Happenings 7/06/09 - 7/26/09

Well, here's another late letter from us. We have had a fun couple of weeks, as well as testing the length of our endurance for plane travel. Two weeks ago we were preparing to travel to Oregon, so we were whittling down our food in the fridge and packing up whilst working and taking care of things around the house (and of course whistling as we worked). I mowed the lawn on Monday, worked at the office on Tuesday, and then tried to go to bed early on Wednesday night but that didn't work. We had a 6 am flight from Nashville, and considered driving down the night before to stay in a hotel, but figured that a night in a hotel might not go too well, and we would have to get up crazy early anyway, so we arose at 1:30 on Thursday morning, got ready, then put the kids in the van and drove to Nashville. Everyone slept on the way except me, of course, and we parked, shuttled, and checked in fine. We flew the wrong direction to Charlotte first, then to San Francisco, where unfortunately we had to go to another terminal to pick up our next ticket because it was a different airline, and then to Medford, OR. The girls did pretty well. It was a long day so there was some restlessness, but we made it.

Ken and Judy picked us up at the airport and we headed to Bandon, OR, on the coast (another three hour drive after traveling 2 1/2 hours by car followed by 11 hour airtravel between three planes made for a long day! We are lucky to have three great little travelers). Since I've been going to Oregon with J.J., I haven't really been to the coast, so I had requested it and we decided this would be a good time to go. Ken decided on Bandon because he coached a girl whose father worked at Bandon Dunes, and had said that we might be able to get on the course for cheap. (not cheap - don't let Paul fool you, but for less than what they usually charge) We didn't know until driving there on Thursday that the best she could do was for us to pay $200 instead of the regular $275. (If it had been a less busy time of the year, they may have been ale to get a better deal. Maybe some other time) We turned it down, but the hotel we stayed at was a stone's throw from the beach, and right next to it was the original Bandon links course, recently reopened after a long time overgrown. So while we were there we played the nine holes. As far as I could tell, it's not as nice as Bandon Dunes, but we were only out $18 for it.

The hotel was nice -- we had a 2 room suite so that we all could sleep, and we were there for two nights. We went to a lighthouse, spent some time on the beach with all of the nice rock formations, and the girls played in the sand and froze their feet in the water. We bought some books at the local library sale, and we ate a nice dinner at a local place downtown. I ran on the beach one morning and when I finished I took my shoes off and waded into the surf and it was mighty cold. (It was amazing weather for the Oregon coast! It was sunny, warm, needing just a sweater in the evenings. Couldn't ask for better!!) Just before we left on Saturday we drove a few miles south to the Game Park, where we were mobbed by deer and goats and llamas and geese when we walked into the common area with cones of food. Rachel fell down and was nearly trampled by their gentle feet. (It was crazy!! These animals saw you coming and it was a stampede. I finally just threw my cone away so that they would move away.) While we were there we were able to sit with a baby leopard and baby lion, which was neat, and also see some cool animals. (the baby leopard and lion would crawl on you and we were able to pet them which was really cool. They also had a baby fox , possum, skunk, and a few other animals that you could hold. They had all kinds of animals to see - tigers, monkeys, cougars, lions antelope, etc) Claire loved the goats, she kept trying to find the shyest goats to pet them. (It was one of the best zoo type things I've ever been to.)

We had called Alan and Lisa and arranged to meet them in Roseburg on our way home, and we were glad they were willing to drive down to see us, even for less than an hour. We found a park on the Umpquah River and the kids played and we visited until they had to get back, but it was fun. We then drove over a mountain pass home to Klamath Falls, arriving that evening. Rob and Cornelea and their kids came up to see us, as did Kari.

