The FUN never ends!!!
Everybody dives into berries in summer, right? But how 'bout Oregon grown strawberries right from the local farm... no, better yet, blueberries off the bush down the road from cousin Elliott's house!!!! We can even top that! These cherries were picked by grandpa Mike in Scappoose who actually climbed to the top of his cherry tree and threw branches at us loaded with ripe fruit - AND climbed safely down in one piece!! "Them's good cherries!"

"Why" you ask, "were you wandering around the state collection berries?" The answer, of course, is here:

Is that a beautiful tow truck, or what?! We were waiting for daddy, sweetie, JJ or Jeremy to return from his totally awesome road trip to Maryland and back via Denver, Billings and Missoula with this cool tow truck he found on ebay!! The truck was great, but the trip was incredible!!

After spending the first night in Cambridge, Ohio, Jeremy awoke to quite the day of driving - Ohio, Indiana, Missouri... he didn't stop until he got half way through Kansas... and all to catch his friend, Colin, in Denver before he left for Texas. That's not confusing at all, is it? Nice house, Colin and Rachel! Thanks for the great visit and opening up your new home to our crazy traveler!!!

With no time to spare, it was on to Billings to stay with Grandpa Herb and Grandma Mary, and who's birthday would it be? Jeremy actually arrived in Billings on his grandma's birthday - I told you this was an incredible trip!! All the family showed up for a great party - even the Palucks from Vancouver, WA!! Grandma's sisters were there, Aunt Pat and Aunt Margaret, and both of her daughters, Joyce and Susan and their families - and grandsom Jeremy!! But that's not all, Jeremy got to meet his cousin's little girls... Taycee and Kinsee! So, was it a birthday party or a family reunion?! We're just so grateful you could have a birthday, Mary, so everyone could get together and have so much fun!!! :-) Thanks!! Now, let's see if I remember some tidbits of news... Tyler is 6'4" now, I think, and playing on the high school basketball team a year before he gets there... And Kaitlyn has a boyfriend (you are very brave, girl, to let the news out to relatives like that!)

Billings is "JJ's" home town, you know, after seeing the family, Jeremy found some "old friends" - Vinny, you are doing AWESOME!! I don't know anyone who's gotten shot 9 times and lived to tell about it, but you've taken the experience to heart and realized God has a plan for your life and there's a reason you're still alive. Keep on hangin' in there!! Everything's going to work out for the GOOD!! So, what's a tow truck for, but to tow things? And since we got a nice, big one handy all the way from Maryland, might as well move one of these:

Jeremy said this shed looked a lot smaller out in the field... but it towed!! No problem!! :-)

Finally, "JJ" can't go to Billings and not drop in on Kent and see his cool shop - and Kent got a couple chances to work on the truck, too!! Thank you, Kent! It's so cool when a good friend just drops what they're doing to help us out, you make us miss the Montana way of life, friend!! Out here it seems like everyone's too busy to fit anyone in until at least next week some time!

Who could ask for a better vacation than a trip like that? And wouldn't you know, that tow truck sold only 5 days after Jeremy got back and put it on Craig's List. Actually, we had kind of hoped to "play" with it a little longer! It's sure handy having a tow truck around when there's cool deals to find and buy and sell and who-knows-what!!! Even as I write this, Jeremy's renting a tow-dolly from the U-Haul to go get an old Nova that was just too good to pass up, even if it is way outside of town!! Like I said, too bad the tow truck sold so fast!! But, on the other hand, how cool is that?!