Day 5-9: Vacation in Oregon

We visited my parents in Oregon four days

out of my nine day vacation.

The usual 6 hour trip took us about 10 hours

to get there due to a horrific accident

(looked like a fatality). 

We sat in traffic over an hour while

emergency personnel worked to clean

up the horrible scene.

It was a long drive, but we did get

to see some beautiful scenery on the way.

It was overcast, and rained a little,

but it made for some nice pictures.

We rolled in around 10 PM,

said hello's and goodnights,

and then picked up and had some fun the next day.

The boys played with the drone

and practiced with it on the property.

Austin really seemed to enjoy the toy the most

as he was able to maneuver it best.

Around 2 PM, I drove with my mom

and daughter to go pick up my sister

and my niece at the airport 2 hours away.

We ended up getting back to my parent's house around 8 PM.

After a 10 hour drive on Thursday and a 5ish hour drive on Friday,

I was exhausted!

Saturday we all just laid around and relaxed

(for the most part).

We did take a walk down to the lake.

Todd figured out how to use the panoramic

on my phone and took this awesome picture.

I didn't get many pictures of the visit

because I was in the car for most of it,

and then I was sleeping, reading or

watching tv the rest of the time.

I did manage to get a couple of pictures of my niece.

She is getting so big!

I can't believe she's going to be 8.

I liked this picture because you can see

how tall my niece is.

Lexx is around 5'6", so you get the idea.

Todd is actually around 6', but the land slopes

so it makes it look like he is a hobbit.

When we left my parents on Sunday,

we got quite the send off.

My sister was wearing her shower turban.

Nice look!

My parent's and their dogs also wished

us a safe ride home, and then before you know it

we were headed back home...

it really seemed like we had just got there

and then we had to turn around and leave.

On our way home we stopped at

one of our favorite spots

Lassen Volcanic National Park.

It was beautiful as usual,

but this time some of the park was not

opened to the public due to snow...

in the middle of July!

This is a picture of one of the lakes near Bumpass Hell.

We did stop and take a couple pictures,

but we didn't spend much time in the park.

After we left Lassen, we headed to Chester, CA

to have some dinner, and then head home.

Dinner was fine, but between Chester and Quincy,

there was another fatal car wreck

that had the road closed for a minimum of an hour.

We thought we would take an alternate route

and just get home about half and hour later

than planned...wrong.

We got lost in the middle of nowhere for

about an hour, maybe more.

It's a good thing that it was beautiful,

and we had just filled our gas tank,

or I would have started to worry.

Oh, did I mention we didn't get

cell service in the area we got lost?

We finally popped out on a road about

an hour outside of Reno, NV.

It wasn't exactly close to home,

but at least we knew where we were

and how to get home from there.

We got home around 11 PM,

and we were all thoroughly exhausted from

driving all day long.

We returned our rental car on Monday

morning and then relaxed for the rest of the day.

It wasn't exactly a perfect vacation,

but there was lots of family time,

which I totally treasure.

I'm already starting to plan next

years vacation, so it's not disjointed like this years.

Overall, I can't complain.

I didn't have to work and I could sleep in

as late as I wanted. 

What more could a girl ask for?

Day 4: Golfing on Vacation

On the 4th day of vacation, we decided to do a little golf.

I had never been, and Todd had been trying to

talk me into it for about two years.

I finally caved, and Todd chose Apple Mountain Golf Resort.

While it is a beautiful course, let me tell you,

it wasn't a supremely easy course.

Not that I'm an expert, but it doesn't take an

expert to know that if you have to go over

streams and between trees and shoot dog legs...

it's not easy!

We started off on the front nine,

and took our golf carts down some very steep hills.

We chose the "red" course, being it was the easiest.

We all managed to hit the ball,

and get it to the hole within 6-8 strokes.

That is until the 3rd hole, which is where I got

frustrated and threw my club and declared I was done.

Yes...I'm a poor sport!

After I stopped playing, I could really enjoy

the beauty of the course.  There were flowers,

trees, streams, and wildlife everywhere.

Little Lexx was a trooper and actually played

18 holes along with Todd and usually got 6 strokes.

