Vacation Scenery Post

Here's some scenery from around Joseph. I took several photos of this barn as it was so pretty. The air in the country was so fresh and the crickets were chirping. I could get used to scenery like this!

Same barn from different angle.

This was the view on the other side of the road, across from the barn.

The sunset from the next night on another drive :)

Summer Vacation Part 2 - LaGrande, Joseph, Wallowa Lake

On Monday morning we packed up again and headed out for part 2 of our vacation. On the way to Wallowa Lake we stopped to visit some friends who live in LaGrande, Steve and Beth Koza and their 3 children. We had a great time visiting with their family and playing on their farm. They were kind enough to feed us dinner and entertain us for the afternoon, although they'd had a very busy weekend.
Sarah, Grace, Weston, Elsie, Timothy (Baby Becca not in photo)

Here's Grace showing off the mini-kitchen in our little apartment/cabin in Joseph, OR.

Elsie taking a much-needed afternoon nap.

Exploring Joseph, OR on Tuesday morning. Joseph is famous for it's bronze sculptures like the cougar pictured here.

Tuesday afternoon we took off for Wallowa Lake and went up Mt. Howard on the tram. We traveled in a little gondola/tram over 8,000 ft. up the mountain. I don't consider myself afraid of heights, but I have to admit it made me a bit nervous to have my family suspended so high in the air supported by little cables. The view was amazing! We took some time to walk around on the summit enjoying the scenery. I kept thinking of the verse from Psalms, "the mountains declare the glory of God". We saw plenty of mountains declaring God's glory in Eastern Oregon!

More view from the top of the mountain.
There were groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks and birds on the mountain that were quite used to being fed people-food. They were pretty aggressive and it would not have surprised me if they had jumped in our lap. We tried to keep some distance between them and the kids. :)

We enjoyed breakfast and lunch in our mini-kitchen at the cabin and then dinner at a wonderful local restaurant (the food was so good we went there both nights!). I had the BLT + avocado sandwich twice as it was so yummy! They also had a nice outdoor seating area shaded by large trees.

Elsie being goofy at the restaurant!

The deer at Wallowa lake are so tame they will eat from your hand. The ranger told us every year tourists are injured by deer who are angry they aren't being given food. We took this photo from the safety of our van :)

Weston having fun at the lake on Wednesday afternoon. We were a little disappointed in the condition of the beach. There were large rocks, stagnant little pools of water, and goose poo-poo's everywhere. The kids didn't seem to notice, but Mike and I were a bit grossed out.

There was also a pair of young bald eagles perched in a nearby tree. The rangers set up a telescope for viewing. Weston and Mike spent some time checking out the birds.

Elsie having fun!

Grace having fun!

Mike, Elsie and their new friend.

After time at the lake we came across a place where the kids could ride horses. This was the first time on a horse for both Weston and Grace. As you can see Grace was thrilled and had a great time!

You can also see Weston was not very thrilled and wanted to get off after being led around only once (Grace went for as long as she could). At this point Weston tends to be a bit more cautious than Grace. :)

We traveled through the little town of Anatone on the way up to Spokane Thursday. We thought this sign was funny. I guess they have to update the sign every time some one's pet dies :)

Summer Vacation Part 3 - Spokane

On Thursday we packed up the van once again and drove up to Spokane to Mike's parents' house. The drive was a bit scary as part of the way was switchbacks through a steep canyon with very little guardrail. We had to stop a couple of times as we were all feeling a bit carsick.
We had a great visit in Spokane and treasured our time with Mike's family. A few of the highlights were the new trampoline Papa and Memaw splurged on, a visit to the wild cat animal park, Weston "hunting" with Papa in the woods, Grace and Elsie playing with new dollies, and playing on the slip 'n slide we brought from home. We were all pretty spoiled!
Papa John picked this little tractor up at a garage sale for only $20! The kids had a blast riding it around. Grace was pretending it was a combine (like we saw near LaGrande).

