2. Montana

Our first morning in Montana we headed out to the Pierson ranch so Austin and Lucy could "help" Christina and Leslie check salt licks and count cows. Christina put Lucy on Special, the sweetest horse ever. Lucy looked just like a cowgirl in her boots and chaps.

Giving Speshy a nice brush down in the barn after the ride.

Lunch at Bubba Burger in Livingston.

Later, we met Dave and Kara and Rose and James and Dylan and Hannah and a bunch of fun cousins and went out to the Gallatin County Fair. Anna took hold of Lucy and pretty much didn't let go for the rest of the trip.

Helping Christina's fiance Bret decide which hogs and steers to bid on at the auction. He and Tina won't be hurting for beef and pork this winter!

The auction was completely entertaining. The FFA kids walked into the ring with their prize-winning turkeys or goats or steers, all carefully fluffed and glittered and blow-dried, and showed them off while the auctioneer did his thing. So fun. I can totally see my kids doing this. OK, maybe not with steers.

The kids decided that the highlight of the trip to Montana was our float down the Madison River. Here's the family plus Anna, all set to get on our raft!

It wasn't deep (as you can see by Austin's height here) and the water was gentle so we hooked ourselves together into a big Fisher Family Flotilla and had a party.

Lucy and her shadow.

1. Nevada

Nevada was our first and last stop on our Great 2011 Gray Family Trek West. (So if you are reading this online and hearing about our journey in reverse, this is the only state that's in the right place!) We flew into Vegas and had about 24 hours before continuing up to Bozeman, so we made the most of it. We stayed at a nice non-casino hotel, the Alexis Park Resort, that had very fun pools and fountains to play in. The kids played for hours. Gavin jumped in over and over again and swam to this little island in the middle of the pool.

The hotel was a block from the Vegas replica of Munich's Hofbrauhaus, so we stopped in to enjoy some surprisingly authentic German food. Here, Austin is contemplating how he is going to consume all this Kasespaezle, Schnitzel and Rotkohl! He certainly was dressed appropriately for the venue in his Bayern Munchen football shirt.

Gavin proved quite the connoisseur of authentic German pretzels. He couldn't get enough. So we've promised to take him to Germany where he can eat all the pretzels he wants. Though after this trip, it may be a while before we have the energy to attempt another family vacation!

Girls of Many Lands

For this month's book club, we each read a different book from the "Girls of Many Lands" series. Then we dressed up as a girl from another land. Lucy read "Isabel" about a girl from England in 1596. But we couldn't come up with an English costume she liked so she dressed up in a Japanese silk robe with chopsticks in her hair. (I wore a Moroccan dress my grandparents bought in the 1950s.)

We met early for an international pot-luck supper. I made Kelewele (Ghanaian plantains fried with ginger) which turned out good, but my favorite was the Cantonese potstickers and the Turkish baklava. Yum!

International Girls having an international picnic. Except Lucy, who ate several bowls of (Japanese?) rice before we came.

Saris, kimonos and dirndl dresses don't keep girls from climbing trees!

The dads and siblings have started a "shadow" club on book club nights. Austin hosted this one at our house -- all the non-book-clubbers came over to ride the horses, make popcorn over a campfire, and skip rocks in the river. Lucy and I arrived home to find quite a party on the trampoline. Both groups claimed to have had the most fun, and it would be hard to say who's right.

Summer Vacation

While Mom's been traveling and Dad's been training for his race, Lucy and Gavin have had plenty to keep their summer time occupied.

Lotus Lake Camp


This was Lucy's third year at camp and Gavin's first. They both had a great time and Gavin got a special award for being "smiley." (Check out Lucy's classic camp outfit: tie-dye shirt, plaid shorts, and cowboy boots.)


Lucy and her friend Lilian dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 one day. Gavin's sign says "Mayonnaise." I think he had some buddies coming as Ketchup and Mustard.

The "crib" in the lake where the kids do swimming lessons. It was so warm that swimming was their favorite activity every day.

Gavin's favorite counselor Moishe.


Camp Atherton

There was no Lotus Lake over the 4th of July weekend, but Austin and the kids were invited to spend a couple of days at our friends the Athertons' cabin.


They have 150 acres and lots of trails for 4-wheelers.



Gavin caught a fish in the pond. It was pretty small, but he was so excited.

