vacation - day 5

day 5

we woke up, had a yummy pancake breakfast in our little house on wheels, packed up and headed off to wildlife safari. this 5 mile drive-through zoo in winston, oregon was a real treat! there are so many amazing animals - lions & tigers & bears, oh my! and zebras and giraffe and hippos and rhinos and monkeys and emus and cheetahs! it was really fun for the kids and adults. it would have been completely out of our budget to do such a thing, BUT a christian homeschooling mom took us all for free!

(this is the kind of thing i love about fellow christian homeschoolers! i looked up a christian homeschool group in oregon on the internet and was able to connect with a like-minded family who offered to bless us - with nothing to gain for themselves! this gal drove an hour round trip to meet us AND drove us through the park (for about 2hrs), giving us a personal "insiders" tour! we were so blessed by her generosity and pray that her family will be blessed even more. besides the fun we had that day, i've also found a resource, someone who has gone before in support group creation & growth, so i am excited to pick this family's brains a little more when i'm back home.)

the safari was a lot of fun! our next stop was a little drive-in ice cream stand at rice hill - not in the gps so you have to be in the know to find it (which my mother-in-love is). yummy umpqua ice cream!

we traveled from there to corvallis, where scott grew up. we stayed on the street where he used to live with some neighbors, the seims. they had a delicious barbeque dinner prepared AND banana splits! we took a walk to see scott's old homes and spoke with some neighbors who were still living there. we (the 5 adults) played round-robin-ping-pong while the kids sat and watched and laughed. everyone had such a great time. we were able to look at some old photos and do some laundry. then, grandma & ky slept inside while the rest of us were in the motorhome. we were able to see so many stars, the boys fell asleep looking at them through the window above their bed!

vacation - days 1-4

we are headed up to a wedding in portland (kaia will be the flower girl). this is the story of our travels.

scott's mom came to our house with her motorhome, elsie, last friday. we packed up clothes, food, bikes, and as of now (day 4) i don't think we forgot anything!
we loaded up saturday and headed to bakersfield. we were going to hang out with the cousins for a bit and spend the night. the goal was to get out of LA to avoid memorial day weekend traffic and start for sacramento fresh sunday morning.
in bakersfield, we had a great time swimming with scott's sister's family. they hosted us for a yummy dinner in their home, we baked some cookies for the road, and headed off to sleep - our first night in the motorhome!

day 2
we woke bright and early (730am) and got some breakfast then connected the car we were pulling and made our way to the 99. we traveled up the 99 all day until we were almost to sacramento. we stopped in merced for a picnic lunch to stretch our legs. there was a beautiful park with a playground of course. then we traveled the 4, the 5, the 12 and landed in vacaville, ca at our friends, the nolls' home. her parents, the boons, were also there and it was a nice time having dinner with everyone - though we were still outnumbered 6 adults to 7 kids! (the noll kids are 1 2yo boy and twin 8mo girls). once the boons left it was that consistent fun chaos we are used to and love 4 adults, 7 kids, and a rambunctious dog!

day 3
memorial day!
this was a nice relaxing day after some long drives. we drove to travis air force base (where chris (mr noll) works) to check out some planes. all the boys had fun, especially scott, and they got all their plane questions answered. we stayed on base to go to a park where we had lunch and fed the ducks. the base is huge and very much alive - different to us than the base by our house (los alamitos jftb) which is much smaller and has a lot less activity. travis afb is a self-contained city. you could probably live there and never need to leave. it was a fun visit! and all before nap time.
we took the kids home and put 5 down for naps, while our 2 older boys played in their park-size (not joking) backyard. when their oldest woke, all the boys rode bikes out front with the neighbor kids. we had another fabulous dinner then put the kids down and had a little time to talk, just the adults.
it was such a blessing to spend time with my friend karissa and be encouraged in our Lord together. we once again just picked up where we'd left off,, spoke openly, challenged and blessed each other. i praise the Lord for her friendship!
our families get along great and look forward to more time together as the Lord allows.

day 4
we drove (40 min) to downtown sacramento to visit our state capitol building. we parked the rv in a illegal, but our of the way spot. so scott's mom sat in it and spent some time reading while we toured the capitol. (thanks mom!) we visited the replica offices of the early 1900's, saw where our law makers currently work and visited our congressman's office.
then...
we drove (2 1/2 hrs) to turtle bay exploration park in redding, ca. i thought it would be a quick hour visit to a small place, but it was huge and everything was quite amazing and fun and we spent over 2hrs there and really could have stayed longer! we may check it out again on our way home. (they also have an rv park with a waterslide!)
then...
we drove (4 1/2 hrs) to canyonville, or where we spent the night at the 7 feathers rv resort (and casino - which we did not visit). it was very nice accomodations! and with a playground! woohoo.

the ER

we visited the ER today. jojo was head-butting the kitchen cabinet on purpose and on the third try he got a nice gash in his head! :) (sorry - no photos)
last year we had several months in a row where we visited once a month. hopefully, this occurence will be an outlier.

happy 2nd birthday sy!

good-bye CBS, hello Bible bee

we've just finished a fabulous year of CBS (community Bible study). all the kids so enjoyed their classes. some highlights...

jojo & kik were in an elementary-age class together. they did the same study as me - galatians, hebrews and thessalonians. it was pretty challenging, but we also saw much growth in knowledge and understanding. we're sowing seeds. here they are with their teacher, ms sue.

and here's ky with her teachers, ms sheri & ms heather. all year long, "do we have cbs tomorrow?" if yes, "oh. ms sheri is going to love my ___" (hair, dress, verse, etc.) ky loved ms sheri!

and sy learned to fold his hands and close his eyes (super-tight) to pray. "pray. me. mommy." he says each night at bedtime.

but now that cbs is on break until the fall...

we are studying for the first national Bible Bee that jojo will participate in september 12. he has 50 Bible passages to memorize (1-3 verses each) and 100 Bible knowledge questions. he is doing really well and this will be a fun way to keep in the Word this summer.

family visit from kansas city

My aunt dianne & cousin renita passed through our area on their way to an alaskan cruise! we had a great time chatting over dinner.
renita & i made a peach cobbler - my first ever. it was super yummy! it was fun to spend time with them & for them to meet the family - they've never met the kids or scott. (we really need to take a trip out to meet that side of my family!)