Country Boy at the Country Fair

The Oregon Country Fair is quite a scene. It is about 25 minutes west of Eugene in a heavily wooded area. I need to preface this with the fact that I have never been to this country fair before. When looking at the information on line the one thing that I wanted to check out was their nudity rules. Here's what the web site said,

"Is nudity allowed at the Fair?
In accordance with Oregon law, people are required to cover their genitals in public."

I can deal with that. I knew there would be various levels of undress but hey, it's Oregon. It's nothing I or my kids haven't seen before. My nephew William....that's another story.

William is a 13 year old boy from Georgia. As they say in Georgia, "Georgia born, Georgia bred and when I die I'll be Georgia dead." He is, for all intents and purposes, a country boy, especially by Oregon standards. I knew that this fair would be something he's never done before and probably will never do again. It is 2 and a half hours away but I felt like it was worth the trip for the experience.

We went to the fair on the opening day and arrived in the parking lot at 10:20. The gates were to open at 11:00. It was really fun. From the moment we entered the parking lot everyone kept saying, "Happy fair!" Like it was a national holiday. The 3 boys and I lucked out and got a ride right to the front gate! As we rode along it was the same, "Happy fair!" Almost everyone was in a costume of some sort. There were lots of tutu wearing dudes along the way. This took William by surprise. It's at about this point when William started saying, "Well then." It was like a guys way of saying, "Oh my." As we pulled into a parking spot up front we could hear a drum circle and lots of whoop whoops and yeeeeeawwws.( Oh, and here's the cool truck we saw too.)
When we turned the corner we could see all the commotion. What fun!

The stilt walkers were so cool.  They were dancing around, banging on bells and drums.  My boys were in their element.  William felt like he was on another planet.  Then some guys covered in mud wearing grass clothing, yes, I said grass clothing came around the corner.  I heard another, "Well then."  Next the green people came running through.  "Well then." And finally some very scantily clad folks.  They were wearing loin cloths...that's it. "WELL THEN."

We walked toward the front gate and got ready to go in.  Again, more of the same.  From the fair people, "HAPPY FAIR!"  From William, "WELL THEN."  There were about 1000 people waiting to go in and we were in the front of the pack.  As we entered it was a wonderland of country fair.  It looked like a human size fairyland.  All the structures were as organic as they could be.  Most of them were made from whatever was in the forest.  As we walked along we checked out all the booths.  Here's a little sample of some of the music at the fair.     There was lots of pottery, tie dye, fairy wings, devil horns, shrines, capes, more tie dye, pottery, music, and the like. There were a few guys that were giving out free hugs, even one mostly naked guy. William said, after the guy walked by that he should have gotten a hug. Yeah, right.

About 30 minutes in there was a parade.  I am pretty sure this parade went on all day just going in circles while picking up new people and dropping some off.  It was an never ending, constantly evolving parade. "Well then." 

We walked around for a total of 4 hours.  My boys bought horns and capes.  They needed some good fair regalia.  William didn't see much that interested him except the fudge.  That looked good.  We saw shrines of all types, LOTS of topless women.  It was fun pointing them all out to William.  He got embarrassed every time. It never got old.  There was a dragon that was about 50 feet long and 8 feet high built out of twigs.  There were 30 people sitting inside eating their lunch. We joined them.  There was a special bench for stilt walkers.  The bench was about 6 feet in the air.  We saw the parade again.  We spent some time at the main stage watching people dance and sing.  There were a couple, "Well then's" there for sure.  

A funny little parade that we saw was about 5 large noses and a box of Kleenex.  The noses were on stilts and as they made their way through the crowd they'd stop and say, "I feel an attack coming." or some thing like that and then throw a weighted green bag out of a nostril.  It was really funny....and gross.  

As we approached the exit we saw the naked "free hugs" guy again.  What luck!  And William said he wanted one.  I said, "Now's your chance Will."  He smirked and said, "Ah, no thanks."  That's what I thought.  We made our way out and headed to the car.  There were HUNDREDS of people walking in as we were walking out.  It was very busy while we were there, I can't imagine how busy it was going to be with all those added people. 