Lucy spent most of her time catching salamanders and frogs. She says she caught a hundred salamanders. My budding herpetologist.


The Ponies

Peaches and Captain are back for another summer. Lucy is getting quite good at convincing Captain to do what she wants. Maybe it's all those treats she's been feeding him.

Thankfully, Gavin has forgotten that he is afraid of the horses and has been riding Peaches at every opportunity.


The River

Rivers are so much for fun than swimming pools. You can play in the mud and throw rocks and sticks and catch creatures.

Austin finds the kayak a nice relaxing place to enjoy the view.

Lucy is getting very good at paddling too. (Now if Gavin would just forget he doesn't like boats...)


The Treehouse

When friends come over, the treehouse is the perfect place to hide out.


They take blankets and snacks up there to make a comfy retreat. On this particular day, Lucy and her friend Amelia were supposedly going to read their books for book club, but they got carried away in some flight of imagination and never got down to reading. (Which is fine with me. Creating their own stories is at least as good as enjoying someone else's.)

I had to put in this last picture of Lucy and Amelia giving themselves strawberry-honey facials they concocted themselves. After a day of rustic living in the treehouse, they felt they deserved some spa time. I love that my girl loves to be glamorous but also loves to get dirty.

Mad Half Marathon

A few months ago, Austin decided it would be fun to run a half-marathon. He achieved his goal today by running 13.1 miles in the Mad Marathon in Waitsfield. I drove the course with him on Friday and it was really gorgeous, winding through farmlands and along the Mad River. It also went up and down a few nice long hills which made this particular course rather challenging.

Celebrating his last 1/10th of a mile.

After the big finish, with two of his most devoted fans.

Everyone who finished got a medal to wear around their neck. Austin certainly earned this one. Way to go!

I can't believe I got to do this...

Last week I traveled to Europe and got to do some really cool stuff. I stopped off first in Cambridge, England, to check on my student, Anna Bressor, who is doing a summer research project at King's College.

She took me to the King's College Chapel for Evensong, the services held every evening by Anglican clergy and a boys' choir. Breathtaking.

The next morning, Anna took me up on the roof of King's College Chapel! We got to climb all over and enjoy amazing views of the city.

Then I left Cambridge and continued on to Augsburg (the challenges of which I detailed in my last post.) My purpose in going to Augsburg was to give a talk about the Lutheran Heilig-Kreuz Church, IN the Heilig-Kreuz Church.

That's me, standing in front of the church altar! I spoke for about an hour in German about the history of the congregation and some of the interesting stories associated with the church's construction that I have found in my research. It was so cool to be speaking in this church I have spend so much time studying. My presentation was very well attended, about 50 people were there, including my dissertation advisor and some other important historians, some Mormon friends from Augsburg, and even the parish priest from the Catholic church next door.

The Pastor thanked me with some beautiful flowers. It was such an incredible night for me, well worth all the travel-hassle and preparation and anxiety. When I first saw the Heilig-Kreuz church as a young grad student who spoke hardly any German, I could never have imagined being invited there to speak about my research -- much less actually being able to carry it off!

Planes, Trains, Automobiles

Travel is all about the adventure, right? Yesterday, I took almost every conceivable form of transportation getting from Cambridge, England, to Augsburg, Germany.

I woke up in the village of Landbeach, a few miles outside Cambridge. I took a TAXI into town to meet my student. We had a lovely morning at King's College, including climbing on the roof of the Kings College chapel (amazing pictures to follow) and lunch with some of the Cambridge fellows.

Then I took a BUS into London. The driver dropped me off in the very interesting London neighborhood of Stratford, where I was supposed to meet a connecting bus to London City Airport. I haven't been the only white person at a bus stop since I lived in Philly, and it made me strangely nostalgic. The people at the bus were from Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, all very colorfully dressed, friendly and helpful. When the connecting bus didn't come, they directed me to the Underground Station. I took the SUBWAY then connected to a COMMUTER RAIL line that got me to the airport.

I still made my PLANE with plenty of time to spare, because it was an hour delayed. I was worried about how that would effect things on the other end, since I got in after midnight, but luckily Munich never sleeps! I took the S-BAHN (which was full of very well dressed, very happy, very drunk teenagers . . . prom night?) and then a surprisingly-crowded TRAIN to Augsburg. I walked from the train station to my hotel and got in at 2:45am. Glad to be here, and glad to not have to travel again until I come home next Thursday!