Happy Birthday Kate and welcome "Aunt Rufe"

Last Friday, Mr. Tech had the day off and Uncle AJ's special friend Ruth was coming to town for the first time that we'd ever meet her. Amma planned a day trip up the gorge and we met with Kate and Elliot and family at a beautiful park in Biggs Junction. It all sorta worked out at the last minute that all the guys could come and as a result Phi ended up riding as chaperon with Uncle AJ and Ruth. He thought that was pretty cool and AJ and Ruth graciously let him come along.
We don't know what he heard but he was prematurely calling her Aunt Ruth for the rest of the weekend. :) The rest of us managed to fit in our van and away we went.


We got there just in time for lunch and were amazed after having left blustery winds and rain two hours back, at the perfect, almost no wind, sunny weather.


Mr. Wise Guy, Deb, Kate and Elliott had made it there before us so after introductions, we sat down to a great lunch.

(Cringe) Leroy's pretending his apple is a train.. on a public picinic table, blak.


The happy couple and Jeffy.

Kate had just turned 2 the day before so Amma brought some cupcakes and candles for her.

Looking sheepish as she's being sung "happy birthday" to.

Phi of course wanted to blow out a candle too and for the next 10 minutes Amma was lighting the same candles and they were each taking turns blowing them out.


Phi thinks that's the way you eat a cupcake now is light it's candle and blow it out first.

Delicious!!

We then proceeded to enjoy the park.

Leroy spent a good hour just throwing rocks into the river.

Chatting.

Practicing...I mean helping.

Returning from a stroll together.

Phi following Bumpa

And three cousins strollering with Bumpa...

Much more exciting then your average ride.

Hilariousness, Phi snitched Kate's hat and wore it for the rest of the time thinking he was soo cool.

Friday is mtg. night so after a fun game of Disc golf we said our goodbyes and headed for home getting there bearly in time to change clothes and run.

Saturday we got to have every one at our house for a dinner for Amma's birthday.

These are about the only two picture's I got of the evening, then they all had to run as YP mtg. was scheduled for that evening. Talk about a busy schedule and somehow he still got her to say "yes"!

We got texted a picture of a sparkly diamond this morning which means, yahoo, she's offically going to be "Aunt Rufe"!!
Phi's still asks what she's doing or where she is several times a day. :) We can't wait to see you again "Aunt Rufe".

We are still here...

Every day for a week and then not at all for two weeks about evens things out I figure. :0) We had a great Thanks giving down in Florence by the coast although we never actually saw the beach. (LOL we were 10 minutes from it all weekend but never went there) It was busy and somewhat relaxing at the same time, if that's posible. We stayed at a very nice condo for the two nights we were there, wished we could have stayed longer, it's a great place. We were almost the only ones there as they're brand new condos that are actually on the market to sell but are being rented out on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, I guess because of the bad market for selling right now. They are fully furnished and the three bedroom unit we stayed in with J&D and Dad and Mom was selling for almost 500,000!!! seemed a bit high to me for a condo but I don't know houseing prices that well. The set up was great for us though. The actual Thanksgiving gathering was at a church, sounds abit unusual, but with forty people there it worked out great. Delicious food of course and way too much desert. (sigh) Deb brought those snickers she has a picture of and I couldn't stop eating them. I didn't get many pictures, too busy eating I guess, :0P we went out to Grandpa and Grandma's and tramped through the woods and then blasted away with a 44 (plug your ears) and 22's that U. Dave and U. AJ brought along one day and sang around the piano together another. There was a basket ball hoop in doors and ping pong and air hockey so lots to do to run off steam. That was most of our thanks giving, family, fun, and food not necessarily in that order. Mr. Tech switched every thing over to a new, faster, computer for me which is a good thing, only I still haven't figured out how to upload my photos yet so those will have to wait( if there's any worth posting). Must run the little men are calling.