We made it back to the car.  All 3 boys were complaining that their feet hurt.  I'm 47, how is it that their feet hurt more than mine?  We turned on the AC and headed out.  We were dusty, dirty and tired.  I knew those boys didn't particularly care about quality fair food so I opted for Subway on the way home.  They were all happy about that.  It was a fun, and definately memorable day!

A few more pix. 

A Bit of Christmas

This blog is something I love doing.  I haven’t been much at keeping up with it lately but I have been paying lots of attention to my smalls.  It’s what is most important to me but again….  I love to write.  I need to carve out time for this.  Today, at the prompting of my pal Rebecca….here I am.

Christmas is almost here and we’ve had a pretty good season thus far.  The first weekend of December we went to Hood River.  We have done this the past 3 years and have had such a wonderful time.  This year we skipped the Polar Express…..thank goodness.  It’s fun but it’s also quite expensive.  We always stay at the Hood River Hotel with 2 other families.  It’s right on main street and we occupy the 3 suites on the back of the hotel.  It’s so cute and a great way to start the holiday.   Everyone had a fine time.  I went to bed with the kids at 9:30.  I was so tired I couldn’t stay up.  All the other adults stayed up until about 3 in the morning.  As it turns out I ended up getting sick so that made a bit more sense.  I thought it was weird that I was that tired! 

Over the next 2 weeks we got ready for our Christmas Party, I shopped and got most everything fairly early.  Bob is our primary decorator for the holiday and spent a few evenings decking the halls.   A few years ago we got out the decorations and realized that we needed more lights.  I was sent out to get them.   Well being a mom and a woman, I couldn’t just get lights and zip right home, no no, I had to shop.  I ended up being gone for about 2 hours.  When I got home the whole house was decorated.  Bob managed to do the whole thing without my “assistance.”  Hummm, go figure.  And I didn’t have to direct him on how to do the lights properly or anything.  You know, once everything is on the tree you don’t even see the wires! I had been a total loon about wrapping the wires around the branches for YEARS.  Who knew?

So with the house all decked out, about 200 cookies and 4 gallons of stew we had our Christmas Party!  What fun.  I usually have gifts wrapped and under the tree.  I am a bit crazy about my gift wrapping.  This year I took a new approach, there was a Fed Ex Package under the tree.  My attitude was, “It’s a gift and it’s wrapped.  Why ruin it?”   We had about 80 people in and out of here.  There were kids everywhere and a great time was had by all.  I had a great time

The kids are all very excited for Christmas. Kees and Coulter still believe in Santa and are so cute about the whole thing. They talk to each other about how Santa will get here, when he will arrive and so on. Coulter's stocking is hidden behind a large poinsettia and he is quite concerned that Santa will miss it.  I assured him that it will not be missed and that we can move it just to be sure.  He seems much relieved.

Last week I went onto a web site called Portable North Pole TV. On that site you input info on your kid and add a couple pictures. Then they email you a link to a video for your child.  When the kids got home on Thursday I told them Santa had sent them an email. Kees was home first. We sat down and watched.  Kees couldn’t believe that Santa had pictures of him in his book.  Late in the video the elves insert the kid's file into the "Naughty or Nice" machine. Kees was a bit apprehensive about his potential outcome. It turned out that he has been.....NICE!  He was very relieved and said, "I thought I would be on the naughty list!"  He lucked out I guess.

When Sophia and Coulter got home Kees told them to "come quick" to see their videos.  They all watched with amazement, even Sophia. After they had seen the videos a bunch of times the boys took off. Sophia snuck over to me and asked with a big smile, "How did you do that?" Even she was taken aback by that.  There are still times when she is still my baby girl.  She was mystified.  I love that she still has a little belief and that she's still naive.

Last night Bob and I wrapped all our gifts. Actually I wrapped, Bob kept me company.   Sophia and Coulter had sleep overs, Kees was next door decorating cookies until 11:30.  We had some wine and had a fine time but stayed up too late. Oh well. The job is mostly done now and that is great!

I am preparing for my dad and Sally's arrival on Friday.  We're all looking forward to time together. We have a party on Friday Night, the Nutcracker and church on Christmas Eve and then we're having almost 20 people for Christmas Dinner.  I have cooking, cleaning and prepping to do.  It will all be fun.

The boys have been hilarious with their antics and sayings.  I'll get some up here soon because they are too funny not to share.

Merry Christmas to you all! 

