Today was the OHEN Oregon Home Educators Network Not Back To School Day at Oaks Park.  What a blast!  Jon had some driving lessons.

The teens found something to watch. We came up with a few captions for this one.

Nate needed some driving lessons.

The Blanket Races!

We have a very dear little friend battling Leukemia at OHSU/Dorenbecher, the White Building at the top of the hill.  I had to go to the river and pray several times.

Jon had a good time on all of the rides, even the smaller ones.

The ride I desired to be on for sure!

We have met a lot of families online through OHEN and just being bloggers.  We got to see each other in person today – two or three are not in this photo but were there also.

Nate and his friend – I thought his thoughtful look away pose was funny.

We had a great time.  Living in this small town without any/many older homeschoolers makes you start to feel like you are the only ones.  The boys do get a bit tired of people asking if they will ever go to Public School. I get the teachers asking me often if Nate could enroll in the local high school so he’ll have “more opportunities”.  I roll my eyes. I’m thankful for our time in Bend, where I saw so many successful homeschool families.  I’m thankful for our connections with Albany, Salem, Portland, Hillsboro and Vancouver for being able to link up with so many families.  I just kept walking around in wonder passing by hundreds of homeschoolers all in one space.  Awesome Sauce.