Etc. July

The morning after the wedding was the best Taylor porch session in the history of porch sessions.  Everyone who is anyone showed up, including the bride and groom who had forgotten something before they headed to CA, so dropped by to pick it up.  So fun.  I think one of the greatest joys in life is a Taylor porch session. 

The next morning the scattering began.  The "run with us" tradition is alive and well. The Youngs left, the NC Taylors left, and Em went back to work.  Clara and I left on a Weds to go pick up Tucker in Lander Wyoming. 

Lander is a very cool place.  We weren't supposed to see Tucker until Thursday morning, so Clara and I drove up Sinks Canyon.  The river just vanishes into the mountain here.  Very cool. After we went to dinner and we saw Tucker there with his instructors!  It was so exciting to see him.  They were having a celebration dinner and an awards kind of night so we didn't get him for long.  His instructors sat with us for a bit and truly raved about Tucker.  He was so competent and amazing.  Anyway, it was really exciting to see him and hear a bit about his adventure. 

Tuckers hands were beat up!  This is mostly healed.  Bug bites, and hail injuries.

Clara had some pool time at the hotel.

The drive home must be the prettiest road trip.  Through the south of Wyoming, the central mountains of Colorado, and through beautiful Northern New Mexico.  Very fun to hear a blow by blow account of Tucker's NOLS adventure, and then fun to rock out to tunes dj'd by T for the last few hours.  

We came home to a tree loaded with ripe apricots.  It was slightly tragic to not have more time to preserve them.  We had cobbler made by our neighbor and I dried some and made leather, all of which were gone in seconds. 

Everything was in bloom and it makes me so happy.  I sure do love my garden.

Clara made us sticky toffee pudding and Clara and I used Nancy Birstwhile's (of British Baking Show fame) no fail yorkshire pudding recipe and they were perfection. 

It was so fun and exciting in the middle of book club to get a phone call from Anders who had arrived back at the NOLS camp in Alaska after not hearing from him for a month.  Tucker flew off to Santa Barbara for a yeakbook camp.  He is the editor this year and they go to this conference and plan out their layout for the year.  Also that week Clara got to repeat her Georgia O'Keefe camp since the kidney stone ruined her first attempt.  Meanwhile Anders flew home, and later that night Tucker arrived back.  

We had one day all together for the first time in a very long time, and we went to dinner at La Choza.  When we drove home there was the most incredible, beautiful, widespread thunderstorm.