November Update

It’s been a busy month for us.  I finally feel like we’re getting in the groove of school.  When we started school our kids only went for 3 weeks and then we pulled them out to go to Disneyland.  They were out for a week.  I still think it was worth it to go to Disneyland when it wasn’t as busy but it really threw the kids off, especially Coulter.  Now they’ve been in school for almost 3 months and finally it feels like a real schedule.  The kids are settled in and that feels good. 

This past week we had the kids’ conferences because the first 1/3 of the school year has passed.  I guess it’s about time that the kids are settled in.  Along with conferences the kids have Thanksgiving Break.  It seems a bit silly to me that they get a whole week off but I am finally getting used to the idea after 6 years of having a kid in school.  They love being off, I enjoy having them home and we have fun and relax.  This year Bob took a couple days off from work so he could just hang out at home.  And…Bob’s mom came to visit.  She got here on Monday at about midnight and stayed until Friday morning.  It is always a pleasure to see his family.  We’ve actually had company for the past 2 weeks.  Uncle “Brown” Brian was here for about 8 days before Bob’s mom Ans arrived.  Ans was here for 4 days.  And in the middle of all that mom and Ed dropped in and spent the night.  It was nice to have company but it’s always a bit disruptive.  We enjoyed having them all and they couldn’t have been easier.  Seriously, they’ll just go along with whatever we want to do. 

I have been shopping for Christmas and I think I am pretty much done with the kids.  That’s nice to have out of the way.  In my quest for calm I also ordered my Thanksgiving dinner from Safeway.  I love to cook but I have been doing a lot of cooking lately with company in town and such so I took the easy way out.  It was $40 to feed 6-8 people and it came with a 12 lb Turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, rolls gravy, cranberry sauce and a pumpkin pie.  Seriously, all that for $40? I don’t think you could make it for that!  It was adequate.  Actually the turkey was great but the sides were very pedestrian.  I don’t know that I will do that again but it sure was a relaxing day. 

Ans was fun to have here and she cleans up after meals so that is nice.  I wish someone would jump up after dinner every night and clean the dishes.  She just went with the flow.  Sophia and I went to Joanne’s to get fabric and Ans came along.  We had to pick up a few things at Fred Meyer, Ans came along.  She wants to incorporate into our lives and that is how it goes.  They did get to go to Cavalia on Tuesday night.  That seemed to be a big hit.  Ans worked on a 500 piece puzzle with us too.  I like doing puzzles and it’s a nice way to pass the time together. 

Friday night we pawned off all the kids and Bob and I got to have a kid free night.   We went to dinner and then to Costco to pick up  the “big” gift for the boys.  I can’t tell you what it is or they could find out but it’s pretty cool.  We then came home and watched a movie and stayed up too late.  It was fun.  Thanks to our tribe for taking our kids. 

Today was a fairly lazy day for me.  I did get our Christmas Letter together.  While I was doing that Bob cleaned up the outside of the house and put up our Christmas lights.   It looks quite festive out there.

So that is the brief on what we’ve been doing.  I have really wanted to write on my blog but man time flies. And for a stay at home mom I don’t seem to do a lot of staying at home.  There is always something to do. 

More to come….

Disneyland!!!

My mom has wanted to go on a big trip with our family for a while. The last time we went on a big trip was 3 years ago when we went to Mexico for a week. It was great fun but any big trip like that is expensive so they’re hard to do. In January she talked to me about going to Disneyland with our family. She funded a good portion of the trip so how could I say no? I couldn’t. The kids are only little once and it does pass pretty quickly.

We planned this trip in January, bought the tickets in February, kept it from the kids until August and finally went on our trip in October. Here was my only dilemma…….

SCHOOL DAYS VS. LESS CROWDS AND LINES

When these two ideas clash, less crowds will win over school days every time. What is the point in going to the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH if you can’t have fun because you are spending all your time in line? There would not be a point, at least not for me.

The decision was made last February that we would pull the kids out of school for a good time. Done. It’s a good thing too because even with school in session Disneyland was quite busy. They say it was at 50%. If that is the case I pray that I am never there on a busy day. That would be torture.

