Beach 2026

The beach trip this year was super fun, per usual, and we fit a lot of us into small spaces, also per usual. The weather was great, everyone was funny, we played a fun multi-day Traitors game led by Carrie, we ate well (Gordon made ice cream pies, Tim made BBQ). Having Hazards beach basically all to ourselves was divine, and seeing whales from the beach was exciting. Lucy spent some time trying to decapitate a partially decomposed seal in a quest to add to her animal skull collection, but was eventually deterred by her mother (“what are you going to do about the brains?”).

Some notable quotes/moments:

Levi, Hugo and Theo, going stir-crazy on the long drive from SD, singing along to Mammal by TMBG: 🎶Glass of milk... Glass of milk🎶

Theo: can we stop at that Habit we always go to? I have a special relationship with the bathroom

Rachel: Hugo, did you know Uncle Phil died? (a running joke in the Thomas family since Viv keeps telling them)
Hugo: Theo didn't know that Uncle Phil died
Mae: who's Uncle Phil?
Vivian: Theo didn't know that Uncle Phil died, and Mae didn't even know he lived

Vivian: Does anyone know how a coffee machine works?
Rachel: oh! I know how a French press works. You just put the...ground things...I use something that’s not coffee...in the bottom, then you put the little thing on top...or maybe you put water in first...then... Maybe I don't know how it works.
*General discussion about what we should try to make coffee out of...beans, olives, oreos*
Sydney: will it French press?!

Hal and Hugo trying to figure out how to work the VCR. Sydney sees they have plugged in each separately, tells them they need to connect the two. Hal and Hugo: “Ohhh!” then try to plug the wall cord into the TV

Discussion about if a pork butt is a whole butt or if it’s just a cheek. Find out that it’s actually up by the shoulders and is called a Boston butt.
Levi: The Boston butt? That sounds like the worst serial killer ever

Theo: I was running across the hwy when my wallet exploded and I had to stop to pick up all my cards
Beth: how did that happen?
Claire: you must be too bouncy when you run
Sydney: Theo was twerking across the road

Sarah: What are you eating over there?
Claire: nothing
Mom: WHAT??!

Sarah: WHO CUT THE SCISSORS STRING?? (she had tied the scissors onto the water container so they wouldn’t get lost…turns out it’s not a very secure method)

Jackson, raiding the fridge late the first night: There’s nothing to eat in here except for otterpops and cheese!

Hal, during a debate: I think I'm on Colin's side with this one (even though Colin hadn't said anything)

Claire has the idea to see how long of a line we can make down the beach with us all holding hands, then someone suggests we roll ourselves up like a fruit roll up of people. Gwen: That's how we can all fit in the beach cabin

We have an epic “cool rock” competition at Montana de Oro. Afterward, Sarah and the kids in her car are arguing about the lightning rock vs the Jesus toast rock.
Sarah: Jesus created the lighting
Kid in backseat: Well Jesus toast didn't do anything

Sarah, charming a stranger's baby in the five seconds it takes to walk past them
Vivian: Sarah just potty-trained that kid

A contentious conversation about the merits of eating in the shower (where it’s revealed that Jackson eats grilled cheese sandwiches “It's a special, personal experience”) leads to a conversation about how people dry off after a shower. There are many shocking moments and hilarious reenactments, including Levi claiming he does a little jump to dry off some water droplets.
Sydney: I just imagine an anime scene where you go *hop* and you leave behind a water silhouette that falls to the ground
Lucy, describing how a resident of her nursing facility likes to dry off: I think she's the only person in the world that does it that way
Vivian: her and Daffy Duck

Watching whales

Whirlwind World Cup Weekend

"Does anyone want to come for Father's Day?" asked Kathy. 

Yes, apparently a few of us wanted to come for Father's Day. Which also happened to be in the middle of the World Cup. All week Sarah had been making a play to be Dad's favorite, watching games even when no one was checking. The rest of us stepped up, trying (unsuccessfully) to keep up with Sarah. What followed was a pretty fun weekend of watching soccer and hanging out in Petaluma.

