Summer photos

So... we last left off with us all going to Seattle to meet a couple of students from my program who were coming to Wenatchee for a class on orchards.  They did indeed come, and we ran them around a lot to see tons of apples,



cherries (being packed),

people (especially in orchards),

processors (like cider makers),

and some good scenery.

Kiddos continued hanging out Washington-style...

 

 until we went to Minnesota to swing on swings,

and look for frogs,

and walk up hills,

and put on life jackets

 

to ride on boats

and to drive boats

And then we came back to Pittsburgh and moved ourselves here...




above the garage at the farm campus of my university (i.e. top floor)

and we get to visit with lots of baby chicks.




Meanwhile, the goats came east to live in Pittsburgh too, traveling in a truck...

Here's a picture from one of their stops (Minnesota)



and one of their temporary home, until we figure out all the rest of the logistics...

 

and one of their sheep-y companions.

We stayed in Pittsburgh for a week, and then we went on the road again, this time to NY to swing,

and visit,

and swim,





and splash,



and blow out candles,



and to go to a wedding

 

And now we're back, and school has started for all of us.  Here's a picture from the first day of dairy class, making cheese and ice cream.



So we are navigating a new system of everyone being out of the house most of the day every weekday... I suppose we'll get the hang of it soon enough.  Until then, I'll leave you with some giggles.

p.s. There was a question that came out of my last post on what I meant when talking about liking the "broader culture" in Wenatchee.  Mostly, I like that the way that agriculture is integrated into everyday life in Wenatchee -- for most of the people who live there, not just for a small subculture of, say, foodies in a larger urban area.  People in the locker room after swimming talk about what's growing (or not growing) in their garden, what they're canning, and how to cook with it -- not because it's hipster, just because it's normal.  Even though most people in Wenatchee don't even work in agriculture at this point, they still know what's in season when... and it's a mainstream sort of knowledge.  So I seem to like that this connection to food and agriculture cuts broadly across the community and becomes part of the fiber of everyday life, rather than being seen as a specialized thing that only certain subcultures are interested in.  That's probably part of what I miss, living now in Pittsburgh.

Wenatchee summer

 

We’ve been having a nice time back in Wenatchee.  I think it’s the agricultural economy thing – rural area, pretty landscape, close to the food source, a broader culture that’s more connected to food and agriculture, easy to be outside a lot… 

 

It’s been nice to see old friends, swim with our swim group again, and play around with living in different places (we’ve stayed in a few different places (our house is rented), so we’ve gotten to check out life in town, just outside of town, and woodsy far from town).

We’ve been picking blueberries and eating lots of cherries and peaches and nectarines, and we picked/bought 25 pounds of sour cherries to dry and bring back to Pittsburgh.   And we have spent time here exploring many different forms of transportation.

We had a visit from my bro and sis-in-law combined with a long overdue hike to a swimming hole.  

Kudos as always to our friend Colleen for great hiking spots and great photos

We’ve also been doing a bunch of work – both for my leftover grant here and also some class prep stuff for me and for Mike – and had the kids in daycare twice a week to help with that.  

 

Grant travels from on the road in Mattawa  

And making arrangements (transport, vet tags, logistics) to get our goats to Pittsburgh (an incoming student in my program moving east from California and will drive them across in August).  I'm happy they'll be coming to stay with us again, but sorry they will leave such a nice setup here.

 

Meanwhile, Wenatchee has had some changes since we've left -- a Thai buffet, an Indian restaurant, electric buses, and a new public market by the riverfront (which had been a controversy for several years and had begun construction before we left, but just opened in May).

And at the end of this week we’re headed to Seattle to meet a couple of students from my program who are coming for a 10-day class on orchard stuff so I’ll be running them around the Wenatchee/Yakima corridor for a while… and then we head to Minnesota on our way back to Pittsburgh.  

Meanwhile, some kiddo pictures...

At our first lodging place

At a quick-mart in Cowiche on the way home from mama grant travels

Attempting double carrier feats

And single carrier feats

After lots of swimming

 

This one is leftover from that wedding we went to in June (care of the bride and groom), dressed up fancy

 

And a couple of videos to leave you with

Reminds me of Ernie and Bert who used to try and jump on Mike's head like that too...

Cross-country

Early summer in Pittsburgh 
So, we officially moved out of our apartment and into storage.



