our trip to oregon - day 5

this day was the culmination of our trip, as the whole point of going to oregon was to spend time with family as we remember our (great) grandpa and attend his funeral services.

the first service was the graveside service and was a nice time for closure as we were able to see the casket lowered to it's resting place, but celebrate in the fact that grandpa was not there, but is in heaven with Jesus.

after this there was a lunch hosted by aunt marlene's church. it was a wonderful time of catching up with family we don't see often. some of them had made a photo collage board of grandpa's life which was interesting to look at and see grandpa's younger years (long before i was a grubb).

following lunch, was the memorial service. it was a blessing to see so many lives that our quiet grandpa had touched, to hear memories that explained some of my husband's quirky behaviors, and to celebrate a heritage in Christ that grandpa has left behind.

shortly after we were sad to have to make our way home. it would have been enjoyable to spend more time with family, but everyone seemed to be in town only a short bit (as it was a last minute trip for everyone).

we chose to drive straight home so the kids would not have to endure being put in the car yet another morning with a full day drive ahead. we left eugene about 530pm and arrived home about 730am. we stopped to pick up food twice and to sleep for an hour (from 430-530am at the top of the grapevine). we made good time and praise the Lord for our safe and fun adventure up to oregon and back. we feel so privileged to have been able to make fun plans out of this last minute trip.

our trip to oregon - day 4

shortly after midnight (which qualifies as day 4) we arrived at a campsite that was not full (unlike the other 5 or so we'd already tried). :) we set up our tent. the light of the moon was not quite enough in the dense forest, so we used our headlights. the kids were not really aware of what was going on, but they woke up in sleeping bags in a tent!

in the morning ky asked - "are we going to oregon?" - for the hundredth time and i got to say, "we're in oregon!"

i cleaned up camp while the kids & daddy went on an exploratory hike up to the top of a huge sandy hill right behind our campsite. it was the beginning of the oregon coast sand dunes! scott took some photos with his phone. it's amazing and beautiful!

i stayed back and broke camp. we had breakfast when everyone came back then ONCE AGAIN we started up the 101.

this time we headed toward sand lake, but we weren't positive of the directions (too much technology - 2 gps's & google maps - can be a bad thing) so we just continued on to tillamook to visit the cheese factory and have lunch. on the way my cell phone died so, at the factory, when we got separated (in a pretty small area - it's a cheese factory, not disneyland) we spent a good hour trying to find each other. normally we'd just call each other and voila! - problem solved. but this time it was different. in my plan, my husband remained still. since he was the one who walked away ( to take one child to the bathroom), when he came back and i was missing (taking another child to the bathroom), i thought he'd wait there for me. but i should have known this would not happen since he has a history of wandering around and enjoying the sites while lost (ex: at disneyland when he was 6). SO... you'd think after the first time this happened i'd learn, but i did not, so we repeated the scenario less than an hour later! what a crazy trip - over 3 hours at a cheese factory! who knew you could spend so long there! at least we were still in good spirits when we left. :)

to top it off, we stopped at some random gas station on the way to tillamook and bought new batteries for my camera. i took 7 photos and the batteries were dead! ughh. i was so annoyed. consequently, less photos. :(

we did drive over to sand lake afterward to see the broncos (no photos). there were MANY broncos, but we couldn't go out on the dunes where most of them were because my mini-van (despite many tries) does not offroad!

we finished off the day DRIVING! surprise, surprise. (seriously, our kids were amazing on this trip since we spent - in 4 1/2 days - 25+ hours in the car! )

we ate dinner in the state capital of salem. then drove a short distance to eugene to spend the night at aunt marlene's home.

trip to oregon - day 3

we left roseville and headed out to the redwood forest! it was a beautiful drive.

we read a couple books about the redwoods (and had looked at pictures of my trip driving through a tree when i was 5). so the kids were all totally excited when we got to the "chandelier tree" and drove our car through!

we had a PB&J lunch while we watched many other cars drive through.
these trees are "SO big". we hiked around a bit. the kids decided they found a rabbit's den.
after a nice break from the car, we piled back in and took off up the 101 again. but we didn't go too far.
i really wanted a photo at the same tree i went through when i was 5, so we drove through another tree.
(the "shrine tree" really is more natural looking anyway - but the chandelier tree had more untouched area around it to hike through and was a little further off the road) we did enjoy the "playground" at the shrine tree made entirely of carved trees.
it was a day of seeing pretty incredible things! late that night - just before midnight - we crossed the oregon border. (i am in this photo at the bottom left of the sign).


