A family vacation in Oregon has become somewhat of a tradition for our family. However, this last time wasn’t just a regular ‘ol beach trip. First stop, Corvallis Oregon, where Phillip earned his master’s degree in creative writing from Oregon State University. You should probably start calling him Master Brown. Siblings, parents and grandparents made the trip to Corvallis to support him. We attended graduation at Reser Stadium (sans soon-to-be-mentioned super cute toddler), where Phillip, now especially distinguished (see presidential wave photo), was hooded and received his diploma. We took photos together and then the entire family went out to an Italian dinner afterwards to celebrate.
After church on Sunday, our big Mormon family piled into a wee pub to listen to Phillip and his cohort’s reading of poetry and stories they had worked on as part of their theses. Phillip read a few poems with his lovely NPR voice and finished with “Sunset Alert” — a nod to his childhood memory of Mom always alerting the household whenever there was a nice sunset. We’re all so proud of Phillip — er, um, Master Phillip.
Besides the pomp and circumstance, our trip was also different than previous ones because we had with Alan’s parents with us and oh, a toddler cuter than anything you can imagine. That’s four generations by the way! So, ten adults + almost-two-year-old Kenyon headed out to the coast Sunday evening to spend the week at a beach house in Waldport, Oregon.
We filled our days with long walks on the beach (as cliche as it is, we actually did), braving the tides of the cold ocean, watching World Cup soccer games, visiting Heceta Head lighthouse, flying kites in the gorgeous weather, playing Nertz and Quirkle, enjoying a game of Loopers on the sand, having a crossword competition between the boys and the girls, writing Haiku, working on family history, completing a jigsaw puzzle and practicing mindfulness.
Monday evening we celebrated all sorts of things — Phillip’s graduation, birthdays for Loren and Phillip and Tess, as well as Father’s Day for Wally and Alan and Loren. For one of Phillip’s graduation gifts, Loren collected art from family members to go with Phillip’s thesis poetry collection. It turned out great!
Some of the high points of the trip besides Phillip’s commencing, of course: Kenyon being cute, Kenyon smiling, Kenyon rocking Madeleine’s sunglasses, Kenyon showing off how ridiculously intelligent he is, Kenyon doing anything, Kenyon asking to be read “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” an average 12.7 times a day, etc.
Other highlights: Mom found a glass bottle with a message in it, someone accidentally loaded the dishwasher with liquid hand soap, four generations built a sandcastle together, Mom enjoyed having meal teams (so she didn’t have to be in charge of all the meals) and a “professional” photographer* and one day Tess won almost every game we played.
We were absolutely sad to leave the ocean, but we enjoyed the family time together and can’t wait to go back.
*I took about 1,600 photos over the course of the trip (about a fourth of which actually turned out, and about 75 percent of which were of Kenyon), and put together a slideshow for those who wish they could’ve been there and want to live the experience for themselves.
P.S. I also wrote this blog…and yes, I am currently my mom’s favorite child.