September 1 - 30, 2014 (Mehama, Lincoln City, Pacific City, OR)

Wow, how can a whole month have already passed......I guess when you are retired and very busy time just flies by. 

Here is a brief recap of our last month.....

We did take a little mini vacation to the coast.  We spent 3 nights at the Logan Rd RV Park in Lincoln City.  It was a huge change going from our private rv spot at my mom's to these tight and unlevel spots at Lincoln City.

We did have amazing weather though, one day it actually reached over 90 degrees at the beach, it was incredible.  We spent the day playing on the beach with Gracie and then after dinner going for a long walk down the beach as far as we could walk to Lands End.  It was an amazing day.

Gracie chasing her ball, she gets so excited and loves to chase her ball

Our look back down the beach from Lands End

Sunset on our walk back from Lands End

Saturday the day was much cooler, so we went to lunch at Mo's for some clam chowder and then spent some time walking through the outlet mall.  Sunday was cloudy and cool also, but we had a quick breakfast and then packed up and headed down the road for Pacific City to our next stop.  While Rich was outside packing up, he ran into one of our old co-workers.  They had a nice quick visit before we left.  I think it was our shortest travel day so far, it was only a 30 minute travel day.

Our site at Pacific City was much nicer and we really enjoyed staying at the Cape Kiwanda RV Resort.  We originally were only scheduled for a 2 night stay but managed to stretch it out to 5 days. They had a big tour group that was coming in that had all the pull through sites reserved.  We kept checking back to see if they had any cancellations and weren't having any luck.  On our second night, our neighbors little dog came over for a visit and we started talking to the dogs owner and during the course of the conversation found out that she was scheduled for another two nights but was going to have to leave early.  So we quickly asked if she minded if we took her reserved spot and she was very agreeable to our request.  So the three of us headed to the office to make the arrangements and the best part was that they arranged it so we didn't have to even move our site.  

Our pull thru site at Cape Kiwanda, much nicer than at Lincoln City

When we were checking in on Sunday we were told that they were holding a jet ski competition down the beach a ways.  So after we got set up, we headed out to the beach.  We hiked up over the big sand dune and down the other side and along the beach for probably close to 2 miles.  It was a nice long walk and of course Gracie loved every minute of it.  I think all dogs must love the beach, I know Gracie sure does.  We saw a couple hang gliders by the dune and while we were walking a couple of powered parachutes flew over us.  We could hear the jet ski competition way before we could see it.  We stood around and watched for awhile, it was rather interesting.  I wonder how the judges managed to keep track of everyone?  

Running down the back side of the dune

Hang glider waiting to take off

Powered parachute flying by

Jet ski competition...brrr it looked might cold, even with wetsuits



Walking back from the jet ski competition, we still have to climb this dune



Whew, we made it to the top and once down the dune only a short walk to the rv park.  We had to stop and savor the view as it takes a lot of effort to get to the top.

 
We had a very relaxing enjoyable time, we did run into another co-worker, Nancy from ODOT and her husband and had a nice visit catching up on news from work.  We tried to climb the dune every day.  One day climbing the dune we went at it from a different angle and ended up crawling through brush and up and over trees.  Gracie and I weren't too happy about this trail, it was very scary but I'm glad to say that we survived.  We spent one day sight seeing and stopped at the Tillamook Cheese factory for cheese and ice cream.  We took a nice bike ride, I flew my kite, we did a lot of reading.  It was a wonderful time, so wonderful that we decided to stay another night even though it meant moving from one site in the rv park to another.  We enjoyed the rv park and the close proximity to the beach so we will definitely be back to this rv park. 

Ice cream at Tillamook Cheese Factory and no, I was not eating two ice cream cones, I'm holding Rich's while he took the picture

The vacation house that Rich and his family used to stay at when his kids were younger

Getting my kite ready to fly

Another view from the top of the dune

Haystack rock

Sunset with Haystack Rock

Gracie and me smiling after we reached the top of the dune via climbing up cliffs, through brush and over and under trees....we were both glad to reach the top.

