What IS War?

There are things that you DEFINITELY miss when you are away from the "fam" for a bit. I flew out to Illinois last week to attend the funeral of a very dear family friend. The treekids and Pops dropped me off at the airport and they continued on with the previously planned schedule. Plans included the Oregon State Fair in Salem (where Pops was scheduled to be a volunteer at the "Ask-a-Vet" Booth) followed by a trip out to northeastern Oregon. The trip east was meant to do a few things... see a part of Oregon that we had never seen in daylight, spend a fun time exploring and (sound of a drumroll here along with a traditional "Da da da DAH") scouting out the area that Pops was awarded a hunting tag for Elk in some very desirable "Imnaha" area. Well, those things carried on even while I was away. There are lots of pictures and stories that they have to tell but there are some things that I hear and think... "Oh, I am so glad that I have my kids with me most of the time so that I don't miss out on things like this very often!"

The family was driving along the interstate in the northeastern corner of Oregon when they came upon an interesting sight. They were by the Umatilla Chemical Depot, a storage facility for chemical weaponry for our country. The kids were intrigued, so Pops explained that lots of weaponry is stored in these storage facilities. Of course, this lead to more questions of why there would need to be SO MUCH space for storing weapons... that would be a lot of weapons and if this was only ONE of the storage places... So, Pops told them that in a time of war, the armed services would need to be able to access the weapons from more than one location.

Branch asked, "What is war?"

Blossom responded, "War is when someone takes your toys from you."

Pops replied, "Amen, li'l sister!"