Trip to Oregon

At the end of April and beginning of May, my mom and dad drove the girls and me up to see our friends in Philomath, Oregon. Our big outing was taking the kids to the Gilbert House Museum in Salem, where they got to play, play, play. Most of my pictures didn't turn out. Here's Taylor checking out at the "grocery store."Leo, Taylor, Lauryn, and AnnikaBesides the three houses with many fun rooms, they had a great playground area outside.The next day, we left the kids with the grandpas and had a girls outing. We decided to have lunch somewhere the men wouldn't appreciate...

so we went to tea and had cucumber sandwiches and scones with lemon curd. Yum! Karen, Barbie, Cathy, and Jenny

Jenny and James's house was very clean when we showed up. Within ten minutes Lauryn had all the toys out and on the floor. She especially liked this play kitchen area. In this picture she's making "breakfast" for Annika.

Tater, this awesome family dog, adopted Jenny and James a few years ago when he jumped into the back of their truck and wouldn't leave. He's huge and energetic but very gentle with the kids.
There were pheasants all over around their house. What beautiful birds! We enjoyed seeing our friends again and wished we lived closer to each other so that we could get together more often.

Storms and Blessings

Last Monday we had a crazy wind storm. It had been a little breezy and threatening to rain all day. I was down at Lena's Cabin visiting when the wind began to get stronger and the rain came. She ran outside to move her car from under the tall fir trees by her house. Before she was even back inside, huge limbs fell from the trees. They landed on the porch roof, fell right where her car had been, and destroyed her patio table. From her window, I could see, and hear, trees falling by our house.

Once the wind calmed, we went up to our place to survey the damage. Two big trees fell alongside our road, and one dead tree fell towards our house. It should have hit our house, but for some reason, right before it did, the top broke off and landed about 10 feet to the side.

Peter can touch our roof and the tip of the tree simultaneously. You can see three big chunks of the tree in our driveway. We moved those pieces today and they're very heavy. I'm so thankful they didn't land on our roof.

Nicer Than it Is

About a month ago I took this picture of our house, tucked away in the trees above the pond. I love it. We had some work done to the pond, and now we have a "beach" area. I'm enjoying our new view. My dad's comment on this picture was, "It makes it look nicer than it is."
Taking time to smell the flowers.