Our drive home from Pacific City was uneventful until we got to my mom's road.  Boy we sure shook up the 5er going up the gravel road through all the rough washboard.  When we got to my mom's we spent a couple hours of shoveling gravel trying to level out our parking spot a bit.  It was nice to get backed in and all set up again in our nice private spot.

The last couple of weeks we have spent working on various projects around my mom's.  The biggest one is probably tearing out all of her old shrubbery in front of the house and working on a dry/wet creekbed.  In a couple of days we'll be planting the new shrubs.  We spent some time painting exterior and interior window trim as she's getting new energy efficient windows installed.  Rich painted and roofed a pump house that my brother built to go over my mom's well.  Rich has worked on fixing a leak in my mom's pond and various other honey do's.  Poor Rich, he gets a list from my mom as well as me.  He sure is a patient husband, I'm blessed! 

 


Working on wet/dry creekbed, it's almost finished.  You can see work on the new windows



Work in progress on landscaping

more work in progress, this was before I started the wet/dry creekbed

Rich painted and roofed this cute little pump house my brother built

Mom & me working on staining interior window trim

We had friends Gene & Judith out to the 5er for dinner one evening.  We had a great visit and shared some traveling stories.  We unfortunately forgot to bring the camera out.  We also attended a friends Irish/India wedding and again forgot to take pictures.  Rich was "volunteered" to cook the chicken for the wedding reception on the Traeger.   It was a lot of chicken to cook and I'm happy to report the chicken turned out wonderful. 

And then of course, there is our adorable new grandson, Elijah.  I try to spend as much time as I can with him, he is growing so fast.





So snuggly, he's so precious.

We have another busy month ahead of us, so I probably won't post again for several weeks.  We still are not sure when we are heading out and even where we are headed yet.  I guess that's the joy of being retired and mobile for the time being.  Until next time......

July 20 - August 30, 2014 (Mehama, OR)

Boy does the time fly.....I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted to our blog.  A lot has happened over the last month, the best thing is that we are the proud grandparents of a healthy little boy, Elijah.  I'll try and recap the last month the best I can.......

People and places we've seen:

We got to attend a "Thursday night group" at my friend Judy's house.  This is a group of friends that have been getting together for around 16 years or so on Thursday nights, either at people's homes for a potluck or an outing at a local bar/restaurant.  It was fun to catch up with everyone, it has been awhile since we've seen a lot of them.  I didn't capture everyone's picture, so sorry for the ones I left out.

Rick & Marilyn

Gene & Harriett

Judy



Carolyn & George

Jan & Richard

Judith(in blue), Gene & Judy (in foreground)
Harriett, Marilyn, John & Rich (in background)

Harriett & Ben

Dave & Tom

Another event we attended in July was a pig roast that was hosted by our new son-in-law, Norm and our daughter Amber to celebrate their wedding which was in April of this year. 

Pig roasting - this was a labor of love because this is a manual crank and took over 24 hours to roast the pig

Norm (leaning over the pig) removing the wire which held the pig on the skewer....it's finally time to eat some roast pork.

This is the view of the surrounding countryside, they were harvesting this bean field in the foreground the day of the pig roast.

The next day I drove my mom to Silverton to attend her side of the family's yearly reunion.  I got to talk to several of my cousins that I don't normally see much, so that is always fun.

Uncle Dave, my mom, Aunt Lorrie & Aunt Joyce

 
The next weekend, my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my daughter Amber.  We had a lot of fun seeing all the nice gifts she received for baby Elijah.

