Wednesday, August 18, 2010

A tradition

Every summer and some winters Keith and his sister Jennifer (Jen) would visit their family cabin in Idaho along the shores of Donelly lake.  My mother in law's family built the cabin together years ago with tender loving care, adding and changing the cabin over the years. It's a neat old, rustic cabin (well you do have a shower and running water) set back from the lakes shore with a view of the mountains and peaceful landscape of wildlife and the forest. Ever since we were married years ago we have wanted to come to the annual fourth of July get together at the cabin to watch the fire works and enjoy a few days at the lake with family. Unfortunately time, money and life have gotten in the way of traveling the day long drive over to the cabin. When his grandmother passed earlier this year plans were made for a family memorial at the cabin and we were blessed to be able to attend and enjoy the time to meet his mothers side of the family I still had never been able to meet.

Grandpa and Grandma Nye
They have been married 42 years!
Canoeing on the lake.
                                                                               ♥

Daddy and Clobear making sandcastles

What would a weekend at the family cabin be without smores??



She tried SO hard to catch a fish all week......
Buckets, Strings, cups, fishing lines were all used but without success.

Marshmallow on the nosey!
It means the smore was just that gooooooood......
Diana figuring out she had marshmallow on her nose
and trying to dodge the camera......
Little did she know I had already gotten it on film

Taylor baby by the fire pit.

Keith and his sister, Jen

Jaime, Kory, Jen, Keith, Nerida, and Nikki 
(Keith is the only male cousin) 
All of the cousins sitting on Grandma Mitchell's memorial bench
Keith is holding her remembrance plaque 
 ♥

The family together!
It has been over 10 years since this happened.
Way too long!

The Nye Family
 ♥

We were there to celebrate this wonderful woman's life and legacy.


An excerpt from her obituary
Marjorie died Oct. 22nd, 2009 at the Cottages, a Payette care facility. She was born in Grant , Iowa to the parents of Fred C. and Leila Smith. While moving from Iowa at a young age, she was accompanied by her parents and three of her six brothers. Elementary through high school were spent in Glenns Ferry where she graduated valedictorian. To get to school she frequently rowed herself and brothers across the Snake River . Her dad sold a calf so she could attend Albion Normal, a teacher's college. While teaching in Ten Davis, she met her future husband William (Bill) O. Mitchell. During WWII, she worked in San Diego as a riveter for the military. After returning to Parma she owned a women's dress shop for a short time. She returned to teaching in Parma and then finished her thirty-seven year teaching career in Nyssa , Oregon . Her later retirement years were shared with her family and friend /companion Bert Miller of Boise . Bill and Marj had three children: Linda (Larry) Nye of Portland, Vicki (Joe) Bowman of Payette, and Keith (Sally) Mitchell of Boise. She has six grandchildren and five great-grand children. Linda, Vicki and Keith followed in their mother's footsteps and became teachers. Marj was preceded in death by her husband Bill, four of her brothers, and her parents. She had a fun-filled life where she lived in Parma and Boise .


                                                                 ♥♥♥

It was a wonderful week at the lake with family. We enjoyed playing games, late nights reading and talking to get to know one another after years of never meeting and the great outdoors.  My kids loved meeting the family and really loved cousin's Kory and Jaime. Poor Jamie got dog piled more than once. I loved seeing the cabin Keith  had talked so much about  in his childhood memories spent boating, biking down to his ice cream shop and fishing and swimming in the lake. I hope the time we all can be together again is less and far in between next time. Family is a precious blessing and the time we spend with them is a gift. I am sure that day Grandma Marj was smiling down, happy as a clam that we all could be together as a family at the cabin.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

A weekend at the coast

After California we were able to catch up with some old friends from our college days at OSU at Cannon Beach for an afternoon of playing on the beach and dining at Mo"s afterwards. In all the fun in catching up I only shot one picture the whole afternoon! Boo. Our friends have four beautiful children now and Claire who is pictured below is the same age as Diana. They look like sisters! It was a lot of fun to catch up and see their baby who was just a newborn when they left and their newest addition. Thanks J Family!





Diana stole a shot of us!


Taylor working industriously on making a dam with some water and sand.


Father and son using their engineering brains to make a river system. It was quite the afternoon project.



The Final result. Pictures do not do the final prioject justice. Kids from all around loved it.



Psst!  I love this man!

After leaving Cannon Beach we took a drive into Seaside to steal a ride on the old time carousel and grab some .75 Tillamook Ice cream cones. My favorite flavor was was the Sticky Bun. It was like eating a cinnabon in icecream form. Amazing stuff!

The kids were rocking the rainbow sherbert.

Taylor on his knight horse.

Diana on her black stallion.


