Oregon Trip

Earlier this week, my sister Rebecca, Abby and I headed down to Dallas, Oregon for several days in order to visit my Grandma (who is in a nursing home in Salem while she recovers from a broken ankle) and to attend the annual cousin's Valentine party that my aunt hosts. We had a great time overall, with a few bumps here and there.

On our first visit to the nursing home, Abby brought her Great-Grandma several heart balloons, had fun playing around on her bed and did a good job entertaining and showing off for my Grandma.

Abby also had some good cuddle time and lots of hugs for my mom, whom we've been missing a lot these last several weeks while she's been down in Oregon helping to care for my Grandma.

The plan for the following day was to hang out with my mom while my sister stayed with my Grandma and to take my nephew Stephen out to lunch. Since I hadn't had time to get my oil changed before the trip and it was long overdue, I decided that morning to drive the few blocks to Wal-mart and get it changed before lunch. To make a long story short, it took twice as long as they told me and the hood prop fell into my engine with it running. They "checked" it all out and said everything was fine, but by time I drove the half mile to Arctic Circle where my mom and Stephen were going to meet me, I'd lost my power steering and started to freak out! Some men who were working in the parking lot came over to offer assistance and quickly found that the falling hood prop had indeed done damage - my power steering belt was frayed and ready to split in two! I carefully drove back to Wal-mart and politely demanded that they fix my car. They called in a mechanic and two hours later my car had a new belt, a vacuum tube reattached, and was ready to go again...unfortunately, lunch time was long passed and the lunch with Stephen had been basically ruined (Arctic Circle ended up being closed for repairs, so my mom took him to Burger King where he ordered to go and only had time to eat a few fries before he had to be back to school - we hope he was able to finish the rest during class and didn't get a tardy too!). So much for a quick oil change and a fun lunch with my nephew!

Later we hung out at my Grandma's house with my mom and Abby discovered the magnets on her refrigerator. I spent many hours as a kid playing with those same magnets (well, some of them are still the same!) and it was fun to watch my own daughter do the same thing.

That evening we headed back to the nursing home, where Abby headed straight for the heart balloons we'd delivered the day before. She spent most of the time wandering up and down the hallways, carrying a balloon in each hand, much to the delight of all the residents. She was quite the spectacle and brought many smiles to the older people.

Many of the residents commented that Abby was the cutest little girl they'd ever seen, and I must say that I have to agree! =)

The following day was the annual Valentine party at my Aunt Sandi's where Abby and I had been staying. My cousins Jayne, Kelly and Alysun arrived with their kids (eight in all, age 4 and under!). We moms had lots of fun decorating cookies, visiting together, and enjoyed a scrumptuous lunch!

While some of the kids decorated cookies for a little while, they mostly had fun running around the house and playing with all the toys.

Aunt Sandi helping Abby and Priscilla with a puzzle.

Mandy and Abby "reading" books at the kids table - they each got a book and brought them to the table all on their own! Maybe these two will be the studious ones in the bunch. =)

And, of course, we took the obligatory picture of the three girls: Mandy (16 1/2 months), Priscilla (almost 16 months) and Abby (15 1/2 months).

Yes, at only 15 months, Abby is already quite a bit shorter than her cousins - those Peters grow 'em tall! I'm the shortest out of all my first cousins (by a long ways!) and I'm sure Abby (or one of my children) will be the shortest out of all the second cousins.

With a final good-bye to my mom, we headed back to Washington to see "Dada" and "Bubba" who were very much missed and talked about by Abby a ton while we were in Oregon!