Oregon (A week late & still working on the pictures)

As I type this we are driving across the Nevada desert heading home from a fun extended weekend in Oregon.  We spent the past few days celebrating our one nephews birthday and our other nephews baby blessing.

We left our house last Thursday morning and headed out for a long day of driving.  The plan was to drive the entire 12 hours from Stansbury Park, UT to Medford, OR in one day.  However, car sickness and a bit of a late start had us finding a hotel a couple hours from our destination in Klamath Falls, OR.

After a good night's sleep and nobody feeling like they were going to vomit anymore, we finished the drive.  I''m so glad we were able to drive through part of Oregon during daylight hours.  It is so beautiful and green!

Friday we spent the day with my brother & sister-in-law, Clint & Michelle.  We got there a day earlier than everyone else so we could let the cousins play a little and so I could hold baby Eliot as much as his parents would let me before the grandparents arrived and invoked their grandparental rights.    We spent part of the day at the park and going out for ice cream.  (Ice cream is an Oborn tradition, and if you don't have at least one serving of ice cream on an Oborn vacation it just doesn't seem right.)  Friday night we had a pizza party and let the kids watch a movie while the adults spent the evening talking and catching up.

One of my kids' favorite parts of the trip was gathering the eggs from Clint & Michelle's chickens.  I'm pretty sure the chickens were glad to see us go so they could have a little more privacy.  Cole and Isabel were so excited to think the chickens were laying that they went out about every 30 minutes to check.  I'm sure it was a bit disconcerting for the chickens.

I loved hearing Oliver (my nephew) say Isabel's name over and over again.  When the kids were watching their movie he kept sitting up, looking over, pointing to her and saying "That's Isabel!"  I think it was maybe a bit surreal to him that this girl who was usually just in a picture hanging on his refrigerator was actually there in person.

Clint & Michelle also have a couple of bee hives.  Jarad and Cole both enjoyed learning about how to take care of the bees.  We captured a picture of Cole wearing the beekeeper suit, but my arms were full of baby Eliot when Jarad took his turn in the suit, so no pictures of him.  
 
The food Clint & Michelle had for us was amazing too.  We ate like kings!  I'm pretty sure Michelle spent the better part of the week in the kitchen or at the grocery store preparing for us to come. Thanks Michelle!

Saturday brought more family in as we prepared for Eliot's blessing on Sunday.  We celebrated Oliver's birthday and helped Clint spread some mulch in his yard.   Once again, totally jealous of the green in Oregon and the cool things they can grow there. (I need to learn to work with and embrace the things that can grow well in Utah.)

Sunday was Eliot's blessing day.  One o'clock church was a blessing for us this day as we took the morning a bit slower to recover from the hustle and bustle of the past couple days.

Sunday evening we left Clint & Michelle's house and spent the night in Reno, NV.  We knew driving the full distance home in one day was something we just didn't want to attempt.  The drive from Medford to Reno was another beautiful one.  We drove past Mount Shasta and through the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Northern California.  Once again, I was glad we were able to drive most of this in daylight hours as it was so gorgeous.

So, here we are at Monday and nearly home again.  The trip seemed way too fast.  I don't get to see my brothers and their families nearly enough.  I'm looking forward to August when we are all going to meet up in Glacier National Park for a week of fun!