Summer 2013 Part II: Hermiston OR (mostly)

I had decided kind of last minute that I would spend my summer in Hermiston Oregon,
where Nick's family is, on their sweet farm.
Hermiston Oregon: known for their world class watermelons, of all things! Yum!!
I was able to do some work for them, while living with my lover and best friend, who I knew I would be parting ways with at the end of summer.
He left in the end of September, for a 10 month stay in Reinosa Spain where we is teaching and tutoring little kids in English.
You can check out his blog Wordly Citizen to hear his travel stories and read some of his work. 

Oh, how much I love this man and miss him...

Here are some notable moments of this summer:

 I dipped my feet into the Umatilla River with Nancy and Bill, Nick's parents,
and Abi his littler sister.

The chair Abi and I painted for Eli :)

Heart shaped rock!

 Went wine tasting a few times at Sno Winery in Echo, getting a chance to listen to Nick's friend Dallin Puzey sing and play music.

Nick's older sister Becky who lives in Minnesota, came out for a month long visit with her little guy Eli (photographed above), daughter Addison, and her step daughter Jamie. It was quite the full house with Nick and I staying over the summer too. I babysat Eli and Addy quite a bit, along with Nick's nephew Kyller (photographed below). 

I love kids, and had oh sooooo much fun with them this summer!

 We had many dress-up parties with Addison and Abi! Below is Addy and I dressed up... I loved those pants I was wearing. 

Nancy, Nick's mom has containers full of awesome dress-up and Halloween costumes!

Here's her sporting her old Letterman jacket, and then with the little boys Eli and Kyller.

She is such an amazing woman. The most warmhearted, welcoming, fun loving mother to her children... and such a great friend to have around. We tackled some projects around the farm together, but not nearly as much as I wanted to help with. One day!

I had some amazing conversations with her over the summer- some sad, happy, funny, and many life changing and inspiring (especially for my hopeful future with her son).

Played in the huge princess fort!

Gave Addy a cute little bob haircut!

We celebrated the Fourth of July with a bbq at their house, beers, family and fireworks! 

Nick and I caught a ride down to Eugene with his dad, to have a little getaway at the
Darling Reunion campground at the Oregon Country Fair. 

We were enjoying solitude in my little red tent in the forest, with hundreds and hundreds of other people around us partying and celebrating the creative energy the OCF brings about....
enjoying it a little too much to take time to take pictures. 

Below is a video of some of the fire dancing that took place at the drum circle every night! 

We were not used to the chilly nights in Veneta Oregon, so close to the coast, having been in the desert all summer. So we took full advantage of the warmth provided by the
bonfire, drum circle, and our one sleeping bag we shared.

 From Eugene we caught a ride to Portland with my best friend,
stayed a night with Nick's friends in the Flop House, caught a bus ride to Troutdale
and then hitched rides to The Dalles and then to Maupin.

Pictures Nick snapped of me while we were hitch hiking.
Check out our awesome sign that we could fold down the middle to change our destination, and used to make shade later in the day...
Boy was it hot on the black road in the middle of the day, in the desert!

The view was incredible being up so high during the ride the Scandinavian trucker provided us to The Dalles.

We camped along the Deschutes River in Maupin, with Nick's dad Bill, younger brother Mikey and sister Abi, and his older sister Becky and her step daughter. After camping in Veneta and hitch hiking all day, we camped another night on hard ground willingly. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful to float along the river. There were moments of intense thrill as well, through the fast moving rapids! 

Being on a massive river, with your life in it's hands, makes you feel alive.

That week getaway at the Oregon Country Fair and being on the Deschutes River, is what saved me from going delusional from the heat of the desert that summer. 

 All the siblings...

The whole Fam bam... what a fun bunch they are!

  

Before Becky left, Nick made sure she got in some time to shoot his gun. And she dressed the part :)

Played with Eli once last time.

We rode a tandem bike up to the bridge with Abi and Oops!

There is something completely sweet and romantic about riding a tandem bike with your partner- maybe it's having to work together for an end goal... (except that when my legs were tired,

 I would pull them up and Nick would keep peddling us along- sorry honey)

 Celebrated Abi's 12th birthday with family and friends!

 I took Abi to the County fair and carnival where we tried to get on all the scariest rides, and went to the Hoobastank and WAR concerts. She got hypnotized.
(Notice that she's wearing a shirt we made saying 'Free High 5's' and I was wearing 'Free Hugs'!)

I'm not even sure what this contest was called at the fari, but isn't it cute?!

 Shooting Nick's gun with him at target practice... a watermelon.
This was after we ended a week long cleanse, which mainly consisted of four days of only watermelon consuming its seeds, lemon, cilantro, and cayenne pepper. We also included raw protein powder in one of our smoothies.

Nick had a going away party which involved two kegs of local beer from Hermiston Brewing, baked goods, his friend djing, a big bon fire, lots of friends, food and more beer.
(Too bad I was having too much fun to snap photos of all the lights Nancy and I put around the yard)

  Pictures during Nick's party by Christinecountry

Nick and his good friends Brett and Megan came to visit, who studied abroad in Oviedo Spain with him and my sister Theanna (how we met).

Nick's picture of our camping spot at the Round Up he set up for us. I was so stoked on this awesome spot he picked through the bushes, away from everyone else, and right next to the river!

Two weeks before Nick and I would leave Hermiston, and leave each other, we spent a week in Pendleton for the Round-Up rodeo. Nick was working security all week (along with his brothers) so I decided to go camp with him and bring him lunches during his busy days. The company he was working for ended up needing extra help after firing some people with too many nuts screwed loose...  so I jumped on board and picked up shifts that needing covering.
I had never worked security before, nor been an alcohol monitor (usually I was the one doing the drinking). What an experience that was, as a 5'1 little brown girl at one of the largest rodeos in the west, surrounded by drunk cowboys all over the place!
Some of them straight out laughed at me if I told them they couldn't go through a door I was guarding, especially if they had already been kicked out being too drunk.
I caught about 5 people without drinking bands in the stands, two couples fighting, two girls washing their X's off their hands in the bathroom, and one extremely drunk guy who couldn't walk to be cut off and later caught washing his hands.
I worked the longest day of my life thus far pulling three back to back shifts.
Nick and I were both extremely tired at the end of the week, but happy to of made some extra cash on the side before our travels. And the crazy yet fun experience, was well, crazy.
Let R Buck!