The continuation..at least the first half of it...

(Ally, Gage, Julia, Me, Grandpa, Jack and Jeremy)

...The first stop we made on our first full day in Oregon was to see my Grandpa. It was important to me because growing up he was the Grandpa I was intimidated by. He was gruff and stern and just generally didn't seem kid friendly. Even the last time I saw him about 7 years ago he wasn't all that happy to see me. I had heard that he had mellowed and sweetened up recently at the ripe old age of 94 so I really wanted to see him to experience it for myself, you know, before it was too late to make that memory. (The memory for me and my kids, he doesn't exactly make new memories very well anymore). It was great! He was happy to see me and was sweet to my kids. He patted my leg as I sat next to him and said he was so happy we came...I am pretty sure he knew it was me. He gave us hugs and kisses when we left, it made me quite emotional since I hadn't had too much of that from him before. It was nice and just seeing him made the trip worth it.

(Scott's memorial, they planted the tree when they made the memorial, it's so big!)

After we left Grandpa's we drove to my old high school. There's a memorial to my brother Scott there that we visit every time we go to Oregon. The school was open so I was able to show my kids my old locker from my senior year and the cafeteria, etc.. It was a little weird walking around my high school with my husband and 5 kids. We also drove by my old junior high, grade school, church and the house that I grew up in. Some things looked the same, some things have really changed.

(Rich, Julia, Jeremy, Jack, and Grandma Netta)

My Dad suggested we go feed the ducks at the Pringle River. I pictured a few cute little duck families but there were at least a hundred birds there; some ducks and pigeons but mostly geese. We did have to be careful where we stepped...lots of poop...that was gross. Next we went to the Riverfront Park in Salem which is next to the Willamette River. I walked down to the banks of the river, which is full of the smooth little river rocks, and skipped rocks with the kids. We watched an old stern wheel boat take people on rides on the river. It was fun.

(Me and Ally)

There is a carousel at the park that Grandma bought tickets for us to ride on. Each of the horses was custom made by local artists so they all had their own personalities. I had forgotten how "artsy" Oregon is.

(Jeremy, Gage, Jack, Ally and Julia)

Later we walked around my Dad's little town of Monmouth to Western Oregon University which is just a few blocks away. The kids played at the park and found several trees to climb.

(Rich, Jeremy, Jack, Julia, Ally, Me and Gage)

The next day we went to the Columbia River Gorge. We went to Crown Point first which is at the top of the gorge.

(Ally)

The views were beautiful!

(Grandpa, Grandma, and the family)

Next we went down the gorge to Multnomah Falls and hiked up to the bridge.

After that we drove just a little farther to the Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery.

(the Sturgeon)

(Mr. Salmon smiling for the camera)

The fish hatchery had a huge pond full of Salmon and Sturgeon. There was a viewing window where we spent a lot of time watching the huge Sturgeon (they get to be about 10 feet long) and the Salmon swimming by the window. Jeremy took a picture of several of them but, "Mr. Salmon" as I call him, is my favorite because it looks like he's about to say something.

The next day we went to Silver Creek Falls. Rich and I stopped at the view point on the way there because it was so pretty. You can see the Christmas Tree farms behind us.
Okay my Twilight girls...yes, this is the field that the baseball scene in Twilight was filmed. A lot of that movie was filmed in this part of Oregon, including the in the gorge where we were the day before.

(Jack, Julia and Grandma at the top of the falls)

Silver Creek Falls is a little river, a big creek really, that flows over a huge cliff but...

there's a trail that goes under the falls. If you look close you can see the people on the trail under the rock overhang.

(Cousins Megan, Amy and Me)

That night my Aunt, Uncle, Cousins and their families came over to my Dad's for a BBQ. It was fun for my kids to meet even more cool cousins to play with. We made a fire in the fire pit, roasted marshmallows and visited. It was a nice evening and a nice end to the first half of our vacation!

Getting there...

We decided to take our summer trip up to Oregon, my home state. It's about time since we haven't been there since we only had Jeremy and Gage. I finally felt like I needed to go back to see family and show my kids the beautiful state I grew up in.