Aust quit at the end of 9 holes, and he was right in line

with Lexx, usually getting 6 strokes.

We stopped and ate dinner after the 9th hole,

and then Todd and Lexx finished the last(back?) 9.

It was around 7 PM when we finished,

and it was a beautiful day and so great

to be able to spend time with my family.

While I will not become a professional

golfer anytime soon (as in ever),

I did enjoy riding around in the golf cart,

drinking my drinks, taking pictures,

and visiting with my family.

Day 1- 3: Start of Vacation

Originally, back in March or so,

 Todd and I planned

on doing a staycation this summer.

We had the wonderful cruise to Alaska

last year, so we figured we would

keep it low key and get some things

done around the house this year.

Around May we decided that was dumb,

and tried to scrape together some

plans to do something.

Well...we just returned from our summer vacation.

It was 9 days (2 were Sat and Sun).

Not the relaxing time I had hoped for,

but nice still the same...

anytime you don't have to work it's nice!

My official vacation started Friday at 5 PM,

as soon as I got off work.

I went to leave my office, and of course,

I couldn't locate my keys.

Great start, right?

Ends up that I had left the keys in my car

because I had set them down so I could

pick something else up....idiot!!!!

The evening improved, however,

when we took the kids for dinner.

They had to prep their apartment

because they are both moving out,

so we figured we'd provide

them with some sustenance.

The evening got a lot better when we stopped

for some yummy ice cream at a local

ice cream and candy shop before they left.

I basically ran errands and Todd

did yardwork all day Saturday.

Then we turned around Sunday and traveled

two hours to bring Todd's trailer

to the kids apartment in order

to move their larger items.

It just so happened to be about 100 degrees,

which believe it or not was much

better than the 105 - 109 degrees

that it had been a couple days earlier.

It took us a few hours to move stuff

to Austin's new little house

and load Lexxa's on the trailer.

After we finished, we turned right back around

and drove home so we could relax

on the 4th of July -

we didn't want to be on the road

on a drinking holiday.

Before we left the kids again,

we had lunch at a local brewery

(Do you see a theme regarding food here?).

It was pretty much delicious,

and we enjoyed every morsel

because we were exhausted from

the heat and doing physical work.

I didn't take any pictures of the 4th

because we didn't really do anything

except relax and BBQ.

So there was nothing really exciting to blog.

Did the rest of our vacation improve?

Guess you'll have to wait and see!

I know, I'm a brat.

DIY - Pallet Frame

Todd and I finally put our pallets that we had

been saving to good use.

My dad's birthday was nearing,

and I really wanted to make something for him.

I found a local photographer who had taken

a picture of the town that I was raised in.

The picture just so happens to show the building

that my dad owned and operated his business

out of for over 30 years, so I couldn't resist.

When I told Todd what I had in mind for

the photo, he was totally on board and

volunteered to help me make a homemade frame.

First thing was to drag out the old dirty pallet.

Next, Todd pried the nasty old board off the top,

which then exposed the boards that we would

need to make our frame.

It was pretty nasty...it had spider webs and dirt

and just gross stuff all over it.

My job was to clean the boards after Todd

pried them off the pallet.

We were able to salvage about 5 good boards

that we could use for the frame.

The other boards split apart and were unusable.

Todd measured and I cut the boards,

then he had to set up the Kreg Jig.

It was way too complicated for me to figure out,

so Mister Smartypants came to the rescue.

The Kreg jig allows you to drill holes

at an angle so that you can connect the frame

without any screws showing.

Next, I had to salvage a piece of glass from a frame

that we were going to throw away.

The old frame fell and broke to pieces,

but the glass was perfect...win!

It took a few attempts to get the photo in the frame,

but we managed to maneuver it in and then
Todd just screwed the bottom board to the frame...done!

From start to finish, it took us about an hour to assemble.

I love the way it turned out,

and really enjoy how it enhances the picture.

We gave the picture to my dad this last

weekend, and he loved it, just like I hoped he would.

It just makes it that much more special

because we made it especially for him.

In Our Family...