We went to see half of Sheep Detectives while we waited for Rachel's plane to arrive. Even though we had to leave early, Beth solved the mystery correctly, so that was OK.

Kathy made reservations for Spanish food and flamenco dancing. When she tried to tell them it was for Father's day, the woman said "i"ll just write down 'birthday'". Then at dinner, the whole restaurant sang Happy Birthday to us.

Beth finally got to go to the metal shop

For her birthday, Carrie got to go meet Buddie, stylist to the stars, or at least to the middle-aged fashionistas of Sonoma County. He looked her up and down, said "I think you'll like these pants. In a medium." And he was right. 

Dad told us he was trying to give up making as many dad jokes. Partly because Carrie had called him out on it, and partly because security pulled him out of his seat at the symphony for an extra check because he made weird jokes when he went through screening. Serves him right.

Iceland

We saw nine separate horsemen in the wild. Not like recreationally, like on a trail or something, but just out in the windswept mountains, looking like they were taking medicine to grandmother's house or something. Epic.

Chris said "That would be a nice place to sit in the summertime," and meant it sincerely, before realizing that we actually WERE there in the summertime, and it wasn't going to get any better.

Wild swans everywhere. Whooper swans, if you believe the internet. Gorgeous.

One of the towns where we stayed still publishes a phone book, which is amazing in itself, but the real kicker is that it was published by first names. Very cool, and definitely a sign of a small town.

We got pranked by Google Maps, that directed us to a spot called 'Geiser' with a 5 star rating for having a geyser that erupts every 5 minutes. After a long drive through spectacularly empty, remote landscape, we arrived to find...nothing. Whoever left the geyser review was smoking crack. We did find the every 5 minute geyser later in the trip, but our initial attempt was a wild geyser chase.

Reading signs in Iceland was NOT like reading signs in other European countries, where you can pretty much work out that 'Rijksmuseum' is the museum you're looking for. Our first little town was named Sautdarkrokur, and our second one was by a place named Uthlithdarvollur. Lucy said it felt like trying to read something in a dream, where you know the letters but they won't resolve into anything real.

We fell prey to puffin madness. Who wouldn't want to see a puffin? But the puffin tours were expensive and that seemed dumb. So we hiked out to some rocky outcropping near the sea that had rumors of puffin sightings, sure to be disappointed. And at first we were- I took some hopeful pictures of white bird poop in the distance thinking maybe? (No. Not a puffin.) But then, just as we were about to turn back, a little bird with a silly face flew in and landed on the rocks. A puffin! He didn't even stay long enough to get a picture of him, but we know what we saw. We know.

A baby puffin is called a puffling.

We went to a creamery where 1) after watching us tearing apart cheese with our bare hands, the nice Icelandic lady brought us a cutting board and a knife. "You need this."  and 2) when I went into the very unremarkable-looking bathroom, I was stunned to realize they had cut the back wall out so you could see directly into the barn, and hang out with the cows. A weird but kind of fun approach.

We tracked down lobster soup from Somebody Feed Phil and were not disappointed. We saw little elf houses, and suspected they might be tampering with our hot tub. We found an amazing sculpture museum, and Carrie took a nap in the history museum. We saw so many waterfalls and baby sheep. All in all, a great trip. 

Choose Your Weapon

So many of my sisters aren't afraid of getting stuff done. Will borrow a crowbar from one of my neighbors to fix a chicken coop, or do their own tile projects. It fills me with awe.

Thanksgiving 2025

More pie than people. Thommies on a cruise. Levi looks collegiate. Gordon sous vide- ING a pie. Pumpkin pie with no sugar, rescued by Claire. Baby Caspian attends his first big family gathering. 

Levi: why are all the ads in this playlist for weird medical problems? 

Gordon: well.... It's Claire's.

Sarah: There are some cheese chips in the pantry. At least I hope queso means cheese.