just a side note - this entire day there were little ridiculous things (mostly photos) i requested of my husband. like this last one - "pull over real quick for a photo!" (as you know most of these signs ("welcome to oregon", etc) are on the side of a highway where cars are going fairly fast, so my husband was so gracious to do this one and to drive through both trees "more than once" so i could get just the picture i wanted. WHAT A GREAT GUY!

our trip to oregon - day 1-2

we left wednesday night, just to bakersfield to avoid any LA traffic early the next morning. our super nice neighbors came out to play with the kids while we loaded the car. they kept the kids busy for 2 hours! they are seriously a gift from God! we are seriously slow packers! once we were ready, the car was so full! every inch of floor covered, the back full, the passenger seat moved forward to make more room... it was crazy, but we figured we could play tetris in the morning to pack it a little better. clothes, camping gear, food, and 6 people need a lot more space than we thought!

we had an uneventful drive and spent the night with family. the kids enjoyed waking up to play with their cousins and walking them to school. then, we were on the road again.

our first of many potty-stops was at "the windmill". if twice makes a tradition - we have a tradition of stopping to take photos with the windmill in santa nella.

first photo - 2 years ago, on our trip to oregon.

next we headed up to cross the golden gate bridge. (totally out of the way, yes. but the boys had been asking for over a year when we might be able to cross that bridge. and they didn't understand "we'll cross that bridge when we get there." ha.ha.) anyhow. it was fun to see downtown san fransisco and to cross the bay bridge (a double-decker bridge) also.

kiki, my amazing photographer, took this photo. i am impressed - i'm his mother - but it was much better than the one i took!

of course we always have our library books. here are some fun ones for this leg of the trip.

after san fransisco, we drove up to roseville (outside sacramento) to see some friends who used to live in fullerton. karissa, a dear friend, was in our wedding and has sinced moved to some isolated island in the middle of the atlantic! (it's a military thing) but she is currently "in town" to give birth to twins!! so... i got to see her! hooray.

they let us invade their home for the night and fed us! we are so blessed to have good friends!

the kids enjoyed playing with her son and his dirt pile in the backyard - should every boy be so lucky!

soccer schedule

for those who want to know...
sept 6: k@9a j@12:15p
sept 20: k@9a j@12:15p
sept 27: k@1130 j@130p
oct 4: j@945a k@1130
oct 11: j@945a k@12:45p
oct 18: k@1015 j@1:30p
oct 25: k@1015 j@12:15p
nov 1: k@1130 j@4p
nov 8: k@1130 j@245p
nov 15: j@ 945a k@1245

you are always welcome to come to our games! we'll even feed you - especially if you plan to come to both! just call and let us know. :) all games are at the jr high about a mile from our house (same place as the last years).

soccer has begun!

jojo had his first soccer game today! he's moved on to the next age group where they use full size goals, have keepers, and use a more complete set of rules. but this division still doesn't keep score. it's just playing for fun and learning new skills!

here he is playing keeper.

the boys are on separate teams this year. daddy will still coach both boys though. it makes for a busy fall season. we have practices back to back on mondays & wednesdays. we actually have 3 sets of siblings each with one brother on each of the teams, so us moms are supporting each other. we are sharing dinner making responsibilities which lightens the load and creates community that we love - food just does that! kiki will have his first game in a few weeks.

in memory of...

1923-2008

Great-grandpa Grubb now resides with Jesus! We praise God for making him new.

arizona in august

we've just returned from arizona. it was a nice 100° or so and the pool was a wonderful 85°. we experienced some thunderstorms on our way over and while we were there, the boys were watching the clouds (and apparently taking photos too)...
we went to celebrate grandpa's birthday (but my camera died before the party) and had a really fun time. - mom could i get a few?

the kids were always in the water unless they were eating or sleeping! they got quite a bit of sun.


they did take a break from swimming to go to the science center, which they really enjoyed too. here is kiki typing "mommy" in binary code on a computer there.

lemonade stand

the kids had a lemonade/ vegetable stand on our corner for about 30 minutes on saturday. they made $9 from 3 of our neighbors, daddy, and one car driving by. they had fun. we sold some tomatoes from our backyard and the neighbors were kind enough to taste our carrots. nobody wanted radishes or turnips??? daddy said maybe it was confusing to have lemonade AND veggies. well, it was a nice end to harvesting our vegetables and a treat to the nice neighbor who dropped off a huge bag of lemons at our door!

"school" covered: science/agriculture, math, economics, business, cooking - we're "back to school" already!

harvest time

well there's some continuity here... we went to a farm (in march - which happens to be when i last posted) and we decided we wanted to grow a garden. we planted the last of march and first week of april AND... voila! just like on tv the vegetables are here!

we also have a plethora of tomatoes which are eaten as quickly as they ripen! yummy!

back from our 4 month vacation

okay. i'll try again.