Dog Days

Happy 4th of July! We have arrived in Bend safely, and were very pleased with our house. It’s very hot here, in the 90’s both days we’ve been here. Sarah, Nathan and Evie went to a huge 4th pet parade in downtown today. It was mostly dogs, with a mixture of ducks, chickens, and guinea pigs. In the dog section, they had everything from Great Danes to pugs. And their costumes were great. Yes, costumes on dogs. They had Cinderella dog, hot dog, TNT dog, and even a tye-dyed red, white, and blue dog! But best of all was a dog, strapped to a bunch of giant balloons, and get this. He was floating! There was a festival afterwards with game booths, art booths, and food booths. Nathan played a sling-shot game where you had to shoot fish into the Deschutes River, Evie found a pita booth that she was quite pleased with, and Sarah found a hula-hoop, which she figured out how to turn in your hoop and keeping it spinning. Nathan and Sarah both got their faces painted, as you can see from the photo. In Glacier National Park, we saw elk, deer, and a herd of bison, complete with calves only about a few days old. Yellowstone National Park, we visited the Painted Pots, which were beautiful pools of 160 degree water. They were beautiful aqua blues. Sarah thought they looked like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We raced through Grand Teton, but the part that we saw was, hands down, one of the most beautiful sights we had ever seen, mountain wise. The people around Bend are very friendly. The kids went into the Deschutes River. FREEZING COLD!!!!! But, they still went in far enough to have a splash war. When the kids and Evie went on a walk through town, they found the COOLEST candy store EVER! It was called Powell’s. It had everything from Zots to single color M&M’s to giant Jawbreakers and all kinds of old-fashioned candy varities. We went out to a restaurant called Bend Brewing Company, which we were very pleased with. John has set up and is raring to go. He’s started to put together demos of music. Hey, it’s a start. We’ll keep you updated.

God Bless,

John, Evie, Sarah, and Nathan