Mae, upon returning home: I'm not used to not having pie.

 

Ultimate Sarah Story?

 A truly ultimate Sarah story would have her saving the day in a truly selfless, practical way and then saying something funny, but this one comes pretty close:

(as told to me by Rachel)

Sarah, on the phone: Today was a crazy day! I have a whole bunch of kids here, and it's raining so they can't go outside, and there's a pig head in the yard and I don't know where it came from, and then Mom needs a thing, and...

Rachel: hold up. Wait a sec. Go back to the part about the pig head?

Sarah: yeah, Nate (the renter) called to complain that there's a pig's head in the front yard, but how am I supposed to know where it came from???

----sometime later, Sarah calls around to the neighbors (as one does) and inquires as to whether any of them are missing a pig's head. Turns out some of the neighbors raise pigs, and this particular head was named Constantine. 

Sarah (responsible landlady) calls Nate back:

Sarah: well, yeah, the pig head came from Neighbor McNeighbor up the road. So you can take it back there if you want.

Nate: why do I have to do it?

Sarah: because I don't care.

-------The End----

I like this story, because it is a typical Sarah day, with kids and craziness, and taking care of the house and property, and also it's a very Auberry story. Theo, who is doing a school unit on Southern Gothic literature, said "that is very Auberry gothic." He is not wrong.

 #Auberrygothic

River House 2025

 Memories from our 2025 summer get together at the Brown's river house. Feel free to add your own.

 

- Mom and Rachel ride the Trax to the airport, are worried about getting stuck in the Pioneer Day parade, but end 

up getting prime view through the middle of the parade

 

- Vivian and family, Carrie and Theo, and Sydney arrive in Sacramento airport first, and uber to Costco to do food 

shopping. 7 people with all the bags on flatbed in Costco, hanging out in the furniture section like they live there. 

Employee: Did you come in through the front door? 

 

 

- Cars very full with people and luggage and food tucked away in any open spot. Levi: "Who lives in a pineapple 

under the seat!". We go over a big bump in the road and check in on Jackson crammed into the way back: "I was 

itching my nose..."

 

- "Heritage tacos" for dinner on pioneer day, complete with mixing bowl and ketchup. Many of the children are 

very concerned. 

Claire: "Mae was feeling sad before the trip and I was trying to distract her with another subject so I was telling 

her about the food at the river house. When I told her about the ketchup tacos she burst into tears"

Vivian taking a selfie with Sarah almost choking on her tacos from laughing so hard

 

Sydney brought a super strong magnet for magnet fishing which provided many hours of entertainment. We 

recovered a hundred nails. a trowel, a huge pot, and an anchor.

 

- Talking about who is most likely to get a tattoo (which led to, who is most likely to get drunk). Sarah: I got real 

close one time. I once had a mountain dew.

 

- 17-person flotilla with only a few paddles causes minor havoc but we successfully make it to the boat launch for 

takeout. Random guy as we're attempting to get off the river: "we're going to launch a boat here..." Vivian: "no 

you're not."

 

Lots of fun games and activities like hide and seek with cell phone clues, Chameleon (Jackson: "Pizza!"), telephone 

charades, guess who's under the blanket, Among Us, Fortnite ("Claire, one of the boys needs you to take over for 

them on Fortnite" Claire: *runs out of the room to go play), homemade cotton candy, graduation for Jackson, blackberry picking, karaoke, brunch with Dad and Kathy, senior photos for Jackson and Theo.

 

Other quotes: 

This is the most Christlike thing we've done (about eating the old half-full bin of m&ms that belonged to the 

Browns and leaving them half of ours)

Viv I like your haircut. Thanks, is it punk rock enough?

Now whose fault was that and what did we learn? (Jackson, after the boys were throwing something at each other 

and it ended up in the river.

 

Not Too Good For a Free Banana

 A few years ago we started the game of trying to think of the quintessential story of a person. Like, if you had to explain the essence of someone in one story, this is the one you would tell. I thought it would be fun to get some of them down.