Amber's Grandma Mae (center)



Kim (mother-in-law) & Amber



Amber & her mommy  =)

My mommy and me  =)

Then when I woke up the morning of August 11th, and checked my phone, which I had forgotten to take into the bedroom, there was a message from Amber around 2:15 a.m. letting me know they were headed to the hospital as her water had broken.  Oh rats, how could I have forgotten my phone.  Rich assured me that I wouldn't be too late for the babies birth.  I gave a quick call into Amber and told her I was headed her way.  Rich dropped me off at the hospital about 9:00 a.m. and I arrived in Amber's room to find that yes, we still had plenty of time, her contractions were still a ways apart.  She had lots of visitors throughout the day, family and friends stopping in for a quick hello and to wish her and Norm well.  This is their first child, so it was a very exciting time.  By early evening everyone but Norm and I were gone from the room, things were starting to get a little bit more exciting.  I'll just recap and say that it was a long night and Amber was a trooper, she did a great job of bringing little Elijah into this world at 7:31 a.m. on August 12th.  This was the first live birth I've got to witness and it was a very emotional and special time.  Thanks Amber & Norm for letting me be a part of it.  Elijah is a beautiful and healthy 8 lb 3 oz bundle of joy.  I love nothing better than to sit and hold him and just stare at him. 



Grandma holding baby Elijah at one day old



Great Grandma holding baby Elijah at one day old

Needless to say over the last several weeks I have been taking many trips into Amber & Norm's to hold little baby Elijah.  Babies are so special and precious.

The other adventure that we had was that we took my mom to the State Fair.  We had a lot of fun walking around and checking out the sites and people watching.  I think people watching is my favorite.  We ate pronto pups which I find I prefer corn dogs which have a cornmeal batter versus pronto pups which is more a flour based batter.  We shared an elephant ear and the best treat of all was ice cream from the red dairy barn.  The only ride we all rode was the chair lift which takes you across the fairgrounds.  Rich was hoping that he could talk us into a swing ride or a ferris wheel ride, but mom and I were party poopers.  I just wasn't up for the nauseous feeling that I get when I ride carnival rides, especially the ones that go in circles. 



Me & Mom on chairlift

 

Eating ice cream cones

Mixed into all this adventure we have spent some time with friends.  One evening we had Ben & Harriett up to our 5er for dinner.  It was a lovely warm summer evening so we got to sit outside and enjoy an evening of good food and conversation.  

 I had lunch with my friend Jan at Trexlar Farms which is a quaint little restaurant in the area and we had a nice long visit.  Then one afternoon Jan hosted lunch at her house for Judy and me and we spent a long afternoon visiting and catching up.  The time sure flies by when you are spending time with good friends.  =)

We've also found a small local restaurant that we like to have breakfast at once a week.   It's called the Country Kitchen and it's just full of all the locals getting together and drinking coffee and having their breakfasts.   The food for breakfast is really good, they have yummy hashbrowns and Rich says they have really good gravy. 

We eat almost every dinner at least 5-6 nights a week with mom and usually have been getting to eat out on her deck.  It is so relaxing listening to the creek and seeing all the beautiful scenery while eating some really good meals.  My uncle Richard has been supplying us with lots of fresh veggies from his garden.

Rich and I even spent one day freezing up about 24 bags of corn (off the cob).  I went with mom and picked a bunch of fresh blueberries which we froze most of them.  Rich and I picked some blackberries which I froze.  It's been really fun being around all this fresh produce.

Of course, we have been doing lots of projects around mom's place.  We just recently got our camera back so hopefully we'll start taking more pictures.  We've worked on clearing out a lot of brush around the place.  We've both gotten real familar with the weed eater.  Rich has worked on fixing a leak in the big pond and getting more water to flow into the pond.  Rich has made some firewood.  He spent quite a bit of time trying to get my mom's pump in her springhouse to work, but have found out from the plumber that it is broken and no good....that's a bummer because the pump was only 2 years old.  We waxed the pickup and the 5er which is a huge undertaking but boy they sure look good.  We waxed my mom's car.  We've worked on a small decorative pond.  We've spent a couple afternoons playing in the creek.   Rich has spent lots of time doing lots of little fix it type projects for my mom.  It sure is nice that he's such a handyman. 

Here is our beautiful setting in the woods.  I don't think you'll find a much better spot.

View of pond from our table and lounge chair

View of our camp site - notice how shiny the 5er is after the wax job!

