Houseguests

Wow, our house (small apartment) has been busy the last couple weeks! First we had Brian's team leader from Mission Year, Angie, and her friend stay with us for one night. They are on a whirlwind tour of the US since her friend, Claire, is from the UK. They were headed for Glacier and then Yellowstone after us... hopefully they didn't get stuck in any snow storms as they were going to make it the day before Yellowstone closed for the season. And anytime after September is fair game for snow there! (actually any day of the year, but it's more probable then!)

Then last week my friend Molly came with her family. We were neighbors for a couple years way back in Clatskanie. She and her husband currently live in Juneau with their two adorable and quite energetic children, but they are planning on moving to Bolivia in January. They were on a support raising trip. Unfortunately on their second day here their mom's van broke down... and then the repair part was broken... and the dealership was supposed to be closed on Saturday. At the very last minute the mechanic came in on Saturday, a new part had arrived, and the manager called when they were at a rental car agency to say it was almost done. Good thing because it saved mom a trip up from Oregon to reclaim her van! And Adam and Molly made it to Clatskanie with "plenty" of time to prepare for his sermon the next morning and fly out of Portland Monday morning!
Along the way we had fun playing Settlers, watching Curious George in Spanish, playing trains with Elias, and hoping that Natasha wouldn't be allergic to anything in our house! Brian was the main attraction by taking them outside and throwing them up in the air. His height makes it quite the adventure for small ones! And I seriously hope my small one does not have as much energy first thing in the morning as Elias or I am going to be in major trouble!

Summer Recap

So, I should have written this a long time ago, but well, I guess I'm being lazy lately. That and my really weird work schedule means I don't get much productive done during the week. I work Monday through Thursday from 12:30 to 7:30 and then Friday from 7:45 to 3. That Friday morning get-up is killer! But hopefully this job will be done in another couple weeks and I can go back to regular subbing - which means I'll have to get up early every morning... is that a good thing or not?

Anyways, so here are some pictures from our August adventure in Oregon. We spent about 3 weeks down at Brian's parent's house in Corvallis. The first weekend was his high school reunion. Notice Brian and friend Dustin laying on the sidewalk after the bar closed down... We all stood around talking and it was freezing!



Then the grandparents came down from The Dalles for a few days. Brian, Allison, and their dad did the Bridge Ride on Sunday in Portland. I opted not to do it since it was starting at 6:30 in the morning and riding 30 some miles... I haven't been on a bike in at least a year... So mom and I went to church in Newberg and then met them for a BBQ in Portland with the uncles that also rode and family. It was seriously yummy food!




Then we spent 3 days down at Crater Lake and celebrated Brian and Allison's 28th birthday with a very nice dinner at the Crater Lake Lodge. We actually stayed down in Prospect and on Saturday there was a "Jamboree" comlete with logging show! Reminded me of 4th of July when I was little in Clatskanie! Some friends were driving through so met us for the afternoon. At the end they had a kids search for change in the pool where they did log rolling. Then after everyone else left David and Dahlia decided they wanted to try log rolling... it's harder than it looks!


After all that we drove home at 2 in the morning. Sunday we went down to the coast and up to Tillamook to see the Roberts. And unplanned ended up spending the night. Good thing because the cheese factory had run out of cheese curds on Sunday night! Horror of horrors! So we got ice creams, but had to go back in the morning when their machine was fixed.

On Monday then we drove, from Tillamook back to Corvallis, packed our stuff, hung out with David and Dahlia, then drove home to Wenatchee getting in at 3:30 in the morning. That was way too much driving for one weekend!!!

Happy Birthday Twins!