Happy Birthday Johnny!

Happy 26th birthday Johnny! He was an adorable baby with curly hair and the cutest personality!

I think he enjoyed his first birthday cake!

He is still a handsome guy! We really enjoyed his three week visit with us. The apartment seems lonely without him!

Walking in the rain with the ones I love!

All last week we planned and looked forward to a trip to hike on Mt. Saint Helens. The weather has been beautiful for the last couple of months that I've been in Oregon so I think I forgot that it rains here a lot. Since real Oregonians don't let little things like a rain storm keep them indoors we decided to go ahead and go on the planned trip. This was the view of Mt. Saint Helen's that we were anticipating.

And this was the view we got. If you look carefully you can see both sides of the mountain!

Do you remember the eruption on May 18 1980? I do. This is how the mountain looked pre 1980. Notice the trees on the lower slopes.

Isn't that an amazing illustration of the power of Mother Nature? That valley and what appear to be river beds are actually where the lava and mud flowed.

Hiking in the rain wasn't too bad at all and for once there were no crowds on the trails....in fact we had the trail to ourselves.

The colors were stunning.

It's been wonderful to have John here with us. I'm going to miss having someone to entertain me during the days and play with us on the weekends.

He's also an amazing photographer! I think this picture could win a prize!

And here's my attempt at an 'artsy' photo.

Food Connoisseur Matt

Stories of Matt and his expensive restaurant choices are legendary in our family. Probably the best one happened when I was traveling with all the kids in France. We were with two other moms and their children.....12 people total, none of whom spoke French. At a simple restaurant in Mont St. Michael, Matt decided he wanted lobster. The price was per kilo and I really couldn't completely understand the price or picture exactly what a kilo of lobster would be or how many kilos were in a whole lobster. So I gave in to the pressure and let him order it! When the bill came I almost fainted as the total for the rest of us, ALL 11 OF US, came to less than the price of Matt's lobster. He has good, as well as expensive taste! Thursday night we ate at a sushi restaurant and all the rest of us got normal looking sushi rolls to share...Matt ordered this "Golden Dragon". Quite the work of art and it tasted good, plus he did share! I can't remember if it were the most expensive thing on the menu. Knowing Matt it probably was!

Wedding Catering

Our friends Anne and John's son got married on Friday. I flew to Boise on Wednesday to help with the food and attend the wedding. Gail and I made lots & lots of chicken salad!

The bride and groom looked so happy.

The food looked amazing and tasted great. Gail and I are both southerners so we made pimiento cheese sandwiches. I'm shocked that some people said they'd never heard of them. They are missing a yummy treat! I ate way too many.

Do we almost look professional?

Towards the end of the night we got a little silly!

I love my friends and I love making memories with them.

Coach Scott

It is hard for me to picture my baby Scott as the Junior Varsity Soccer coach at his old high school...but he is! Attending a game was really great, although I found myself wondering when Scott was going to play. He says that he often wants to put on his cleats and go help them on the field! Do you think the referees would notice?

The report I hear is that the parents and boys really like him. He is positive and encouraging and great at teaching them tactics! Scott is enjoying it so much. I think he will be an excellent high school teacher!

Silver Falls

John came home from Argentina and stopped by for a visit so we decided to explore Silver Falls State Park, which is the most popular state park in Oregon!

There are 10 waterfalls in the park. We saw 7 of them.

This one was our favorite.

The trail goes behind the falls several times. Fun!

It's always fun to hike and having John with us just made it especially enjoyable!

I keep trying to take a picture that does justice to the amazing moss that is everywhere! I know it eventually kills the tree but I just am fascinated by how it looks. It's like the trees have beards!

And if you've been hiking with an especially close friend you can always share toilet time!!!! I don't think I have any friends that are this 'close'!

"Lake????? Oswego"

This is how Lake Oswego looked when we moved in.

This is Lake Oswego today.

Why you ask? It seems that there is a sewer pipe under the lake. There were concerns that it would start having problems so a new high tech pipe was put under the water to replace the aging one. They did as much as they could with the pipe submerged but for the final connections to the sewer system they needed better access so they have drained the lake. In March they'll start filling the lake again. I feel sorry for the people in the beautiful homes along the lake shore. They now have a mud flat for a view instead of a lake. I'm sure they'd all agree that a few months without the lake is preferable to problems with a leaking sewer. I don't even want to think about that!