The weather was hot while we were there, so swimming at the pool at the Coffman's house was a regular activity during the week, as was the cousins almost constantly playing until they crashed at night to sleep. (With five girls, one little boy and one baby girl, there was lots of laughing, crying, screaming, giggling and whispering going on) On Wednesday, we went to the cabin at Lake of the Woods, where the girls played in the water and rode on the tube while we watched and relaxed. We had dinner and then went down to the boat again so that J.J. and I could wakeboard on the smoother water. Then we all went to bed at the cabin (The girls went to bed fairly easy an went to sleep pretty quick. Cornelea took Tildon home for the night and Grandma Vicki went with them. Poppa Ken went home for some church things - those silly Bishops think they need to attend meetings. And Kari is a working girl and had to slave away at the office.) In the morning we had breakfast and then went boating and swimming again. Rachel and I returned to the cabin for her nap, so I got some reading and sleeping in also. I read most of Wuthering Heights on this trip, and also did some writing when I had spare moments while everyone else was playing or running around and I had the charge of a sleeping Maggie or Rachel. (We also had an afternoon to go visit my friend Gretchen and her kids, Lily, Ruby, and Fin. The girls had a great time playing with the kids)

One morning our family drove J.J.'s Grandpa Bob out to a monument he built that memorialized some civilians killed by Japanese balloon bombs. While we were there, some other people came to look at the monument -- it is out in the middle of the woods -- and they were impressed to meet the builder of the monument. (Poppa Bob loves to take people out to see the monument and it was an added bonus for him to talk to other people out there. They were pretty impressed to meet him and that he built that and that he was 97) On another morning I played golf again with Ken and his friend Bud and that was fun, especially since I played well and beat them in bingo, bango, bongo, or however you spell that. On Friday evening, their ward had a pioneer day picnic, and then afterwards, J.J. and I took Maggie to visit Kari and her boyfriend Scott for a couple of hours. (While there we did do some really important things also - Kari highlighted my hair and I looked at and injected Scott's knees. It was fun to get to know him a bit more.)

Of course the biggest news of the trip was that Claire lost a tooth and is getting ready to lose another. She was excited it was loose, but when it came out, she did not like it and she was sad about it for several hours. (Grammy Judy, being a second grade teacher has pulled many teeth in her life, so when she went to "feel" the loose tooth, popped it right out. It did freak Claire out a bit, but she was also pretty proud of it too). But after receiving a little coin holder to put under her pillow and a small light to let the tooth fairy know where she was -- at the cabin -- she was more excited. In fact, she kept asking everyone, "Can you believe I lost a tooth?" In the car ride back from the cabin on Thursday, Claire asked her cousin Millie who is a year older (and ha not lost a tooth yet), "Can you believe I lost a tooth?" Millie said in an exasperated tone, "You've asked me that about 85 times, Claire." And Claire said, "Yeah, but can you believe it?" (I had to giggle)

Saturday morning we had family pictures taken (In not only a painless manner, but actually a pleasant experience - compliments of some women in mom and dad's ward who do photography), and then mostly everyone went swimming until it was time to pack up and head to Medford to catch our overnight flight home. We ate dinner before going to the airport and then flew the same route back. We were understandably leery of the red-eye flight home with the girls, but they did great. They slept on the long flight from San Francisco to Charlotte and fell asleep near the end of the flight to Nashville. J.J. and I did not, however, get too much sleep with all of the distractions on the plane and trying to keep the girls sleeping. We were able to drive home, but had to trade off as we were pretty wiped out. We ate breakfast in Nashville and arrived home at noon. I showered and got dressed and went to church in order to help do tithing because the bishop is out of town as well. After church Maggie and I took our now-usual nap in the hammock in the backyard (I tried to take a nap, but the girls weren't tired because they had slept on the plane ride home, so it was a no sleep day for me too) and since we had declined to have FHE for the YSAs that evening, we all went to bed early, except that Rachel kept crying out and I ended up sleeping upstairs to calm her down.

So that was our trip. (Thank you Coffman's for a great time!! I love to visit and see everyone, but at the same time, it just makes me miss home even more.) We love you all.