Week 4 - Oregon City - January 23-January 29, 2023

Another really good week!!!!  My highlight was going to the ophthalmologist for my last appointment.  I didn't know it was going to be my last one ..I had another one scheduled for March 25th...but the doctor told me I was dong great and another appointment wasn't necessary. I have a droopy left lower lid which came about as a result of the surgery, so I'm due to see Dr Koo to get that repaired...no sense in not correcting a slightly droopy lower lid.

I took this photo to show the size of the seedling Cedar of Lebanon.  They are slow growing so I'll probably never see it grow into a big big tree.

Activity Day on Wednesday - the kids did skits based upon the Personal Safety discussions from last week.  I have mixed feelings about the evening. Some of the kids did great and some didn't want to do skits.  All in all I think it was a great presentation on personal safety for kids.

On Friday we went to Corvallis for another gymnastics meet with Rutgers Univ (in New Brunswick, NJ).  OSU won handily.  Here are photos of our favorite Jade Carey.

Our favorite fans here in this photo.

Here are two photos of the massive rotten tree that fell on top of of Bottle Spring and then the upper part of the tree slipped into bottle Creek.  It's gonna take me a long time to clean this mess up.

Sunday - we watched on tv the gymnastic meet with UCLA in Los Angeles. We did really well and UCLA did really well beating up by .05 points.  It was a a bit disappointing.  Jade had what we felt was a floor routine worth 10 points.  So UCLA did win but by hardly anything.

Holland had her own gymnastic performance too.

The first sign of spring!!!!  Osmaronia cerasformis!!!!

 Week 3 - Oregon City and Orem - January 16 - 22, 2023

Super busy week - we drove to Orem to be present when Bjorn returned from his mission.,

Monday - drove 800 hundred miles in 13 hours.  Uneventful.  Nasty snowy weather and darkness when we got to metro Salt Lake.  We had great accommodations!!  Renee had asked neighbors (two houses down from them) if we could stay in their basement apartment.  It was great!!!

Tuesday -  we hung around all morning waiting until it was time to go to the airport. Renee had made a bunch of posters.  We were at the airport at 1:00 and had to wait about an hour for Bjorn to come walking through the doors.

On the way home we stopped at Chick-fill-a which was Bjorn's absolute first choice of his first dinner back home.

At the house Bjorn opened his suitcases and displayed his souvenirs.  Brazilin chocolate and soccer club jerseys were a hit.

Ivan is showing Bjorn the "new" phone he has for Bjorn.

Camille works three nights a week at the BYU Creamery at Heleman Hall. It was really fun because we DID surprise her.  She didn't see us right at first, so we just all stood with our arms folded and stared at her.  When she finally looked at us, she was startled!!!

Wednesday we hung out at the house.  Went to Harmon's grocery store and got flour so we could make Artisan Bread for Donna.  Then we ate lunch at Red Fuego.

Renee asked us if we'd like to paint - well....yes.  Off to Harbor Freight to get a new and useable brush.  My job was taping and then taking off the tape.  Dad did a lot on the rock fireplace and then Bjorn painted.

Dad is watching Bjorn paint.

That evening we went and bought two dozen Mousadas --- yummy

Thursday - we hung out at the house.  I showed Donna a bunch of stuff on Family Search

Ivan took us to the place that has the golf simulator.  Magnus is nuts about golf. Ivan will take him to the place as long as his grads are all A's.  I tried hitting a few balls but was as bad as I was when I was sneaking on to the Chevy Chase Golf Club - back when I was in junior high school.

While we had been golfing, Bjorn made a typical Brasilin dinner....creamed sauce over chicken and rice with shredded potato chips on the top.  Really good.  the drink is a favorite in Brazil.

We left very early Friday morning -5:00am- to return to Oregon.  Cold, snowy, windy!!!   At one place north of Ogden the wind was blowing so much snow across the road that Dad couldn't see where the lanes were.

Made it to Cascade Locks just in time for dinner!

By bedtime we had everything out of the car, put away, and clothes washed and dried!

Saturday was Warren's 39th birthday.  We went to Corvallis to a quad gymnastic meet with

Denver, Brown, Sacramento, and Oregon State.  OSU won!!!  And Jade Carey was highest scoring in all four events and was, not surprisingly, the overall high scorer.

 Week 2 - Oregon City  - January 9-15, 2023

I go up to Bev's every school morning to help out - actually I only help Jude practice the piano.  Bev does a great job of having scripture study and morning prayer with her kids - even though she is often frustrated by the "chaos".

Here is an updated photo of my current work at Bottle Creek Spring.  I'm trying to get rid of the stump - probable another year's worth of work.

At some point, either I or Dad planted a small Doug Fir seedling in a pot which lived on the back porch for quite a few years.  Last spring I planted it on the edge of the hay field above Salmon Berry Gulch.  It has produced lots of cones! and is growing well. 

For Activity Day on Wednesday we talked about all kinds of safety for children.  The kids seemed to love it, and their parents reported their kids liked it too.  

Paul's birthday was this week and to celebrate, a bunch of us went to Chang's for dinner.  It is in the old Sizzler Steakhouse on McLoughlin, but  I don't remember being at this facility -everyone else said I had been.  good food and good company.

Cousin Brenden came down for the weekend - a final farewell before he goes to San Diego for a two year stint of being the Chief Operations Officer.  He was here Friday and Saturday - off and on.  It was fun but socially exhausting.  Warren supplied activities for Sloane and Holland.

Travis was the boogy man playing with the kids.

It wasn't really Sloane's birthday, but we needed an excuse for Warren to have a cake for her.

On Sunday we had dinner at Bev's and Paul got a lemon meringue pie in a cake form.

 Week 1 - Oregon City - January 2-January 8, 2023

Ahhhh - the first week of the new year.....no excitement...... kids back in school....not a lot happening.  I worked in the woods - starting to pick up branches and debris that had fallen during the ice and the heavy wind and rain.  I'm pulling all of the armfuls to a burn pile and stacking then nicely until I can burn then (legally) during burn season.  Went to the dentist...no drama there.... went to a horror movie which was a mistake.

Warren and Whitney had made plans to go to Las Vegas to see the Women's Gymnastics Sweet 16.  We chose not to go....it's the same sort of competition that Warren and I went to last year.  We told W & W that we'd watch their kids.

We played with these geometric shapes - Holland does amazingly well.

Tried to make meals that everyone would like to eat.

Coper spent a lot of time patiently waiting for his Dad to come back.

We redeemed Coper's Christmas Activity.  He said he wanted to go to a park....off to Canemah Park for a couple of hours.

We all had a good time. But - Holland and Copeland really love their Mom and Dad and they were happy when W &W returned home.

Tyler turns 16 tomorrow (Monday January 9th),  He blessed the sacrament for the first time today - did a fine job.  We celebrated Sunday night  Warren made him a bowl of top Ramen noodles cake.  Amazing!