* Rachel *

There was a heavenly year when we lived in Atlanta that Rachel lived with us. She was the perfect housemate: quiet, considerate, tidy. She was working for the CDC, and every morning she would slip out the door like a whisper. I never heard the shower run or her packing up her bag, and I was always mystified when I realized that she'd already left. It was a masterclass in being unobtrusive.

One morning, though, I happened to be down at the dining room table, which had a partial view into the galley kitchen. I saw Rachel slip into the room, the light a gentle early morning grey. The whole time she'd been living with us we had generally managed our groceries separately. We ate dinner together, but other food and snacks were kind of separate. On that particular morning, there was a gorgeous bunch of bananas on the counter, practically glowing in the flat dawn light. Rachel had purchased them the day before, and now she broke one of them off of the bunch, put it into her lunch bag, and was headed out the door when I saw her come to an abrupt halt. "What's she looking at?" I wondered. What she was looking at was a nasty brown banana that I had purchased the week before. It was sitting in the fruitbowl like some kind of garden slug. Slooowly, Rachel pulled the perfect banana back out of her bag, and looked at it for awhile. Then, with the determination of a person who has seen the hard road that must be walked, she put her perfect banana in the bowl, picked up the brown one, and headed out into her day. That is Rachel. The kind of a person who would never eat a perfect banana if others had to suffer with less. Also who would never let food go to waste if she had anything to say about it.

The only thing that would make that story a better description of my sister Rachel is if it included some glimpse of the inner steel that appears in the face of a challenge. If she'd beaten me in a race to the banana, that would be a perfect story.

How Now, Brown Coat?

 Many years ago, Vivian and Jerry came to visit us and we went to an REI Garage Sale. There was the usual assortment of returned tents and bicycle pumps, and a lot of healthy-looking people milling around looking at stuff. We examined the box of Smartwool socks and thought about whether we needed a gently used camp stove, and then, almost incidentally, I glanced at a brown coat hanging alone on a rack. It looked warm, probably too warm for me in Atlanta. But Vivian had just moved to New Hampshire so I called her over. The coat had been marked down significantly, maybe $400 to $75 or so, which seemed exciting. Still, Viv wasn't too sure. "I wasn't planning on actually spending any money here," she said. "Just put it on," I said.

The coat was warm. Really warm. 

"This coat is really warm," said Viv. "New Hampshire is really cold."

"Just get it," I said. And she did.

After that I would get occasional messages from the frozen north. A couple of times each winter I would hear from Vivian specifically about the coat. "Thanks for making me get this coat," she would say. Or, "that brown coat might have actually saved my life today." I felt vaguely happy to have given good advice but didn't think about it too much. Until...

Until.

We moved to Colorado about the same time that Vivian moved to San Diego, and one day I got a package in the mail with a note that said, "You need this more than I do now." Inside was the coat, looking just as placidly brown as ever. I laughed and hung it in the closet. It wasn't winter yet. In fact, we hadn't had a winter in years as we'd just been living in Thailand, so I'd almost forgotten what cold was like. But eventually it did get cold. Really cold, like sub-zero, try not to breathe while you stomp through the snow to break the ice on the chicken's water dish sort of cold. I learned to use a scarf to seal up the space between my neck and my jacket. I learned to take my metal earrings out, and not to touch anything without gloves. And I remembered the coat. On one particularly cold day I reached past the other jackets into the wayback of the closet, pulled out the brown coat, and put it on.

The world shifted just a little bit. Suddenly, I felt...different. I felt SAFE. I felt like the gods of winter no longer had any power over me. I thought that Vivian had just given me a coat. What she really gave me was a superpower.

