Nozomi & I made pickles!

During our vacation in Oregon, I copied my mother's dill pickle recipe. The recipe came from her mother (or maybe even her grandmother; she's not sure). I remember eating these pickles on hamburgers when I was growing up, so I'm excited to see how they taste. We'll try them in a few weeks and see...

Roller skating!

Monday evening, my cousins, sister, aunt, and Nozomi & I all went to the roller skating rink together. I hadn't been skating inside since we all went together about five years ago. Very fun, and very nostalgic for us. It was Nozomi's first time on roller skates, but since she had ice skated several times before, she learned very fast and had no problems.

Friday we took an all-day trip to Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a very beautiful place, and all Oregonians, if you haven't visited yet, you should! The water is one of the most amazing colors of blue I have ever seen. We also stopped in the Cascade Mountains closer to Eugene on the way (that's the picture of me with the mountains in the background.)
It seems like this is the "animal tour"--we saw turkeys and a buzzard at my sister's house, a horse and a mule while we were walking, and a chipmunk took food out of Nozomi's hand while we were at Crater Lake.
Shortly before we left, some clouds moved in and made amazing shadows on the surface of the lake. The picture gives you an idea of what it looked like, but the light was much more interesting in person.
It was a busy day and a lot of driving, but it was worth it: a great trip!

Today was my father's 80th birthday party

We had a fantastic dinner and birthday party with family to celebrate my father's 80th birthday. My sister-in-law arranged to have surprise guests: two musicans playing bagpipes and Scottish drums (my father loves bagpipe music). A wonderful time!