Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Family reunion, Oregon trip

Here we are in Eugene, Oregon with Sam's Brother in law and his wife. David and Pam had invited us to stay with them, and after going to church with them, we had a little excursion to the coast. Sam and I agree, Oregon is our very favorite State. You have Sam to thank, that we are not moving there tomorrow. He said NO, it is too far from you kids.




Somehow we lucked out and got a super day without any wind, but the bluest of skies and warm and just an all around perfect day that still had great waves.
















If you leave your pantyhose on after church, there is no wading for you.... so I got to take pictures instead.


Foxglove and wild Iris. It was so lovely everywhere. It sure was hard to leave.














Look at that surf!!! I was sure Pam would get wet, but she was just out of reach of the pounding waves.
















On Monday we started out in Florence and went south along the coast. This is one of those sleepy little coastal towns, waiting for the summer tourists to arrive... look, one is already there!








This dreamy forest was on a path from the road to the beach. It was even prettier than the picture.












California coast Redwood park, we ran into the guy with the Ax and his blue ox Babe.... he even talked.... so not cute, but Sam wanted a photo. That is him there, between the guy and his ax.

























Look at what $5 can buy you! And this was the only redwood at the attraction, but I have always wanted to do that. No, that is Sam driving, I just took the picture and told him that he fit thru just fine.... with about 1" clearance on each side of the mirrors.




Two little boys and their favorite uncle.













Dacia didnt bring enough motorcyles, so Alysia got stuck on the non-motorized one.












Brrrrrrrrm..... at every opportunity.















2cuties at the lodge. Love that bow.





















2 more cuties

















I think they like each other.
















Linda was just amazing. Surrounded by screaming kids, she kept her calm and got them all to settle down. Some of those little ones had amazing lungs and an almost super-human endurance.... My grandkids, of course, were models of sweetness and loving behavior. It might have helped that their moms were around.






2 of our amazing cooks. Great food, really, I gained more weight than I want to talk about.

















Muir woods, north of San Francisco. As soon as we got close, the fog set in. But it was still really pretty and majestic.
Hey! where did my picture go???? All I was trying to do was decrease the space between pictures, and suddenly the thing is gone....so unless it shows up again somewhere you'll just have to imagine it. It was really pretty.

This is the famous Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, where Sam and his siblings hung out when they were growing up in Palo Alto. I think it was a fun trip down memory lane for him, and I was glad to be along.
















This was on the pier in Santa Cruz. The concerned look on my face is, because I was worried about my nice new camera in the hands of a stranger.... hoping that she wasn't going to drop it.
















These big fat sealions were all over the support structure of the pier. They must have hopped up there the night before, when the tide was high.
















We went on south, ending up at Carmel, where we had lunch at the beach, enjoying the surf. It was in the mid 50 there and a bit foggy. Just an hour inland it was sunny and 95+. I remember the first time I was in Carmel was in 1972 with Helen and Mary and my parents and sister. America was still the total wonderland and carmel seemed almost magical. I still like it a lot.
















Here is the picture of the little candy store, where Helen and Mary bought my sister and me a truly gigantic lollypop. No, I wasn't tempted to have another one. I think the same picture is in Kira's blog... just not with Sam in it. She is lucky, she lives much closer than we do.















We went on the 17 mile drive and enjoyed Pebble beach and the beautiful seashore in that area. The surf was up and I just love digital cameras.... you just snap away until you get the one you want. My dad didn't have that advantage, and still his pictures were totally amazing.... maybe that's where Alan got those photography genes.
















It took me a while to figure it out, but I have a super-zoom on my camera (great job buying that for me, Bugs, great job researching cameras for me, Dacia) thus I can bring these sealions in real close... cool.















The lonely Cypress, the Emblem of Pebble Beach.
















This is really wiered, and thanks to my super camera, I finally got the picture I wanted. On the freeway outside Sacramento right there in the river are all those huge WWII battleships. It is like a used car lot for battle ships. It looks impressive.
















And as usual, at the start of the blog, I goofed again, putting my first pictures last.... but nontheless, here are the pics from my quick trip to Vegas. What would normally take 7+hours took only 1 1/2 hours plus a bit of a wait and some securitystuff, but seeing Emily and boys by plane sure has its thrills. Esspecially since they turned down the thermostat for most of my visit, and I enjoyed my window open during most nights. But by Friday it was in the 100's and definitely time to go home and enjoy cool Idaho with all it's rain for a night, before we left for Oregon the next morning.














We spent part of Thursday at a Sprinkler Park. The boys had great fun, esspecially when it came to a water fight with Oma.... they got me drenched, which felt very nice. Jaxon, however is in big trouble. He was in charge of applying sun-tan lotion to my back..... I still have a very odd looking dark brown triangle on my otherwise snowy-white back.... tsk, tsk. Which means he did a great job on the rest of my back. Thanks, Jaxon.















This is one of those other hardship assignments, Emily had for me: Accompany grandsons to Coldstone and watch them eat ice cream..... in the company of a gazillion other little tikes and their moms for a church playgroup activity. They were so excited as they all got to pick their very own flavors and add-ins and got this amazing spoon to shovel it in with.















Aren't they cute? Even Caden didn't find me too objectionable anymore and actually did not mind associating with me.
Here are two more very busy ice cream eaters.
The End.
























9 comments:

ghenessa said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
princess jen said...

This is all MUCH too cute! But where are pictures of my kids?? They were at the reunion too ;)
Glad you had so much fun there. I'm really glad you came. I love you lots!

Lady of the Rings said...

Leave it to Jen to find something to be offended about... she should be a Hoopes. Great post, Mum! I'd like copies of those pictures... I actually look halfway decent in half of them. Beautiful scenery... I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. But let the record reflect that Joe was NOT one of the cooks... he was just a stirrer. But we still like him. Love you Mummy and can't wait to see you this weekend!

Super Daysh said...

Yay for a new blog post! IT makes me happy and I really enjoyed getting the recap of your trip. Looks like you and Sam had way too much fun. I'm glad you guys came to the reunion and that we got to spend time with the two of you (even if you spent WAY too much time in your room reading!). Love you!

Super Daysh said...

Mummy, why did you leave yourself a comment and call yourself mummy? I'm confused. :)

Joe said...

What do you mean I wasn't one of the cooks!? Thats some PRO-stirring going on! How rude! You've offended 2 people now!

Tehehe - great post! I love all the pictures and I definately want to go drive through that $5 tree :D

Lady of the Rings said...

Emily....leaving offensive comments on my blog and in my name... how low can you sink? And she also swiped my lovely background, all because I don't have a task bar... tsk tsk.
Jen, there definetely was a picture of Aaron, and Anya was in the house... you just couldn't see her, but she was there too.

Alan J said...

Why is Dacia strangling Ellie? Glad you had such a fun trip though - should've come with us though.

The Andersens said...

it does indeed look like you and sam had lots of fun. i'm glad we got to see you some at the reunion. love you lots!
and thanks for finally posting!