The brown coat is magic. It is a forcefield. It is a space heater in the Arctic. It is warm clothes out of the dryer. It is a black cat sleeping in the sunshine. It is almost as good as having a sister walk into the room. It takes a world that is trying to kill you and makes it...fine. You can walk out the door into the meanest cold imaginable wearing the brown coat and after awhile you think, hey, why are my ankles a little chilly?  I wear the brown coat every winter, and each time I do it brings me joy. It makes me think of Vivian. It makes me happy to have been right so many years ago. Somehow it makes me feel like a better person, the kind of person who could go outside and do stuff. It makes me feel like going on an adventure, like I could do anything. Cold is nothing to me. I am invincible.

So thanks for the coat, Vivian. You wove a spell of love, down filling, and possibility and cast it over me. I'm forever grateful.

Happy Birthday, Beth

 

What to say about Beth except that she makes the world better. Her heart and her hands are always full, making food, snuggling a child, fixing something for someone. If you have to be stranded on a desert island with someone, I highly suggest you consider Beth. She would get the coconuts open, if you know what I mean.

Something Great

 Fathers day 2005

Beth

you were with me
when i figured out
how to dance
to feel music
corner of my eye
i saw
your face shining
i didn't know
what i looked like
but your face said
you were watching
something great

you were with me
i was 7
under the bleachers
open gym night
that awful smell
was intoxicating
weight machines
i could barely reach
you said to try
i remember
ignoring
the other muscle
in the room
laughing at me
you saw how
i loved to lift
and your face said
you were watching
something great

you were with me
when i asked
questions
in the car
why that mountain
was flat on top
why people stand
with a thumb up
why trash doesn't
go out the window
why our bodies
lean when we turn
you knew, i asked
and your face said
you were listening to
something great

ou were with me
when i jumped - fell
i love to jump
i love to fall
off beds
off houses
off bars you made
off cliffs
off diving boards
out of airplanes
you were with me
i needed
someone to catch
and your arms said
you were catching
something great

you were with me
when i became
a parent
learning to watch
patience
it's complicated
and a gift
to be an adult
with a shining face
for a child
now i know
as i try
that when
you were with me
as a child
i was the one
watching
something great
thank you

A Grouse About Turkey

It’s January 22nd and I’m cooking a turkey for no particular reason. I didn’t even buy this turkey: some buy turkeys and others have turkeys thrust upon them. I’m doing it as a favor for Connie, and I ought to have a better attitude, as Connie is well past 70 and has recently been dealing with breast cancer. Someone else thought they were doing Connie a favor when they gave her this turkey, but the oven in the retirement community where she lives is too small and it has been taking up all of her freezer space since November. 

What can you say when you ask “Is there anything we can do for you?” and the response is “Please cook my turkey.” So I’m cooking a turkey, but I’m not happy about it. Maybe I’m not happy because Connie only wants “some of the meat” back, which means I’m going to have to carve and debone this turkey. Maybe I’m not happy because Connie has two grown sons who live in town who almost certainly have ovens. Maybe I’m not happy because the turkey neck had been shoved so far up into the abdominal cavity that I literally had to get out pliers and stabilize the turkey by clutching it to my chest to get enough purchase to pull that thing out of there, and when I did the turkey slipped out of my arms and skidded across the kitchen floor leaving a contrail of bloody turkey juice as it went. And then I had to go change my clothes, mop the floor, and clean the pliers. Maybe I’m not happy because I’m kind of a selfish jerk who should just get over it and stop complaining about the minor inconvenience of cooking someone else’s turkey. 

On my better days, this kind of thing is exactly why I go to church. If left to my own devices I would probably find some way to serve...occasionally. I would volunteer at the food bank, or maybe go back to volunteering at the library, where I didn’t have to talk to anyone and where I never ended the day with my cats sniffing at the stains on my forearm. I would help out, for sure. But I suspect there would often be other things to do on any given day. I suspect that my volunteerism would rarely be uncomfortable for me, or involve any actual sacrifice. I’d hang out almost entirely with people who have my sense of humor and whose voting record rather conveniently matches mine exactly. Church throws me into a mix. It makes me do nice things for OTHER people, possibly people I don’t even like very much. And, It makes me cook turkeys, which I definitely don’t like very much. On my better days, church makes me a better person.