We left Portland on Sunday the 2nd and flew into the John Wayne airport. We rented a van and went to our hotel, the Meridian Inn and Suites. It was great. We had a refrigerator and a microwave which were key in our saving money scheme. There were doors between the bedroom and the living room which was key in our sanity scheme. Breakfast was included and we were only 3 miles from Disneyland. Wahoo!!!

On Sunday night we drove over to Downtown Disney for dinner and to get a lay of the land. It was a good way to start our adventure. We had dinner at the Rain Forrest Café. The food was mediocre at best but the atmosphere was fun and the kids were thrilled. They thought it was great and that is what this was all about.

After dinner we wandered around Downtown Disney. There is so much to see and so many places that your kids want you to spend all your money! The Lego Store was a top priority for the boys so we spent quite a bit of time there. Before we left each one of the kids got $65.00 to spend on whatever they wanted. The boys each got a small Lego set. Sophia bought a glass lion. We managed to get out of there without buying anything else. That was no small feat! We then waited around until 9:30 to see the fireworks. Mom and I wanted to see them and it was the only night that would have fireworks while we were there. Bob and Kees....they weren't as excited.

Monday morning it was time to go to the one, the only….DISNEYLAND!!! Everyone was excited. We had studied the maps, downloaded the apps, packed a lunch and were ready to roll. We had a bit of a bump in the road when Kees got a kink in his neck. It seems strange to see a 6 year old kid holding his neck and crying. It was really hurting him. We plied him with meds, let him rest up for a few minutes and then we were off.

The first order of the day was to find Mickey. We hopped on the train and went to the far side of the park to Mickey’s house. It’s a strange place and I wouldn’t want to be in there on any serious kind of meds. I mean you could really trip out. At the end of the trek through Mickey’s house you get to have your picture taken with Mickey. We were shuttled into a room and there he was! We all smiled and had a great group photo shoot with Mickey. He was thrilled….and we were too. The obligatory picture with Mickey was done now it was PARTY TIME.

The next few days all blur together. I know that we spent the first bit of time in Toontown and then went on A Small World. Over the next few days we were all over the place. The kids LOVED Autotopia. Autotopia is little gas powered cars that are on a track. The adults pressed the gas pedals and the kids steered….as best they could. Sophia’s driving did not excite me about her being 16 too soon. She was banging our car left and right. I was laughing….hard. Sophia was annoyed with me.

One of the highlights for Sophia and Kees was their Jedi training. Coulter did NOT want to do it. There was training about 4 times per day. When you get over there you have to be picked. The "instructors" go through a routine and the kids learn the basics. Then, when you least expect it, Darth Vader and Darth Maul show up. It's a good thing those kids were trained. Kees took down Darth Vader and Sophia took Darth Maul.

We all went on Space Mountain. While most of us survived it without trauma, the boys were NOT interested in going on that again. Star Tours was a group favorite. I didn’t realize until our 2nd “tour” but each one of the little rooms or whatever you go in / on, are different. It’s in 3-D and really fun.

Mom and Ed’s favorite ride was the Indiana Jones Ride. While we loved it, apparently it is a problem child for Disney. It breaks down all the time. We went there first thing in the morning one day and went straight in. When we got all the way in it was announced that it was closed. Bummer….except that the guy who announced that it was closed had a little trivia contest. If you guessed one of the questions right you got a pass to go to the front of the line of ANY ride. Mom got one right and we got a pass. Yippie. The ride was open about 20 minutes later and we went on a wild ride. Very cool ride. Again, the boys were not interested in going again. We took our pass and headed straight for the Matterhorn. On the way we picked up a Fast Pass to Star Tours. The beauty of using our VIP pass on the Matterhorn is there is no Fast Pass for that ride. It’s one of the few. AND….the wait for the Matterhorn seemed to always be an hour or more. See above…I hate waiting in long lines.

Everyone seemed to like the Matterhorn especially the boys. They were thrilled and wanted to go on it again immediately. I had to explain the line thing and that we couldn’t just hop the line any ole time we wanted AND it was time to go on Star Tours again. Good times. Some other favorites were Astro Blasters, Splash Mountain, Small World and the Jungle Cruise. Splash Mountain was one of our last rides and Sophia, who was in the front of the boat / log got soaked. Ask her about it. It was hilarious.