This photo of Uncle Eric, Aunt Christi, Grace and Weston turned out really good. They are all sitting on the trampoline. We had some great "visit" time with Eric and Christi all weekend. Friday night we all feasted on salmon, snapper and halibut that Eric and Christi caught up in Alaska recently. It was delicious!

Big news! It's been over 25 years since Papa John shaved his mustache (Mike has no memories of seeing his dad without it)! He surprised everyone Sunday morning by appearing with a bare upper lip! We were amazed and we all think it makes him look 10 years younger :)

Baby Shower for Jane

Sunday evening some girlfriends and I threw a jungle-themed baby shower for our friend, Jane. Jane is expecting her first baby, a boy, Sept. 12th! It's been so fun to be pregnant with boys together with such close due-dates. Although Jane's 2 weeks ahead in pregnancy, my c-section will be a week early so we could have the boys pretty close together :) Here's a few photos of the event.

Belly photo! Carrie at 31 weeks and Jane at 33 weeks pregnant.

All the George Fox girls. From left: Julie, Olivia, Leah, Jane, Carrie, Courtney, Becky, and Annie.

Everyone chipped in on bringing food and it was wonderful! We had Cuban black beans, veggies, watermelon, pita chips, artichoke jalapeno dip, crackers and spread, fruit kabobs, cheese kabobs, banana-coconut slushies, lime punch, coconut-chocolate balls, two kinds of jelly roll cakes, and fruit trifle. Are you drooling yet?
Jane and her mom, Linda, with some of the cute clothes she received as gifts.

Aye Chihuahua!

Yesterday I looked out my kitchen window to see the neighborhood pit bull, "Pinto", run by making his evening excursion. He was followed closely by his little friend, the chihuahua, who was...wearing pants. Yes, the spunky little fellow was wearing a pair of white cotton pants. Am I shocked? No, not in our neighborhood!

Update: The neighborhood rooster appears not to live on our street anymore. He has been MIA since Saturday evening. Mike and I suspect he lost his cock fight Saturday night. May he rest in peace.

Note: Photo taken from website for new Disney movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua"

Timothy Lake Camping Trip

We just got back Monday after 3 nights camping at Timothy Lake with Papa Craig and Memaw Mary. So much fun, so much work! Good thing we only camp once a year, Mike and I are completely pooped!
I took some photos around the campsite but forgot to take some by the lake. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed wading in the lake (Mike and I even swam in the lake a bit! Pretty cold!) and taking our blow-up raft out for rides. Mike and I also got away for an afternoon to go up to Timberline Lodge for a visit. We had never been to the historic lodge and wanted to look around a bit. There were beautiful views from up on the mountain, but we both agreed we probably wouldn't want to stay there. There were tons of tourists (like us) and it seemed overpriced (a bottle of water from the vending machine was $2.75 (we decided to stay thirsty :))
Apart from the lack of sleep and a few mosquito bites, it was a wonderful camping trip. The kids love being outdoors, making S'mores, getting dirty, rafting, fishing, biking and exploring!
Grace ended up going home with Papa and Memaw for 2 nights after the trip. My mom needed to take a work trip up to Newberg on Wednesday (tomorrow) so we offered Weston that he could go to Bend if he wanted to. Weston decided he'd rather stay home with us, so the offer went to Grace. She snapped it up with no hesitation and showed no signs of sadness as she waved goodbye! What different personalities our children have! We'll meet in Newberg to pick Grace up tomorrow at lunchtime.


Here's Elsie and Grace feeding Baby "Pat". I'm not sure why Grace was scowling. I think maybe I told her to give the doll to Elsie so I could get a photo.

Elsie caring for the baby. We're a little concerned over how she'll do with her new baby brother in September. She's pretty attached to me right now and not too fond of sharing my attention sometimes. I need to be better about praying over the adjustments that will happen when the new baby arrives.

Grace being silly. I think this was taken before giving the doll to Elsie :)

Elsie loves the bikes! She wanted to put the helmet on and climb on the bike all weekend.

Weston showing Memaw something "cool". She looks very interested!