But I guess that today isn’t one of my better days. It makes me wonder, in the overall accounting of my life do I get more points because I did this even though I didn’t want to? Or way fewer points because I complained about it the whole time? Have I just become spoiled, so that any minor inconvenience is cause for complaint? (probably). I believe in cleaning when you’ve helped make the mess. I believe in shoveling your elderly neighbor’s driveway. I believe in connecting with people who aren’t just like me. Theoretically I believe in cooking turkeys for breast cancer survivors, and maybe someday I’ll even be glad to do it. But today is not that day. Today I’ve got a turkey in the oven and no thanksgiving in my heart. Maybe I’ll do better tomorrow.

Where did it all go wrong?

At 3:00pm MST on December 27th, the Rees Family was snuggled together at the Gregory house in Fort Collins, CO, cozy by a fire, under blankets, eating Christmas snacks. 13 hours later, at 3:00am PST, we were huddled with our luggage in the bike lane of a foggy, empty street waiting for a man we'd never met before- Hal losing his ability to speak, and Mae unable to walk smoothly.

It started out ok. We drove to the Denver airport. Got there on time. Got through security without issue. Found our gate. Flight boarded when it was supposed to. We had a little delay due to a mechanical issue, but soon we were in the air, on our way to the San Luis Obispo airport. I was thinking my kids might be tired by the time we got home that night, because it'd be an hour later than when they'd been going to bed. But things were going smoothly. Our friend Dallan was planning on picking us up to drive us home.

At around 9:28pm, just 10 minutes away from our destination, the pilot comes on to tell us that because of low visibility, we're diverting to LAX. LAX!! The whole plane couldn't believe what was happening, and I felt bad for the flight attendants fielding all the panicked questions. "Did they even CHECK Santa Maria airport?" "This has never happened to me!" "Are they going to put us up in hotels?" "Los Angeles? They're just abandoning us in Los Angeles?"

We land in LA just after 10:00pm, but have to sit in the plane on the tarmac for an open gate. Finally, we begin deboarding at 10:45, and the kids and I wearily make our way to baggage claim with the rest of the pilgrims, as Gordon bravely finds a customer service rep to discuss options. We think maybe they'll comp a rental car, and we'll drive home late. Or they'll rebook us for the next day, and put us up at a hotel.

Instead, they announce that they've provided two buses to get everyone up to San Luis Obispo. At this point, I'm realizing we'll be getting to the SLO airport at an hour when no public transportation will be running, all of our friends will be asleep, the taxi service is practically non-existent, and what few Uber/Lyft options there are will be highly overtaxed. United Airlines obviously does not care about this, though. They said they'd get us to SLO airport, so they'll get us to SLO airport. We thought about renting a car on our own, but there were none available that we could find.

So, we join the huddled masses outside LAX waiting for a bus, and finally get on the road after midnight. Tired, wired, and wondering if we'll be spending a few hours on the other end waiting for things to start waking up. The kids are a little wide-eyed, and unsure about the future, but so far have good attitudes.

We consider all kinds of options. We think maybe we could talk someone into getting into our house with a spare key, getting our car key, and driving our car down to be waiting for us. But we can only think of a few people we could ask, and one set has a baby at home, one set happens to be on a basketball trip to Bakersfield, and one set has a really early morning planned the next day, and we just didn't feel like we could ask more of them. So, we decide to just head for SLO and figure it out as we go.

However, the entire group of passengers starts to get antsy at 1:45 when the bus inexplicable pulls over a little north of Goleta, and the bus driver gets off for a few minutes. He finally gets back on and keeps driving, but everyone was on edge, wondering of the bus was having mechanical issues, and we were going to have to wait for another bus to come get us. (To entertain myself, I was inventing plotlines, like he was collecting a shipment of drugs)

The good news is that Gordon is quick on the Uber uptake, and reserves us a ride before options disappear. The bad news is that the fog starts to thicken, slowing our progress, and we start to get nervous anew about how long this will actually take.