Kees was pretty funny when we came out of It’s A Small World. He was singing the song but replacing Small with Big because……”Mom, it’s a big world. There were 13 worlds in there.” The kid counted every room we went in. I don’t know if he was accurate or not but he is definitely Bob’s kid.

We caught the raucous Mickey’s Soundsational Parade at the end of two of our days there. It was LOUD but lots of fun. All the major characters were there.

On our last day we went to California Adventure first and went straight to the TOWER OF TERROR. Again, the boys said, “No way.” Grandma took them to the Bugs Life area and Bob, Ed, Sophia and I went into the tower. There was no line so I was really happy. This ride is a total riot…..I LOVED it. It tells a story of some people who were shocked to death in a Twilight Zone type event. Then you get in the elevator, an elevator with seat belts. It shoots you up about 15 stories, the elevator doors open to the outside and then drops you the same 15 or so floors. It was hilarious. You go totally weightless for about 3 seconds. My purse was hovering in front of my face. When it was over Sophia and I got right back on. Awesome.

We also hit the Muppet 3-D show. Cute. And we went on Flying over California. It made mom sick from the motion. We all liked it though, all except for the feet hanging over our heads. It’s a pretty cool ride. Lastly we went on the Grizzly River Run where I got soaked. Not such a big deal except that I was wearing white pants….that were fairly see through when wet. Yeah, that was a pretty picture.

California Adventure was not the same as Disneyland and we weren’t feelin’ it so we went back to the land…it is much better. We spent 90% of our time at Disneyland and loved almost every minute of it.

In the last moments we bought a few souvenirs and trinkets. We spent a few last moments in Downtown Disney and then headed home to the hotel for a swim. My feet were killing me. Yikes.

We did take one day off from Disney when we were in California. It’s a good thing too because it rained REALLY HARD and that is coming from someone who lives in the rain belt. Mom, Ed, Sophia and I went to check out the Chrystal Cathedral. It was pretty cool even in the rain. The docent there was charming and we were all impressed by the GIANT pipe organ. I honestly can say I have never seen an organ that big and my church in Atlanta had 18,000 members. We also did homework, saw a movie and went out for dinner that day. It was fun and relaxing day.

Friday was pack up, check out and fly home day. It went quickly and fairly painlessly. Our kids were good travelers and our grandparents were great companions. We got along all week and had a really successful adventure. For me it went pretty quickly. It wasn’t a relaxing trip but it was definitely fun. 3 days at Disneyland was perfect for our family. I think it was a bit long in the “land” for Mom and Ed. They were there to spend time with the kids, not to go on rides and such. I was impressed that they were right there the whole time and went on every ride. Mom skipped a couple but Ed didn’t miss a thing. And that part worked out well too. When mom didn’t want to go on a ride it was generally one that the boys didn’t want to ride either so we all had someone with us or someone to watch over. Perfect! Thanks again to Mom and Ed for being a major sponsor of this event. We wouldn’t have gone if it were not for your encouragement and enthusiasm. I hope this is a trip that we all remember and hold onto for a very long time.

Chick Rose

This week the world lost an amazing man and talent. I don’t think he would have described himself this way but everyone one that has ever been touched by Chick Rose would surely agree. I was blessed to know Chick for a very brief time. I know him more from the many people around me who grew up with Chick, from their stories, and the way everyone looked up to Chick. Most recently we knew Chick because he was Sophia’s fiddle teacher. She was thrilled to be taking lessons from Chick Rose…THE CHICK ROSE!

Chick is known throughout the NW Bluegrass world because of his commitment to teach kids bluegrass. These kids are all known as Chick’s Kids. It didn’t matter if you had ever played music or heard bluegrass. If you were the least bit interested or had any desire Chick would hand you an instrument, teach you to strum to the beat and you, my friend, would be jammin’ with a bluegrass group. If you have had the privilege of jamming with a bluegrass group I am guessing that you are hooked and are currently playing, in some capacity. It’s hard not to love it. Why would you not love it?

Sophia was lucky enough to be adopted by Clara Baker, Rebecca Bauer and Greg Baker. Clara was Sophia’s first fiddle teacher, Greg wrote the book that Sophia was learning from and Rebecca, she’s the guitar playing mom. Without the mom the machine ceases to run.