Our Visit to Miss Kate's House

Mr. Tech had to do some last minute work in Richland , WA last weekend and since it's only 2 hours from Moses Lake we got to go along and spend the weekend at Kate's house! We arrived late Friday evening so spent a lazy morning deciding what to do with Saturday. After a chat on skype with Grampa and Gramma...

we headed to the park to play some disc golf.

We had for gotten our double jogger stroller in our hurried packing so Kate graciously shared hers with Leroy while she and Phi walked.

That's how it started out, but the leaves made for some very hard walking so we attempted sharing the stroller.

"You have a hole in your face Leroy??"


"wonder if there's anything in it??"

That didn't last too long and soon this was the set up of choice while they all enjoyed some graham crackers for snack.

Here's a "piece" of the lake. It's very strange if you see it on a map, it winds all over and looks like it should be a wide river instead of a lake. You cross it in multiple place driving around town.

The leaves were beautiful!

But it could sure make it challenging to find your disc!

Yay! some water to slash in.

Getting a ride from Phi.

By the end of 9 holes we really were missing our stroller. Who knew Kate's was for triplets!?!

The kiddo's where ready for a change at this point so we headed for the play ground well the guys and Deb finished another 9 holes to round out their game.

Phi loves climbing and was finding the highest points he could reach.

That night Nathan, Vi and Larisa came over for a delicious supper and a game of speed Uno.
Sorry no pictures of that or the remainder of the stay. Sunday we spent at meeting and then found a Golden Corral (weird name for a buffet but they're a great restaurant) in town for dinner. They serve a very wide variety of foods and aren't your typical greasy buffet for the most part. The only others we know of are in Anchorage, Alaska and Marysville, WA.
After dinner we headed back to the house to pack up and then for Richland where Mr. Tech had to reinstall a server he had worked on over the weekend.
Here's the little men entertaining themselves while waiting for Daddy.

Phi loves to see what all the buttons and knobs do, so that when you start the car everything lights up and turns on. The volume control knob is always an exciting one.

Looks like we're up to something.

Mr. Tech finished in time for us to make it to Richland's gospel and reading. Afterwards they all have supper together, so were able to have a fun visit with several there. We kept the kids up until we left about 9:00 and were able to make it home by 12:00. while they slept the whole way. Thanks for the great weekend everyone!!!

Klamath Falls 2008

First of all thank you every one for the comments on my last post, that week is fading to a bad memory thankfully. The one good part in it all and that amazed me was that right up until about 4:00an in the morning on Sunday (the day we were to leave and I was to drive the 5 hours because Mr. Tech had to work on Mon) I was feeling very yuck. And then some how with a bit of sleep I was just better Sunday morning other than a limited appetite!?! Anyway on to our vacation... This should have been a multi post but I was afraid I'd never get it all done so you'll just have to wade if your interested.
Mr. Wise Guy, Deb, Sus , I and all the kiddos started off together Sunday afternoon after lunch. Mr. Tech. had to work Mon and then was able to catch a ride down with Dave and Jenn who also couldn't make it until Mon. We made it as far a Medford without incident and than that's where the fun started. We stopped at Wendy's there for dinner, Leroy's dinner usually includes a bottle, I remembered this after I had taken him out of his car seat so set him and my cell phone and the keys on the front seat and lightly closed the door so he wouldn't bail while I opened the back to prepare the bottle. As the door latched I realized that all the doors where locked!! It was barely latched leaving a maddening 1/4 inch slot at the top that we could stick things through but not reach any thing worth while. After what seemed forever of sticking several futile objects through, and watching my little man sit grinning at us on the front seat happy as can be cause he had a phone and keys to play with to his hearts content, Sus thought of a trick that had worked for us with other vehicles. She began trying keys from her key ring, and by the Lord's mercy, her Honda key worked in our Kia's lock!!!! With great thankfulness I collected my little man and we proceeded by the Lord's goodness without further incident!!! Most the rest of the trip should be told by the following pictures.

The sight that greeted us the first morning off the back deck. We were blessed with this beautiful weather the entire week!

The name of the resort.

The aspens were changing, a sight I love.