But we pull up at the airport at 3:22 (Hal and I have not slept a wink), grab our bags, and head for where we're supposed to meet our Uber, which happens to be just outside airport grounds (Uber wouldn't let us select anywhere on the grounds). Mae can barely get her legs to work because she's still half asleep, and Hal looks like he's coming off a heroin high. 

Turns out the driver assumed we meant to be picked up at the airport, on not on the side of some random road, so Gordon and I load up all our luggage, and we prod the kids back across the street and back to the airport. We get in a very nice car, driven by a very nice man, and spend the last 30 minutes of our long journey listening to soothing Christmas music in Arabic.

The last of us drift off to sleep around 5:00am PST (6:00am MST), and I don't think any of us have ever been happier to be in our own home before. The kids were real troopers, though, and in the light of a new day, see it as an adventure, but one they never want to repeat.

Deep Dark Blue

 deep dark blue

A poem by Mae Rees

Stingrays 

Ready to play 

Mariana Trench in reach

The screams of your drowning friends

Rock formations collapsing behind you 

Storms crashing in the waves 

So vast, too hard to get out.

Not so nice down low.

Christmas 2024 (or, Cheeses for Jesus)

It was a good Christmas all around. Dad mailed out 36 pounds of cheese. Sarah went to SLC to visit Rachel and Mom. The Reeses came to Colorado. Beth had hip surgery, and Vivian's tennis team won regionals or something. Lucy fell down while delivering ninja Christmas gifts, which usually would be the worst thing that happened, but might have been beaten by us having to take back cookies from a stranger and then getting 911 called on Theo. Sydney, Mom, Sarah and Rachel demolished the Leaning Shed with a crowbar. Gwen made everyone cry with a beautiful piano piece. Eric was home from his mission and did a lot of swing dancing. Darcy and Christopher had a Major Announcement. Jackson possibly got the best present. Merry Christmas everyone! 

 

Thanksgiving 2024

It started when Viv and I had the whole week off and decided to go to Sequoia National Park. But then we thought, "the Rees family likes Sequoia," so we invited them. But then there were three of us getting together just an hour from home, and wouldn't it be fun to have Beth and Sarah stop in? And if we're all at the Airbnb when Mom and Rachel fly in, well, they should obviously come up. Just like that, we had 20 people in the little cabin and it was clear that Thanksgiving was going to be a party.

Other notable moments:

- touring the Greek Orthodox monastery. When we drove up to the imposing iron gates, Gordon bravely pushed the call button and asked, "Are you open to the public?" A pause, and then a voice came from on high:

Who are you?

Another pause, while Gordon examined his soul for the answer, finally replying:

I'm Gordon Rees.

And the gates slowly opened for us.

- at the same monastery, we were all on our best behavior until Eric gave Beth a heart attack when he reached up and grabbed the gigantic golden chandelier and gave it a big swing. Her whole assessment of his character and her success as a parent was momentarily in question until the tiny nun stepped out from behind him, and Beth realized that Eric had only been following instructions.

- it was rainy, so Sydney led a round of DND, lots of FIFA was played, and hot sauce taste testing was a success. We did brave a couple of misty, drippy hikes among the grandeur of those amazing trees.

- we played hot potato dares

- we had 'easy favorite things' dinner

- Chris hiked from barn road to the bridge formerly known as Squaw Leap. It really didn't take him that long

- Sarah fixed an age-old problem by just going to the store and buying more measuring cups

- we made 22 pies. New ones included spumoni, persimmon, and rhubarb custard. 

- Beth took a lot of the boys back to her house and made all of Theo's dreams come true at a fruit stand

- All of a sudden we have enough good volleyball players to play 6 v 6.

- We painted half bananas, because Beth is good at woodworking and Vivian is funny

- Basically, everyone got enough to eat and nobody cried (much). Happy times