Last summer they went to Stevenson to the Columbia Gorge Bluegrass Festival and invited Sophia along. She was there for the weekend and got to attend her first Chick Rose kid’s workshop. When I went to pick her up she was in the shade tent jamming with Gregg and Clara. It was awesome! The beautiful thing that I have seen with the bluegrass peeps is they include everyone and will play to a kid’s level to give them confidence and keep them engaged. As the parent of a budding musician, it’s a beautiful thing. I was taught classical music…not really fun when you’re a kid. A fiddle around a campfire with a bunch of your bluegrass buddies…now that is fun. That is worth practicing for.

This past January Sophia skipped school and played in the River City Music Festival in yet another Chick Workshop. She was nervous because she hadn’t been playing much. She called me at lunch time and wanted to come home. Chick caught wind of this and took her under his wing. He had her sit right next to him and he made sure she was learning, having fun and feeling comfortable. If you aren’t doing those three things why would you want to continue on? By the end of the day her confidence was up and she was jamming. As a matter of fact the kids had a concert that kind of kicked off the festival (mostly for the parents) and Sophia had the first solo! She is convinced, to this day, that she kicked off the whole hootenanny. She was beaming. And all of her excitement and success is directly due to Chick’s involvement and care.

I could tell you that her experience is unique but it isn’t. Chick has influenced COUNTLESS kids. Many, many of those kids are now adults with music careers or a strong passion for their music. I am sure that if you asked bluegrassers throughout the region at least half of them would say Chick influenced them in some way. It’s probably higher but that is my best guess.

Chick gave of himself without asking for anything. His reward, so often, was that the kids he influenced were playing music with a smile on their face. They were part of something bigger than themselves, part of a team, a group and carrying on the joy of music and sharing it with others. These kids in turn share what they know with other kids.

Chick’s body is gone but his spirit will live on in the music and souls of his kids. It’s like the loaves and fishes….no matter how much is taken from the whole there is always more to quench the hunger. The more music that is shared in his way the more music there is. It will never end. That is Chick’s legacy.

He was a huge blessing to so many and that is what makes his passing so hard. I pray he knew how much he was loved. Do any of us really know that for sure? I think he knew in his heart how much he was loved and appreciated. He will be missed but he will not be gone.

Play loud, play strong, share what you know, carry on….It’s what he would have wanted.

***** The pictures included in the post were high-jacked from Facebook. I hope that’s OK with the owners of those pictures. I just wanted anyone who read this to know what this great man looked like.

Holidaze....

It is all coming up so fast! Thanksgiving flew by though it tends to be a long week for me since the kids are out of school. Bob took most of the week off so he was home except for Tuesday. The kids played nicely together and did quite well.

For the actual Thanksgiving weekend we had a great time on Anderson Island with my brother and his wife, my step sister and her family and my Dad and Sally. Their new house is small so it was going to be hard to all fit around any sort of table. Sooo..... Luckily they have a second house that they were renting and it has a HUGE living and dinning room. Huge...did I mention it's big? Sally set up their giant table that has 5 leaves. We had 15 people around that table, pretty impressive.

The house, prior to the table being put in, had only 1 item in it, a day bed. Seriously, that's it. That being said, Bob and I had a plan. We were bringing our trailer because with 5 people there is hardly any room left in the van for stuff. And we needed a bunch of stuff. You know, standard stuff like our living room rug, some lawn chairs, an LCD projector, a ladder to put said projector on, a queen sized bed (just an accordion kind for camping), all our usual stuff too. It was a lot to bring but I am glad we brought it all. The rug was especially nice when we were watching a movie. I will tell you that before we had all the stuff put into place Bob, Coulter and I had quite the Nerf gun war. That was really fun.

Everyone worked together well and the dinner was a total success. During the day we all chatted, my dad played a little ukulele, we had some wine, and more, and generally mingled. It was good.

All our kids played together really well the whole weekend. As a matter of fact, they weren't done with each other after 3 days. Sophia and her cousins found a tree that had fallen in the back. It was on top of another fallen tree and had about 50 feet of trunk off the ground by about 8 feet. This made for EXCELLENT bouncing. Hours of bouncing. Sometimes it was solo, sometimes with a pal and sometimes with a pal giving you extra bounce. They were in hog heaven.