They had an awesome play structure that the kiddos enjoyed...

And Grampa too! ;D

A view of the units where we stayed from the other side of the golf course.

The acorns were ripe and we actually found some the squirrels didn't.

There was the most unusual neon green lichen thought this pic doesn't show it too well.

Matching cousins

The resort is on a golf course so though none of us have really actually golfed before besides AJ we had to try hitting a few. They had a very cool set up where you could buy a bucket of balls for $6 and since it was a slow time of year that included a cart!! Then they had a chip and putt practice range aside from the normal driving range, where you could chip or attempt driving the ball on to a green and practice putting them in.

Miss Kate thinking of getting in the swing of things. (Or would that be a swing at things)

We all lined up and had at it. ( not sure what their more sophisticated guest may have thought but we sure had fun! ) :P

Grampa

Deb

Mr. Tech
(nice form honey) :)

Jenn

And this lovely practice green included a real live sand trap located most conveniently just below the green , but I can't imagine why they would be having to rake it, ahem... ;D

And three lovely ladies going for a spin.

Party Time!!

Teddy bear cup cake's for Miss Kate, which all of us enjoyed.

Phi enjoying Kate's presents though not her actual presence as they both took great pleasure in seeing who could annoy the other by getting the most toys in their possession. Aside from fighting over Gramma that is.

Gramma getting help opening her present.

Kate opening her dolly baby. For some more great shots of the birthday goings on look here.

Wednesday we had a quick breakfast and headed out for Crater Lake about an hours drive from there.

Phi had a blast walking the walls as he has a fascination with climbing right now.

These little "Camp Robbers" (not their real name) were abundant up there. They are very people friendly and naturally joined us for lunch. I didn't get any shots but Grampa and U. AJ had them eating out of there hands and off the kids shoes with bites of sandwich. Since then Phi has been attempting to offer our chickadees and squirrels whatever his breakfast is, through the window.

The guys contemplating...something!?!?

Gramma and Phi.

Grampa and Phi

After a good lunch we picked one of the many hikes they have around the lake and took off..
this one was called Watchman's Peak.


our destination...tippy top

the view mid way

We made it!!

After playing around up there for a while and then heading back down it was getting toward evening and we wanted to see a few more things.

The Phantom Ship from it's overlook...

And The Pinnacles...

I never knew they existed!?! They were a 7 mile drive off the beaten path but so worth it. Pictures don't really do them justice. The tallest one in the middle is over 100 feet high!! There was a whole canyon full of them.

An unsuspecting group photo
(there are actually 7 people in this photo if you look carefully)

and the beautiful Vidae Falls in fall color. Our last stop before hurrying back to the resort before dark.

Phi and Sus "reading"

the jolly Mr. Leroy

Yummy enchiladas for dinner...
Each of the ladies had the fun of making dinner for an evening.

Sus has the juice covered..

One evening while the guys where at the driving range we ladies stuck the kiddos in their stroller and took the 3mile (approx.) hike down to the actual Klamath Lake which borders the back of the resort property.

Lovely view,

but the lake, maybe on account of being soo large and not moving anywhere fast, was the scummiest one I had seen in a while. Rocks thrown in where swallowed with a mucky gulp. :P You can see the scum line in the picture, hence the smell was not the greatest either.

Some blue eyes

two more

and some brown eyes

the parting view before going back over the hill to the resort.

Where we found the guys still driving away.

6:00 don't you think it;s time for supper??

That night we tried out a new game Deb had gotten and had a blast!


And finally the last morning we spent packing up and getting out by noon.

Jenn keeping Leroy happy and out of the way.

A parting shot of the beautiful foliage.

We traveled together until reaching Bend and then after lunch together all went our separate ways, with many happy memories to keep us company. :P A very fun and relaxing time, I guess I missed getting pictures of the hot tub, swimming pool and kiddy pool they had. Plus tennis, basketball, volley ball or pool. So much to do right there we never left the resort accept Wednesday and once or twice for groceries. So don't ask us what the town of Klamath looks like! :0D