It takes 15 hours to get to my Dad's house from ours on I-5 if you don't stop for anything. Needless to say we took 2 days to make the drive and decided to see some things on the way.

Our first stop was in Santa Nella for lunch at Pea Soup Anderson's. It's a cute little restaurant in a Dutch Windmill and they are famous for their Pea Soup. Since that was their specialty and my Mother-in-law raved about how great the soup was...she used to go there with her family when she was young...we ordered the token bowl of Pea Soup. It actually tasted a lot better that it looked. It was yummy! Even the little ones liked it...not the bigger ones though.


We cut over to San Francisco to head up the 101 so we could drive through the Redwoods. We saw so many pretty sights along the coast. We had to take a picture of Rich's favorite, a toilet all alone in the middle of a field. He wanted Jeremy to get out and sit on it for the picture but that was a no go, so we just took the shot of the lonesome toilet by itself.

We didn't really have a specific destination in the Redwoods. We figured we'd see lots of really tall trees as we drove through the Redwood National Forrest. We did stop a cute place that had huge carvings of things. The little ones liked the panda that they could climb on.

The Clown Bear Totem Pole was pretty cool but it was so tall we couldn't fit in all in the picture and still see the kids at the bottom. It was a nice stop and the kids got to get out and play a little bit.

It was taking longer than we thought it would because the highway was so small and winding and we kept getting stuck behind really slow drivers. The sun began to set and it was dark by the time we drove by the Avenue of the Giants which probably would have been the best place to stop and see the big trees but we did see a lot of giant trees so we were satisfied. We stopped and stayed the night in Crescent City. It's a cute little coastal town in the very northern tip of California. I was kind of amazed that we had been on the road for over 14 hours and we still weren't out of the state. The next morning Jeremy took his camera, the nice Nikkon (he's a budding photographer among other things) and went to the docks to take pictures.

I've only included a few of my favorites that he took .

But there are many more that I'm going to have to print up and frame.

Once we got into Oregon we stopped in a tiny town called Rice Hill off of I-5 to get Umpqua Icecream. There's a little icecream stand there where I had been when I was little that is still there. It's the cool kind of place where your order of a scoop of icecream is more like two or three scoops. We all got our icecream and then continued on another several hours.

We finally started to see the green rolling hills of where I grew up. I had forgotten how many shades of green there are in Oregon. We also had the overcast skies which is the norm there, but it makes the blue skies that peek through even more appreciated. It was nice to be "home" with the moss on the trees and roofs, the cloudy sky...it's cozy.

We got to my Dad and Step-Mom's house that afternoon. They live in a little old town, in a house built in the late 1800s or early 1900s. I can't remember which. It's on the historical tour of the town. The first thing I did was go to the garden and pick a bunch of raspberries like I used to do in highschool at our old house. I miss all of the fresh fruit grown right in the back yard. Anyway, that was getting there. The rest is to be continued...

Emma the miracle worker...

Last weekend we had some good friends come visit from Utah. We were nextdoor neighbors with Kyle and Julie. Kyle and I went to school together and Rich and Kyle worked together. When we were neighbors we only had Jeremy and Gage and they only had Nathan and Emma. We moved back to California when the kids were between 3 and 7. It was so nice to have them here, just like old times, only our families have grown both in size and quantity! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the whole family, only pics of the kids swimming! Ooopps!The kids had so much fun at the pool. Gage and Nate made a raft out of themselves and tried to keep Jack from destroying it.

Ally, Louisa, and Jack (our new ones since we moved) had fun getting to know eachother.
Julia bonded with all of them but like always she would only sit on the top step of the pool, terrified of the water.
Gage tried to get her to go out into the water and relax but she held on so tight she about choked him.

Then along came Emma, miracle worker. Julia actually let go and had fun.

Eventually she completely let go and was happy on her own!

By the end of the day she was jumping to Emma. What a brave big girl!

Julia was so proud of herself, such a big girl...love the hair...amazing day! We were sad that they had to go home. Julia has asked for Emma everyday since they've been gone. Good friends are such blessings!