Today is only the second day that we've had rain since we've been here, so I thought it would be a good day to stay inside and get caught up on our blog.  Our next big adventure is we are going to take a week off soon and head to the coast and play on the beach.  Then we'll be back here at mom's.  Right now it is looking like, God willing, that we will be here until late October and then if nothing changes between now and then, we will be heading south for the winter again. 

Stay tuned and God Bless you all!

July 14 - July 19, 2014 (Mehama, OR)

Monday we were ready to hit the road with the 5er and a small u-haul truck.  Guess which one I drove.......if you guessed the small u-haul truck you are correct.  Rich gave me my choice and there was no way I was going to drive the 5er through all that Seattle freeway traffic.  It was bad enough being in a small truck.  We got on the road around 9:00 a.m. after saying goodbye to Brandon.  Kris and the boys were at Tall Timbers for a church camp so we had said our goodbyes to them a week ago.  We'll miss our little camp spot on Camano Island.  Thanks again Brandon & Kris for letting us camp out so long in your yard. 

Our trip down to my mom's went well.  I followed Rich in the 5er and we got through the Seattle traffic pretty well.  We used the express lanes and there was a couple times I thought the top of the 5er was going to scrape the underside of an underpass, it was pretty tight in a couple spots.  But we made it through OK.  We stopped for a quick lunch break at a rest area south of Olympia and then made a fuel stop in Aurora and made it to the Phoenix RV park in Salem around 3:00.  We did a quick hook up of the 5er and headed up to mom's to unload the uhaul and scope out the work that was being done around the shop so we could park the RV there.

It was good to see mom again but it was a very quick visit because we had to return the uhaul back to Salem by 7:00 p.m.  The work being done at the shop looks good but it wasn't quite ready for us to bring the 5er yet, so we'll make arrangements to put it in storage while it's finished up.  We got the uhaul unloaded and back to Salem by our 7:00 p.m. deadline.  It was a very hot humid day and we were very glad to go back to the air conditioned 5er and relax the rest of the evening.  It was an exhausting day for the both of us.

The next morning we got our clothes packed up and the refrigerator emptied out and put the 5er in storage and headed up to mom's.  We'll sure be glad once we have the 5er up at mom's and we don't have to do all this packing and unpacking.

We got settled in at mom's and took a closer look at the work being done at the shop.  Hmmmm they had a couple trenches opened up so they could see the water lines to the house and not tear into them, this would be a perfect opportunity to extend the power and water from the shop closer to where we would be parking the RV without having to do a lot of digging.  We talked to the contractor and he was glad to leave the trenches open until we got our project completed.  Sweet....now it was a mad dash to research the best options.  The next several days were spent doing a little more digging which was not much fun in the clay and rock soil.  It sure made us appreciate the trenches that the backhoe had already dug.  Well after several hard days we got the water line extended and conduit laid for the electrical.  Now the contractor can come back and bury everything.  Whew, glad that project is complete.

Water line we added

Water and electrical conduit (on either side of the metal pipe)

New water spigot and electrical box

Our future RV parking spot

On Saturday it was time to attend the long awaited Bailey Family reunion in Lebanon with Rich's side of the family.  We arrived shortly after 1:00 at the Santiam Place.  It was an old church that has been turned into an event center.  The grounds were lovely with lots of pretty flowers and a water feature and outdoor tables and chairs.  The facility and grounds are set up very nicely for weddings.  We had a very nice potluck lunch with lots of good food and visit with family.  Only one sister, Joan and her husband John from Nebraska were unable to attend.  We sure missed you Joan & John.  Shari (neice) & Mike, we missed you guys too, we were sorry that you were unable to make it out.   It was sure good to see everyone.  A good time was had by all.   Here are some pics of the family that were able to attend.

Cori (neice), Sean (nephew) & Rich

Mick (married to Laura, Rich's neice) & Sheila (neice)

Jim (cousin) & Roger (Madeline's significant other)

Madeline (sister), Laura (neice) & Brenda (neice)

Marvin (married to Brenda), Phil (married to Sheila) & Jack (Beth's husband)

Madeline, Connie, Beth & Kathryn

Rich, Madeline, Connie, Beth & Kathryn