April 2014 Oregon Trip

In early April, we made a trip to Oregon to visit relatives. On our way down, we stopped at OMSI (gotta use that free reciprocal pass before it expires!). The boat area with a crane was a big hit, just like last time. :)

The exhibit pictured below was a neat one for me to tell the kids about. It was a little house you go into that recreates the feel of two earthquakes that occurred in Washington - one of which happened in 2001 with an epicenter near Olympia. I was working at a grocery store at the time and it was neat to tell the kids about my experience and for them to actually be able to feel the ground shake.

We put off the kid's section until last, knowing they would never want to leave once we went into that place. We were right. :)

Seriously the cutest chipmunk ever!

Although it had been forecasted to rain during our two-night stay in Oregon, we were blessed with mostly sunny skies during our time there! The kids and I went for a walk around Uncle Paul's farm. Ben was quite intrigued with this piece of machinery sitting in one field and want to know what it was. I was no help this time. :)

Attempting to get a group picture....so hard with so much to look at! :)

They kept wanting to go further and further down the path...

I reminded them that Great-Grandma was waiting for us to come visit and I finally convinced them to turn back toward the house. Then they had a race to see who could make it up the hill first!

But this one got side-tracked with puddles...several times. :)

When we got to Great-Grandma's nursing home, the boys were in for a big surprise! A construction site right outside Grandma's entrance! It became apparent very quickly that it would be easier to bring Great-Grandma to the boys, rather than the boys to Grandma. :) So, my mom and Abby went up to Grandma's room to bring her down in her wheelchair, while I let the boys soak in the machines and watch them demolish sidewalks and a couple of pillars. So cool. :)

There was of course lots of playtime with Aunt Sandi's toys (many of them the same toys that I played with as a child at her house!).

The boys and I took a nap and when I got up I found Abby out "helping" Aunt Sandi weed in her garden. Okay, really, Aunt Sandi was weeding and Abby was petting Fluffy the cat. :)

Jake for the first time found what I've always called "poppies" - hollow, approximately one-inch balls that fall from the oak trees and make a wonderfully crunchy, popping sound when you stomp on them. :) My cousin Jayne and I spent many hours collecting piles of these "poppies" when we were kids visiting my Grandpa and Grandma's (now Uncle Paul's and Aunt Sandi's) farm.

And a visit to the farm is never complete for Ben without a tractor ride with Uncle Paul! :)

Our annual Valentine's Day party that my aunt hosts for all the little cousins get postponed again this year and turned into a spring party. My aunt always make a scrumptious lunch for us all, everyone decorates cookies, and we mama cousins catch up together and swap stories about our crazy-wonderful children. :) Well, actually, I'm the only cousin - the other three mamas are sisters-in-law and all live in the area so they get to see each other more often. Their kids are all first cousins and my kids are their kids' second-cousins. It gets a bit confusing at times for the children. :)

My mom (right) with her sister Judi, my other Oregon aunt. :)

Below, Abby is having a blast jumping with her two second-cousins, Mandy and Priscilla. They are all 6-years-old, with birthdays within 1.5 months of each other. The first time we attended this party (and have gone every year since!) was when the girls were 4 and 5 months old!

Flash back to 2008: 

In the first trampoline picture, you can see a line of houses on the hilltop. One of them is the house that my Grandpa built (with Uncle Paul) for him and Grandma to move into when the farm changed into Uncle Paul's hands. I can't remember exactly when that happened (late 80s, maybe?). I spent much time at that house over the years. So, so sad that my Grandma had to move into a nursing home and now that house has been sold. I always considered it to be just about perfect - a house right on the exact edge of town, perched on top of a hill. In a development with city utilities and within walking distance of Safeway (and later Walmart), with suburbia out one side of the house and farmland out the other side of the house. I could ride a bike around the neighborhood and play with neighborhood kids, or I could trek through the orchard and the hay fields and enjoy the quiet countryside in solitary contemplation, depending on which direction I walked out of the house. I loved it. :)

In the second trampoline picture, you can see what's left of the my Grandpa's cherry orchard along the top of the hill in the background. I spent many hours in that orchard, exploring with my cousin Jayne or taking walks with my Grandpa. Lots of good memories. It was sad when my Uncle Paul had to take down a good portion of the orchard some years back (it was getting old and not producing much anymore). But now that the house next to the orchard is no longer in the family, it doesn't matter so much I suppose because I never get a chance to walk in it anymore anyway. Sigh. Change is hard.

Trips to Oregon to visit my relatives were the highlight of my childhood. I am so not exaggerating. In my younger years, I cried my eyes out nearly every time we had to leave and head back to WA. :) We went to Oregon nearly every school vacation and I spent most of my summers there. I am so pleased to be able to share the memories with my children and to build new ones with them. It is hard sometimes to see everything change over the decades, but we are finding new things to love and enjoy too. Ha, just realized that "new things" includes not just places and experiences, but people too (like friendships with cousins-in-laws and second-cousins!). :)