Diversity

One of the things I love about where I live is the diversity of cultures. I'm not saying that I appreciate those who make a home in this country and enjoy the benefits of being here without showing respect to our country by learning the language, thinking I should know their language instead and not assimilating what so ever...but that's another issue all together. I've had a few experiences this past week that have made me think about how cool it is to be able to experience other cultures with out traveling to do it.

Last Sunday was Fast Sunday...the first Sunday of the month where we fast for two meals. Every fast Sunday for the last several months we have had a Samoan Sacrament Meeting in the evening. This is in addition to the regular one at church in the morning and it's for the many Samoan members we have at church to be able to have Sacrament Meeting in their language. I went to the first one with Rich who has to go to all of them because he's the Bishop and therefore the presiding authority. Last Sunday was the first Tongan Sacrament Meeting, right after the Samoan Sacrament Meeting, because we also have so many members who are Tongan also. I went to this one last Sunday. I loved it. There was no piano player so they sang a capella. They didn't need accompaniment because they harmonized so beautifully, I felt like I was in the Islands. It was so neat to hear the familiar melody of songs we sing on Sundays sung in Tongan. Even in a language I didn't understand I still felt the message of what these songs are about. The talks were interesting...not that I understood those either...but I picked out some words or phrases that I heard repeated several times, I wondered what they meant. After the meeting we had wonderful food, which is not the ususal for us Palongis after regular Sacrement Meetings. They had papaya, guava, and watermelon all spinkled with coconut. There were fried pastries, kind of like big doughnut holes, called Kei Kei (I probably didn't spell it right), and a drink I don't remember the name of which was very yummy. It was watermelon juice with little chunks of melon, coconut, and I think some other fruit. Everyone is so kind and respectful, it was very cool.

Saturday we were invited to our neighbor's house for a celebration for her, Taiyo, who graduated with her Master Degree in Nursing from Loma Linda. They are from Nigeria and the nicest people. They told us that the party started at 5:00, so we got there about 5:15. No one else was there and they were still just getting ready. We thought we had gotten the time wrong so we asked and they kind of laughed and said they had forgotten to explain African culture to us. When someting is scheduled at 5:00, "African time" means that they don't think it really starts until an hour after that, then they don't want to be the first ones there so they wait another hour before they come. So, we took their little boy Fumbi, who is a year and a half, over to our house to play with the kids who love to play with him while they continued to get their house ready. A little after 6:00 we went back over and there were a few other people there. They had a lot of food and wanted to get started for the people who were there but their pastor wasn't there yet so Femi, the husband, knowing that Rich is a Bishop in our church, asked him to say a few words about why we were all there for the celebration and to say a blessing on the food. Rich did a great job and said the prayer. I think it's the first time I've heard people say, "amen', "that' right", and "uh huh" durring a prayer given by Rich. They were very respectful of Rich because of his calling as a Bishop. Femi explained that in their culture a man of God is highly respected, not because of the man but because of his position as a representative of God. I thought it was neat that even though they are not of our faith they still respected the calling. We got to try some African cuisine too. It's amazing how similar the basics of the food is to the Polynesian and even South American Cultures, it's just seasoned differently. They had a ton of rice which was spicy, kind of like Indian food. There was the beef and pork and most all the parts of the animal in a sauce, spicy again. There were fried Plantains which reminded me of Brazilian food. They also served something like pastells...seasoned meat wrapped in a pastery. Most everyone wore traditional African clothes which were very pretty. We were the only white people there. It was very cool. Sorry, I'm saying cool a lot in this entry! But it was!

May...swimming, the fair, family & old friends

May was hot! Good thing Grandma has a pool and lives close. All of the kids love to go swimming and do very well, except Julia. She's afraid of the pool and will only sit on the top step. She doesn't even like me to hold her in the shallow end. Maybe by the end of the summer we'll have her enjoying it more.

(My California girl)

She does love to wear her swimsuit and doesn't she look like such a California girl with her sunglasses and flip flops?

(What a sweet big brother Gage is!)

She is probably the safest one near the water. Everyone looks after her and makes sure she always has her water wings on. She will go in the "little pool"...the hot tub. She thinks it's just for her.