And traveled to Michigan for a conference



 
 (looks like a conference, right?)

and then to California for a wedding,

 

(which one got to via steam engine).



 We saw some Californian friends and family,



and then landed once again in the greater Wenatchee valley, where we will be for the next six weeks (with a stop in Minnesota pending for the way back to an as-of-yet undisclosed location in Pittsburgh) (just kidding, we'll probably be living near the farm campus of my school, but it's not totally for sure yet).

It's been, well, busy...


(see Eytan napping in a stroller in the Seattle airport)

...which is getting to be a boring thing to say.  Some of this might be inherent to this moment in life -- new job, new school, new town, new kids... but some of it is probably just us, i.e. the tendency to do too much (like traveling 5 places "on the way" to Wenatchee, etc.)  But I guess (or, evidently) we seem to prefer being a little overextended to not doing the things we think we might otherwise like to.

Although we are not really spending much of the summer in Pittsburgh at all, I've noticed that it seems to wake up a little more when the weather warms up... I suppose a lot of places do.  When you walk around now, there are lots of people on the street, sitting outside of restaurants, walking, being out in public -- not on the scale of New York City or anything, but still...  And so in the week before we left town, we got to take advantage of going to the first of a summer series of brunch-time concerts in the park, and the almost-first of a food-truck-Monday-dinners-series at the pet store next to our house.

We also were in the process of readjusting to summer in the more humid east.  I left a tupperware of muffins on the counter and was surprised (duh) that they molded... a lot... and fast.  Mike kept remarking that he thought he was in a jungle, with tons of green viney plant growth all over (I do remember actually the first time I was in a rainforest in Latin America thinking, geez, this looks kind of like the North American humid east, just with different plants).  Timber brought home a (dead) rabbit -- I guess that doesn't have anything to do with the humidity but I suppose it means he's up and running again (he's, by the way, staying with some of the students in my program for the summer)...

Recently I've also been coming to realize that Pittsburgh is sort of a "small town" of a city.  People talk about "Pittsburgh moments" (when you run into someone you know in a place you didn't think you'd know anyone), which after living in Wenatchee seems normal to me (although see here, it didn't always seem normal).  And people we meet who really like it in Pittsburgh seem to especially like the fact that it feels small and "family friendly" (I'm never sure exactly what that means, presumably that there are parks and a zoo and a children's museum?, but people say it a lot), but it's still a city with lots of city amenities (music and art and sports and whatever else concentrates in cities) -- so, a small town city in the league of cities, even though it's a big city in the league of small towns.


Later summer in Wenatchee
Wenatchee welcomed us with uncharacteristic rain, unusually cool temperatures, and a small earthquake.  Nevertheless, we all seem to be adjusting okay.  Li'el has not commented much on our change of surroundings, but Eytan is rediscovering getting to walk out the front door without needing to hold a grownup's hand because of traffic.  We borrowed a tricycle from a friend here, and he has been super excited about it -- waking up in the morning wanting to "climb bike push"

 

and to go down the hill where we are staying and "look tractor." This seems to be part of a larger infatuation with all forms of transportation -- trucks and tractors and planes and cars and buses and bikes and motorcycles all qualify. 

 

He is still also a fan of taking care of babies, both the doll version...


 (using a carrier)



and the live version





He is also attempting to climb pretty much everything he can,


(yes, he's climbing the steering wheel in a car)

and is talking up a storm.  I think one of my favorite words of his right now is "lown," meaning to "lie down."  It's efficient, if nothing else.  He also has been using "push" to refer to anything moving -- so, yes, we push the stroller, but also, we get in the car and "push," i.e. drive.

Li'el is getting big, and smiling, and talking a bit herself.  I don't seem to have a good smile picture right now, so here's a non-smile but still nice one.



So, all that said, here's my question to ponder during our next few weeks in Wenatchee.  I seem to be particularly fond of Wenatchee -- and is that just because we lived here for a while and got used to it? or is there something here that's a good match? -- the smaller-than-Pittsburgh small-town-ness of it, the palpable presence of an agricultural economy, some sort of strong sense of place?  I'm not sure... and I'm not disregarding the reasons we decided to move away -- they were, and still are, definitely there -- but I like being here, and it makes me wonder about what it is that makes a place feel comfortable, and about where we might want to live down the road, if and when we move again.

So instead of answering these questions, I'll leave you with a few more kiddo pictures instead