The day after Thanksgiving I made breakfast. I made a dish in advance so it would be easy. We had grits, eggs, fruit and such. Easy. Later we went over to dad and Sally's house and just hung out. It was really nice. In the afternoon we did our Anderson Island version of Black Friday, the local Bazaar. There were all kinds of arts and crafts. Very cute. And I won a raffle prize. It was a little basket with a stuffed Santa. Sophia had money burning a hole in her pocket so she bought a couple things.

For dinner we had soup and a turkey pot pie. Yum! It was a nice casual dinner after a nice casual day. Tom and Christina were leaving and the twins were not ready to go so they stayed another night with us. That made all the kids happy. We went home after dinner and watched another movie.

Saturday morning the kids got up and watched ANOTHER movie and then we went back to Dad and Sally's. Bob stayed behind to pack up. What a trooper. We needed to get going because there was LOTS to do at home and we needed a day.

All in all it was great fun. The kids had a blast. The island is a fun place to hang out. There isn't a lot to do which is exactly what we were looking for, a slow pace. Next year a big dinner will be different when we don't have the giant living space but I am sure we'll figure it out. Until then I am holding on to this past Thanksgiving with a smile.

Family Reunion

A couple weeks ago we went to Discovery Bay on the Olympic Peninsula and stayed at the Worldmark by Wyndham property. Dad and Sally used up a bunch of their points and got 5 condos for the 5 families going. It's hard to know what it's going to be like before you get there but I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised! The condos were really nice and allowed all the families to have their own space. Spending time together is great but with 20 people it was nice to have a bit of space to give some family routine to our day. It was a great mix.

We all arrived on Saturday and got settled in. I went grocery shopping....hungry. Dumb move. I had enough for all 20 of us. The kids went swimming with Bob and we all had a quiet night.

Sunday we went to Fort Warden. It's an old fort with giant abandoned bunkers. They are amazing and the kids thought it was really cool. The boys played Star Wars all over the place. Sophia went to the beach. It was a bit cool but pretty dry, no complaints.

Sunday evening the families had a pot luck and generally enjoyed each other's company.

Monday we all went to the Olympic Game Farm. That was lots of fun and the kids really loved it. It's a place where retired animal actors go so the animals are really tame. This is the place to go if you want to see an elk or llama's snout up REALLY close. Like in your car...


It was pretty impressive. Apparently this is where all of the Disney movies about animals from the 50's through the 70's were shot. Grizzly Adams is the only one I can think of right now. But there were movies about lions, cougars, wolves, foxes etc. All of which are either still there or their off spring are.



That evening we all had dinner and then convened at Oma and Papa's condo for the reveal. The reveal of what? The secret ingredient for the kids IRON CHEF dessert contest. Kendra and Todd's family participated in an Iron Chef competition at home and said it was really fun so they thought we should do the same. The secret ingredient was.....Peaches. The kids broke off into 4 teams and really did some impressive work. They had an hour to come up with their creations. It was great fun and they all did great work. We all ate it up!!!!

Bob had to leave Monday night for a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. He took our car so we needed to depend on the rest of the crowd for rides. Luckily, there were some really big cars there so we were able to hitch rides.

Tuesday was spent wandering around Port Townsend. It's such a cute town. We really took it slow. We sat on a pier for an hour or so and then went to get ice cream. Now that is a good day.

Wednesday we got up at the crack of dawn to catch a ferry to Victoria. The ferry was at 8:30 which meant that we had to get up at about 6:15. Surprisingly we were on the road by 7. When you are working with about 20 people and half of them are kids it can be tricky.

The ferry is a nice way to travel. We left our cars in Port Angeles since you can walk or take a cab almost everywhere in Victoria. On the ferry ride up we discussed what time we would leave. Knowing my kids were really tired I said that I thought we would come back on the 3:30 ferry. Everyone else wanted to stay until the 7:30 ferry. The only problem was that Bob had our car....in Portland. My dad said we could have the keys to his car and they would come back with someone else. We did the math and the remaining cars could handle the crowd. Great!

When we arrived in Victoria we all talked a bit about what everyone was going to do. The majority were going to go to the history museum. My kids weren't interested in doing that. I have learned when I am travelling with my kids, especially when I am alone, that I need to discuss the agenda with them and we make decisions together. They wanted to eat, go to the bathroom and go to China Town. Great! Sounds good to me. So we went off in the opposite direction from the crowd knowing that we would probably go home earlier and wouldn't see them until the next day.


