Big Trip

Posted by Mykaela K. M.

Well, well, we are FINALLY posting an entry about our trip we took last month!!  It has been WAY too long since the last post!  We had so much fun seeing all of our old friends in St. Louis, our family in Michigan, Indiana, and South Dakota, and meeting new friends, too!  On our first day we drove straight from Fossil to Salt Lake City, Utah!  On the next morning we were planning on visiting the lake itself, but we ended up going to the Mormon temple instead.  It was so sad to see the utter spiritual darkness there, even with all the beauty of the temples.

We stopped in Cheyenne, WY, then in Lincoln, Nebraska, then went on to St. Louis, making it a 4-day trip from Oregon to Missouri.  On the way we stopped at the Cabela’s world headquarters, and spent a couple of hours there.

While we were in St. Louis, we visited Mama’s younger sister in Sunset Hills, and we had a wonderful day with them.  Auntie Kellene fixed us such special food! :)

 

 

 

 

Of course, we had to make them bubble teas while we were there!

 

Here we are with old friends at Cornerstone.

Pastor Curtman even told his cat to have kittens while we were there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After St. Louis we went on to my aunt and uncle’s camp near Corydon, Indiana.  We spent nearly a week there on the huge camp ground doing everything in the world from S’mores to peddle-boating!!

Below is a picture of a tire swing at the camp.  Thing is—it normally doesn’t have water there!  We swung anyway. :)

My cousin Kylie on the tire swing.

 

 

 

 

Above right are Grandma and Grandpa, and their 4 kids.  Left to right they are:

Kim, Michelle (Papa’s twin), Troy, and Mike.

While we were there at the camp, a huge storm system moved in, and we ended up staying in the basement of the dining hall at camp from about 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.  That made an interesting memory and story to tell!   

 

 

 

 

We went up to Michigan to stay with my grandparents for a few days, and we celebrated resurrection Sunday at their church in Ludington, MI.  After church we went to a nice park, and took a few family pictures there.  We didn’t have time to change out of our church clothes, so we were all having the time of our lives with our nice clothes on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lake in the background is Lake Michigan.

On our way back home we stopped in S.D. for a day in order to visit Mama’s grandparents.  We also spent half a day at Wall drug in Wall, South Dakota.

In Sheridan, Wyoming we were able to spend the night at a hotel with a very nice pool.  We all love swimming very much, and a hotel pool is a huge treat for us.

We stopped in Spokane, Washington the next night with another pool.  After a very short 6 hour drive the next day, we were finally HOME!  Worn out, but not much the worse for wear.  We had a ball on this trip, but I was really glad to be home.  I cannot imagine doing that every year, but once in a while a trip like this is something VERY special and we made so many fun memories.

Pre and Post Methow Valley Trip

Here are some some pics from before and after our trip to Okanogan, Washington to be with the Majors and Waldron families…

       

Here is Kami and her new-used cello.  It was a surprise for her when she went on her recent trip to Salem to see her mother and grandparents.  I had her sister pick it up at Strobel & Sons for me.  Now I need to buy a whip to make her practice!

Here are Jay and Heidi Chang.  He is a missionary to the Hmong people in Thailand. His father was killed fighting for the Americans during the Vietnam conflict. He moved to the States when he was 14 years old, was born again at 18, and called to preach soon after.  He is now going back to his own people to preach the gospel to them.  They stayed in Fossil for a week, and we enjoyed their company.

We traveled to Okanogan on March 30th.  The weather was beautiful.  We stopped in Soap Lake to take a break, and the kids played on the playground there.  We also enjoyed looking at a large sundial made from these sculptures.

This lake is part of the Grand Coulee, a remnant from the runoff of the great Missoula Flood sometime after Noah’s Flood.  It is a beautiful drive along Hwy. 17!

This is a playground on a section of the Majors’ property.  We enjoyed staying with this family.  We had Thursday services at the Waldren’s home and then a meal on Friday night there, with games, etc.  We had a very enjoyable time.

Here is Sister Waldren and their oldest daughter, Kali (short for Kaliopi?), preparing the lemonade for the meal.

Brothers Waldren and Majors.  They were both a blessing to our family. Below is Kami with the ladies, again, but we are missing Maggie (short for Magatha?).  You can see the back of Maggie’s head in the second picture where everyone is playing “Headbandz.”

On the way home we stopped and looked at the some of the lakes again.  Here we are at a visitors’ center.

Pictures of Fossil and more

Posted by Mykaela K. M.

This last week we took a three-day trip to Okanogan, Washington.  We stayed with Brother and Sister Majors, and Papa preached for them in their Thursday night services.  We had so much fun with the Majors and the Waldrons, and on Thursday night, I went over and stayed the night with Kali and Maggie Waldron, watched a movie with them, and went out to breakfast the next morning.  We had such good fellowship and really enjoyed our time with them.  Hopefully some of them will be able to come down and visit us in Fossil sometime.

