


After shivering our way through the graduation ceremony, the rest of the holiday was spent caravaning through the gorgeous Oregon countryside in the pursuit of wine. And cheese. And wine. And more cheese.

There was wine for boys.


And wine for girls.


And more wine for boys.


There were even wine glasses to chew on for babies.


There was also an unfortunate bout of food poisoning that I managed to contract on Monday night, so while the rest of the family took a day off from wine and cheese to shop and look at the Spruce Goose, I stayed home and felt sorry for myself in between napping and puking. But I recovered in time to join the family for a three-hour six course French feast and lovefest, and a wonderful way to end a memorable trip. (And I assure you it was a really fun evening, despite the dour look on my dad's face in this photo!)


We get to tell Clara about this one when she's older- how she was sequestered to sleep in the garage while we all ate, drank, and were merry without her.


Poor neglected Clara. Oh well... we can make it up to her by assuring her that she was the cutest girl baby in Oregon (the boy baby honors go to cousin Jack), in no small part due to The Best Hat Ever. (Thanks Carley!)


I know there are some tales I'm forgetting. And perhaps a few that shouldn't be posted on the internet. But as far as vacations go, this was up there with the best. We kept thinking about the couple on the plane dreading their family reunion. Us, we can't wait for the next one.