The kids and I had a great day. We went to the bathroom, found some lunch (Mind you it was only 10:30 but they were up really early.), got a backpack, went to the bathroom, bought new pants for Coulter (he put on Kees' and didn't notice they were too small), went to the bathroom and so on. You can see the pattern. I was glad that we were not with the crowd because my kids and I went to the bathroom about 15 times. Can you imagine having to stop everyone because one of my kids had to go? That would have been miserable for everyone. By noon or so we made it to China Town. The kids got wooden swords and Chinese outfits. They had out grown the ones from last year.

Next we walked and walked to Beacon Hill Park. It's an Olmsted Brother's park that is only 2 blocks from the Empress Hotel. I can't believe I have never been there before. It was very impressive and big, 200 acres. Along the way we stopped at a totem park and the kids did their own totem.
Pretty cute in my book.

We went to the Children's Farm. It's a petting zoo. Unfortunately, it wasn't as cool as we expected. We did get to pet goats but that was about it. It was a nice walk but now the kids were tired and Kees was STARVING. I called a cab.

We had a really nice lunch and decided that we were having such a good time that we would stay and ride home with the rest of the crowd. I turned on my phone just in case the groups plans had changed. We finished lunch and did a bit of shopping along the touristy part of town and then we walked over to the Empress and laid on the lawn. The boys had a sword fight and played in the garden. Rex and Tina were surprised to see us on the lawn since they thought we went home early. We chatted and then then took off.

The kids and I checked out the hotel a little bit and then talked about the remainder of the day. We decided we would just hang out and play and then go to an IMAX Movie. The kids all put on their Chinese outfits and were immediately transformed into Kung Fu Fighters on the side lawn of the Empress Hotel. It was GREAT! Moving at their pace definitely pays off. They were happy and I was totally relaxed. I loved our afternoon. After a bit of playing it was off to the show. If you haven't seen Stomp's Pulse, you need to.

The show was over at 6:45 so we had plenty of time to head to the ferry and wait for the crowd. We walked on with Rex and Tina. As a matter of fact we were early so we were able to get 3 bays of window seats. Just enough for all of us. Tina texted Sally and told them where we were. Sally texted back that they were just finally getting home. They had gone on the 3:30 boat. Wow, that was a switch from the original plan. And here we thought we were taking one for the team and staying late so we could be with the crowd.

As we were pulling into the ferry terminal Sophia said, "I wonder how they all got home? They only had one car." I thought....."OH Crap. That's true." I called Sally and she explained that they were surprised we were not on the ferry at 3:30. She had tried to call once they were on the boat but I didn't answer. They packed the one car they had and then Sally went back for the rest of the gang. I felt really badly since it was an hour and a half round trip to our hotel. And my phone never rang. Other than that one hiccough it was a great day. We got home really late but were satisfied and happy.

I put the kids to bed and Bob came back for the remainder of the trip. Ahhhh....that was good.

Thursday was fairly free form. The families went off and did their own things. We went back to Fort Warden with the boys and Sophia went with her cousins to a lavender farm.


The boy ran and played and thought those were the coolest forts ever.

When we got home the secret ingredient was revealed for the adults IRON CHEF competition. It was.....avocado! Christine and I paired up. She made an appetizer and I made an entree. Both were great! Her's was a nacho plate and mine as a chicken dish. The kids were all judges and did a great job. They all tasted everything and made comments about the presentation, flavors and finish. It was funny. We won..and then we all had dinner. That was good fun.

And our final day....Friday, our family went to Port Townsend. Bob hadn't been there. We walked around and had a fine time. In the late afternoon we went to the grocery store for some last minute things because we were making dinner for the whole crowd for a last night celebration. We made tabbouleh with quinoa, a Greek salad, lamb burgers, and lemon mint rice. I loved it and everyone seemed to have a nice time.

It was a really nice trip and the Leeks had great fun. It could have been craziness with that many people but it all turned out for the best. I hope everyone else had as nice of a time as we did. Thanks so much to Dad and Sally for making it happen. It is a big task to get that many people together especially when it involves a group travelling from Texas and another party in the middle a move....YIKES!