( Julia's do it yourself make up)

This month Julia has gone from angel child to wild child. I can not tell you how many times I have cleaned up messes she has made this month. She decided to draw on her face with Jack's markers, she dumped half a bottle of dish soap on the carpet and couch, she hid behind the couch in the front room and dumped a bottle of baby powder out, she dumped the cheese mix of the macaroni and cheese box in the same place, she got into my make up and lotion and rubbed it on my closet wall, and she opened a bottle of baby lotion which was part of a baby shower gift and tried to wash her hair with it. I'm tired.

(The "Toothless Wonder"... as my Dad would say)

Ally has lost 3 teeth on top and a couple on the bottom. I hope she doesn't loose anymore for a while, she's getting to look like an old lady and will have to start gumming her food!

(Brave little Ally)

Ally's class went to the county fair for a field trip. Her favorite part was the Rain Forest tent. She got to hold a scorpion, a tarantula, she pet a python, and got to see a lot of other cool animals.

(Rich and Luis...in jail!)

Rich and I also went to the fair to help out at the church's exibit. They had a whole town built that looked like the old west with history about the settling of San Bernardino, family history info, and a picture spot (as you can see above...Rich and Luis, his 2nd counselor in the Bishopric, dressed the part and went to jail).

(The honor of the Baby Grand)

We visited Grandpa and Grandma's several times. Usually it's just Rich, Julia, and I that go but the kids were out that day so we took all of them. Jeremy gets the honor of playing Grandma's Baby Grand since he can play. The rule is no one can touch it unless they play.

Grandma gave him pointers and showed him some original sheet music she still had from when she took lessons long, long ago. I think the music of Moonlight Sonata she had was from the 1920s or 30s.

(Kristin, Lani, Autumn, and me)
Last Saturday Rich and I went to Newport Beach to meet some old friends we hadn't seen in a very long time. The guys are all of Rich's friends from highschool and we've known the wives from our Institute group before we were all married, all except Autumn...Dal had to wait a while to find her but we're glad he finally did.

(Rich, Dal, Scott, and Mike)
It's always fun to get the guys together, although we hear the same stories they always tell, they are just like highschool boys all over again. It's cute to sit back and watch how much they enjoy eachother. I did notice that Rich is the only one with grey hair...maybe it's the five kids!

Blog slump

It has been a while, again, since I've updated...for me at least. Not sure why it's been hard for me to update our family news. Maybe there's just not enough or too much so I feel over whelmed about what exactly to tell about.

The things that I have particularly enjoyed lately don't so much have to do with my immediate family but with my extended family.

I am ecstatic that I made it into the St George Marathon and that my sister and bro-in-law are running it also. This is one of my "bucket list" things to do and the fact that they are doing it too just makes it sweeter. Wendy, my sis, will not see me except at the start because she's run it a few times and is trying to qualify for Boston...I am just hoping to finish with in the 6 hour limit before they pack everything up and go...leaving me to stumble into St George with just my little family watching for me. I am confident I can do it in 5 hours at the most, but we'll see.

I have also really enjoyed talking to my cousins on Face Book this past year. My sister and I are the oldest cousins on my Mom's side and we only have a few cousins our age on my Dad's. We used to see them and play with them when we were little but since life happened and I moved far away I just lost touch with them. Not that I didn't know where they were, just that we no longer had a relationship because we never talked and were just busy with our lives. Now that we've been in touch we have rekindled our friendship and I have learned to adore them all over again. They have grown into amazing women and I'm glad to know them. We have even planed a visit to Oregon this summer, partially because it's been years since we have been there...I think we only had Jeremy and Gage at the time...and I miss the green and trees and beach, etc...and partially because I want to see my cousins and their families. Family is great!

The usual things have also been going on...school field trips, jazz band concerts, girl scouts, boy scouts, ward picnic, lots of baby showers...just too much. I will eventually get around to updating on all of that, but I think this is as good as it's going to get for a little while.

Tabernacle Choir video

This is a video from the Tabernacle Choir...I didn't know they made videos, obviously they do...but it's sweet so I thought I'd share. You'll have to pause our blog music first. Enjoy!