January 2008

This is a very different kind of Blog, called "a backwards blog" It needs to be read from the bottom up. New scientific findings have shown that reading up unstead of down stimulates the brain in certain ways, making you smarter.(Actually what happend is that I downloaded the pictures in the wrong order and it would be too frustrating to get them in the opposite order now. So, enjoy: Here are our parting views of the Oregon rainforest. It was totally beautiful

and we hated to leave, but Sheila and Pat were waiting for us. Everything was wet and dripping, moss covered all the trees and sometimes ferns grew out of the moss. Otherwise ferns covered the forest floor and every few miles we came across another little streamlet. How would it be to live here.... totally out of our price range, I bet.

Here are a few views of our favorite Oregon coast. We are madly in love with Arcadia Beach. Sam has actually checked on real estate prices: With ocean view: totally unaffordable. 10 miles inland: almost unaffordable. Would you ever come to see us, if we moved there? Seeing all that green and no snow was just so nice. We had been driving thru Portland the day before, and I had thought how much I would love to go and see the ocean.... a few minutes later Sam mentions how silly it would be to drive all the way out to the beach, but how much he would love to do that. I know why I married him!

Look at that amazing rainbow we came across, just north of Tillamook! I'll take rainbows over blizzards any day!

On our drive out to the coast, it got more and more sunny, and the snow from the coastal range got less and less until everything was just lush and green. Ahhhh. What a sight for winter worn eyes! Tillamook, by the way is the location of the famous cheese factory, you can watch it being made, sample it, have their famous icecream, and enjoy a hot lunch. Good clamchouder.

We spent a day in Portland with Christi. She had the day off and took us all over the place. We saw the famous Rose gardens (there were actually some hardy roses blooming, the huge park and all sorts of beautiful bridges, even the one the Golden Gate Bridge was patterned after. Christi is a great cook and has a formidable DVD collection. We had a great time with her.



My cold was mostly gone, and right before we left Bonnie's I got to hold little Zander.

The night before Linda, Heidi and Megan came to visit, as they were all in Moscow, celebrating Kalee's birthday.

Bonnie and Zander came home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and needed some peace and quiet, so we got dispatched to take the 2 little girls to the local childrens science center. We all had a great time. Here Sam and Kenya are playing the irrigation pipes.








Amara is getting her face painted. She wanted a flower.

There was a cool place to read and play games, so grandpa got to read stories.

A visit to the hospital. Kenya and Amara with their new baby brother.

And here is little Zander in all his newness. Cute litte one with lots of dark hair. He turned out to be rather noisy.












While Bonnie and Aaron were in the hospital we got the full benefits of being grandparents. Grandpa's story time was a definite favorite. I have never seen 2 better behaved little girls... that is until their parents came back. Babysitting for just a few days has it's advantages, the newness of it doesn't wear off that soon and they are soooo good. It was fun.

Bonnie decided that things were a bit more urgent than originally thought, and we needed to come a day sooner, that, of course was right after a massive snowstorm. Roads were closed and a 1 1/2 hour trip took 3 hours, but we got through just fine in our little tank, and the countryside was truly beautiful. As soon as we arrived, she and Sam went grocery shopping, and then Aaron came and they went off to the hospital. Zander was born that night. 9lbs, 3oz.

Since we had the extra day in Spokane, we decided to visit the temple there. It is one of the small ones on the southern outskirts of the city. It was very nice to be there.

We had promised Bonnie to come to Moscow, when she had her baby. The plan was to leave on Wednesday, and she would have the baby on Thursday, but the weather was going to be really bad, so it would be safer to leave on Monday. Sam called me at 11 with this change of plans and expected me to be packed and ready to go in an hour. It took a little longer, but we left by 2. Since it is a little tight at Bonnie's, we decided to spend a couple of days with Linda in Spokane, which is just 1 1/2 hours from Moscow. We left with nice blue skies, and the roads were not too bad. Even Montana was clear. Once we got to the passes in northern Idaho, though, it was a totally different story. The area from Coeur D'Arlene on was total winter wonderland. And the whole time in Spokane it snowed as well.

This is Anita's house in St. George... Does that qualify for any citations Emily?










Sam's story time is always popular. And having a leg that accomodates 2 little tykes helps too.

Cute Caden helping with Christmas unwrapping

A crazy rabid squirrel.... what can I say

That was Emily there on my phone, so rudely interrupting Sam and my first Christmas in Idaho together. I guess she missed us, since we spent last Christmas with her. We missed her too, and were glad to be invited to visit with them later, stopping in Provo with Dacia and Bugs and their cute spouses.

My grandsons are cuter than yours! No arguments here.

Jen's parents flew in and out of Idaho Falls, separately.... which meant 4 trips up here. We cut it down to 2 with shuttle rides, but they still managed to get snowed in here with us, something we had fervently hoped for. So we were prepared with a turkey dinner and a real neat Christmas eve celebration with all of them, what a treat, and then we go to reminisce when Anya awakened us bright and early at 6 am with: Get up, get up, it's time to get the stockings!! Ah, Christmas morning with little kids, there is nothing quite like it!

Early on Christmas Eve, Sam's big Christmas gift was delivered. Since it had been snowing like mad all day, I felt it would be appropriate to let him have it early. Of course, I could have let him shovel for 3 hours, maybe he would have appreciated it even more the next day. But that seemed almost cruel. And he surely did appreciate it. Lots.

So, depending on whether you followed my instructions, this would be the beginning or the end of my blog. You can quickly test it, if you read it from bottom to top, you should be a ton smarter now.