Clo-bear my pretty princess


The next morning we headed out to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I had not been there since I was 12 and wanted to take the kiddos to see the cheese making process and of course to eat Squeaky Cheese!

Don't you think they would make cute little farmers?
Maybe all that  energy that have would go well towards farm chores!






A cheese cutter.




Number one and Two checking out how they package the cheese blocks.


After a fabulous lunch of cheese, ice cream, and jerky we headed north through Garibaldi
and made a pit stop at the Maritime Museum.
The kids loved all the pirate and sailor history in the museum . They even had a CUTE kids area where you could make a bucket like they had on the ships to mop and cook and other fun activities.

Taylor the engineer directed us all in how to put it together

Who are these two characters...how did they get in here?!?


Taylor in his HUGE sailor pants. He wanted to take the hat home.....the replica in the shop downstairs cost $60.00......Mom said "No."


Chloe playing a sailor boy.


Keithie boy.

HA HA HA.....He hates it when I call him that.....



The medical kit doctors used to use on ships.
Most ships did not have dcotors....the captain used it. SO glad I was born when I was born. I love my antibactial cleaners, plumbing, CLEAN water, and so on. That saw looks like it should go into a tool box not a doctors kit!


It was a RELAXING, AMAZING (I say that word a lot) weekend with my husband and kids on the coast.
We needed it
 I am so blessed beyond measure to have the life I am living. Life is so so good.


Rach

Saturday, August 14, 2010

The rest of Cali-for-nia.....

OK seriously....since California...I feel like we have been non-stop traveling or doing something .... so to wrap this up I am going lightening fast over the rest of our California trip.....

If she is not already cool enough
Shannon had this AMAZING inflatable water slide in her front yard!

It was blown up and ready for the kids to jump into the minute we pulled the van up.

It only took them a couple of minutes to strip and jump in.




Yes it included water pistols! One which got me soaked by a certain brown eyed boy.....
One evening we roasted marshmallows over the fire.....




It was 101 while we were doing it.

Yes 101.

Welcome to California =-).


101 or not it was still a lot of fun and yummy too.


We were able to visit the Shasta Dam and see the three Shasta's: Shasta lake, dam and mountain.




The Shasta dam is apart of the California aqua duct system that brings us yummy produce to Oregon when its raining non stop in the winter.

Thank you California sunshine!


Look how blue the water is. It was very beautiful at Shasta lake. You can actually swim in the California lakes because they are warm. You will not get hypothermia and shiver to death while swimming. Maybe I should move to California for the summer?



Oh wait....they were here too. 7 kids and a baby (not pictured) and 3 moms.

Yes I know we rock.


On another peaceful, GORGEOUS night Shannon took us to the Sundial Bridge in Redding.




The bridge is made of glass and metal. The panels of glass are frosted because people walking over used to get vertigo from walking over the bridge. At night they light it up creating a glow under the glass, a wonderful serene feature that only enhances the beauty of the bridge. 





Little D and I under the bridge



S and her Daughter B.

While we were there the kiddos got their faces painted.....


The boys went for the captain American look.



Chloe went more feminine
Super heros are not really her forte.
* for some reason I missed getting pictures of Diana and B *


Along with other various things we visited, we also got the chance to visit  Turtle bay exploration park in Redding.
Check it out at http://www.turtlebay.org/.

I loved it because our science pass we have through the Gilbert House got us free into Turtle bay!
SCORE!

 
I think this picture is hilarious.
Road kill anyone?
 

That is a racoon on my head.
No one was hurt while filming this moment.
Well the nine year old putting the raccon on my head did get tickled a little.....







This park has an assortment of things for the visitor...gardens, shows, wildlife, exhibits...and so on. VISIT IT!
We had a blast and did not even get to see half of it.
 and to end this blog post after writing on it for two weeks I will end with our trip to Waterworks water park.
It's a local water park near Redding, CA. In Oregon we have nothing  remotely like this because it's not warm enough to have one open year round.  Waterworks has all sorts of water slides, kid areas and frightening tube rides you could go on. Taylor could not get ENOUGH of the River rapids. When you saw him come down that treacherous, wet, bumpy ride over the rapids, his face was golden!
He was hooked.
 He rode it 28 times.
 No joke.
Even the life guard asked if he wanted to try anything else.
Nope.

He only rode two other rides a couple of times and then went...
BACK!

*sigh*


Look at that face.
Pure joy!


Clo-bear going down the water slide in the kid's area.

Taylor has a thing for sticking his tounge out in pictures currently.

THANK YOU so much.....
Shannon for letting us come and visit you and your wonderful family.
We miss you and had a blast catching up!!

Now if Oregon would only get a In and Out Burger! 

Rach


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