Weston and Daddy in front of the manly tent. The girls all slept in the trailer while Weston, Mike and my dad all slept in the tent. Weston woke Mike up at about 2 am. the first night to say, "Daddy, Papa's been snoring all night long!" Weston felt pretty special sleeping in the tent with the men!

Grace sitting under the picnic table making pies and soup. The little girl has never minded getting very dirty!

Grace with Papa and Memaw. She was being naughty and not smiling. She also has jam on her face.

Wilderness Man eating lunch!

Weston was building a fort out of bark.

Mike and my dad "shootin' the breeze".

Garden and Yard Updates

Here's a few photos of the yard and garden progress. I don't think I took the photos during the best time of day, but at least you can see that stuff is growing. We have sugar snap peas, carrots, marigolds, 5 tomato plants, lettuce, spinach, zucchini, onions, sweet peas, morning glory flowers, and some various annual flowers all planted here. The sugar snap peas are so large now that they are flopped over the back of the picket fence I have them climbing. I've been picking a handful of the peas to eat everyday and it looks like our yield will be increasing! We finally even have one little tomato starting to grow on the yellow pear tomato plant! The 4 tomato plants we started from seed are flowering, but no tomatoes yet. We shall see!
The black tube you see sticking up at the corner will eventually be a sprinkler head. The sprinkler system is still a work in progress, but we're getting there!

Front yard flowers. The hole by Dave and Julie's front door is the sprinkler system again. The black tube is the soaking system which hasn't been completed or buried yet. The flowers are pretty though!

Front view. As you can see we also have to tackle the strip of land right by the street. I think we're planning on shrubs and bark in that area.

Some petunias that are doing well. A few weeks ago I took the advice of a gardener friend and violently clipped them back to almost nothing. She promised they would come back much more full and healthy after the clipping. She was right!

The same gardener friend gave me some of this plant from her yard. I'm not sure what it is, but it is flowering pretty pink blossoms.

It's Been So Long!

I haven't gotten around to posting very much lately as we are having so much fun doing summer stuff. Here's a few recent photos. Up top Grace is riding her new "big girl" bike (Weston's old one). You can also see a bit of our new grass and the edge of the garden. The next photo is from the 4th of July. We had the Von Gunten Family and a friend, Terry, from church over for a bar-b-que. The Von Gunten's have 7 children so it was lots of activity and lots of fun! I think the sun was behind me as all the kids are looking squinty in the photo :) The day was wonderful up until Grace burned herself on a sparkler at about 10:00 at night. I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow her coat caught on fire and she got one little blister on her hand. She was more scared than hurt, but we have new respect for sparklers now!

The other news in our neighborhood is that we now have a neighborhood rooster! Some neighbors of ours (the same ones who let their pitbull and chihuahua run loose) now have a rooster that crows from about 5 am. to noon everyday. I never thought roosters could be so annoying! Aren't roosters only supposed to crow at sunrise?

Well, I'd better get to loading the van as we're taking off for camping in about an hour to Timothy Lake on Mt. Hood. We will be meeting my parents there, who also happen to have a large trailer (we're not into roughing it when we have 3 children and one on the way). We're looking forward to some fresh air and lots of fun. I also brought Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to put on S'mores! Yum!

Enjoying the Backyard!

Yesterday I took the kids outside to enjoy the new grass. They played in the sprinkler awhile and soaked up some sun (good vitamin D!). Elsie wore her birthday suit. I might as well let her enjoy her baby freedom while she can. Sweet baby innocence :)

You've got to love that little tummy! How fast these days will go by and she'll be a "big" girl like Grace!

After playing outside Elsie made a beeline for the potty. She doesn't actually use the potty, but enjoys pretending. She also knows how to take her own diaper off now. While my parents were watching the kids for us the weekend of the 19th she took her diaper off during her nap. My dad came to get her up and found her holding her wet diaper and looking pleased with herself. It took him a few moments to notice the "gift" lying in her crib. I told him he was pretty lucky that she didn't touch it and do artwork with it as we've known other babies to do. Note to self: don't put Elsie down for nap without shorts over her diaper :)