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.