We also had some missionaries, the Alex James family with us yesterday.  Bro. James and family are going to the mission field of Chile. 

We are all getting very excited about our trip next week, and a few weeks ago we went around town taking pictures to show to our family back east.  Here are a few of them for those of you that we won’t be able to see.

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the church in the background of the picture on the left, and on the right is our one store in town!  :) 

Here is Haven House, I have been going there pretty often lately to play piano for the  people during meal times.  I really love the people of Haven House, and I am hoping to get some opportunities to witness to them.

On the left is our flashing red light we got in town…woo hoo!  We are really moving up in the world!

Below are me and Mercy in front of the courthouse, and left is a side view of the church.

This is a picture of the town of Fossil from one of our church member’s house that lives in the highest house in town.

Here is a little fawn that was just lying down by the side of a stream.  We get hundreds of deer in town, and many times you can see them in broad daylight, just walking through the streets.

Below is a place about twenty miles out of town where you can see for miles upon miles on a clear day.

Here is a cute little puppet show Malachi did…

“See if you can figure out my genius!” Haha! :)

More Bubbles!!

(Posted by Mykaela K. M.)

This last week Papa ordered 40 pounds of the big black tapioca pearls to use for Bubble Tea!!

Here they are in all their glory!  These things are SO good when they are mixed in with smoothies or cold coffee…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Kayson with his Bubble Tea:

We all absolutely LOVE those silly bubble teas.  (They are not teas, understand, but smoothies, but they are called Bubble Tea:).

Kebron gave his first laugh a couple of days ago, I was bumping him up and down on my knee, singing some made-up song to the tune of “I’ve been working on the railroad”, and all of a sudden I looked down and he was laughing at me!  I was very thrilled. :)

We are all really looking forward to the trip we are going to take in April.  It’s so amazing that it’s only a few weeks away.  We are planning on going to St. Louis first, then up to Indiana, then to Michigan, and back home through South Dakota, where we will stop to see my other great-grandparents.  We are excited about seeing Papa’s siblings and parents, and also many old friends of ours in St. Louis.  We are planning on making a picture book of places around Fossil to take with us on our trip and show people where we live.

Here is a picture of the hills around Fossil I took a couple of weeks ago.

You can see part of the church in the lower right-hand corner. 

Here is a pic of the hills covered in snow.

There are still little patches of snow on the hills now, but it’s all melted off in town. 

Well, that’s about all…we are planning on taking separate pictures of everyone in the family to put on the next post.  Enjoy!

Cold, Sunny, Snow, & Bubble Tea

It’s been cold, but beautiful here with the fresh snow, blue skies, and chilly temps.  It is supposed to get down to 4 degrees tonight, but it is already 7 degrees at 7pm…I think it may get below zero.

Tonight for dinner we made fruit smoothies (raspberries, peaches, banana, oranges, apples, blueberries, mango, strawberries, honeydew, cranberries, pineapple, and spinach) and put a batch of bubble tea/tapioca pearls in it.  It was very good. 

Kebron Pics and Smoothies

Posted by Mykaela K. M.

Two days ago, February 21, was Malachi’s 9th birthday, and we took a special trip to the Ochoco N. F. to go sledding at a huge sledding hill up by the Crystal Springs Camp road.  Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera, but Papa took one or two pics on his cell phone, so maybe by the next post we will figure out how to get them off the phone and onto the computer!  We had a really good time.  Yesterday Mama made us smoothies in the VitaMix:

She puts Carrots, Strawberries, Blueberries, Apple Juice Concentrate, peaches, pineapple, plain yogurt, lemon juice, cranberries, and several other things in there.  I do make the smoothies myself sometimes, but I always have Mama blend them for me because the blender makes the most awful noises, so I usually let her make them!  :)  Here is a pic of me and Baby Kebron…

We were playing a card game, and I couldn’t stand to hear him cooing over in his seat, missing all the action!  :)  Here are a couple more of Kebron.

He is starting to grow hair in front…he has lots in the back, but he IS growing quite a bit in front!

He is very sweet and gives such big, sunny smiles.  He has yet to laugh, but…should be soon! 

Here is a picture of a GIANT lego tower that Kourage made for the family.  He came over to where we were playing a game about every thirty seconds or so to show us the progress!  (Moan!:)

Dear little guy, he was very intense about the whole thing!

Well, that’s about all the news…we are supposed to have a big snowstorm coming in in the next few days, so I’ll post some pictures of that, IF it happens! (Actually I just looked outside, and it looks like a snow globe, so maybe it will!)