Eastern Oregon Fun

After church/Sunday School on May 1st we headed off to Eastern Washington and spent the night at Grandma's house (my Mom's). Jay had been looking forward to this road trip for quite some time, asking almost daily to go to Grandma's house or PopPop and Nana's house. The road trip was smooth thanks to the DVD player and the boys' afternoon naps.

Once at Grandma's house the boys loved playing with Grandma's special toys. It was fun to see David "in action" on the antique bouncy horse, too.

Monday morning, on our way out of town, we stopped to see Great Grandma (my Dad's mom). She continues to be well. What a joy it is to witness my Grandma sweetly loving on and interacting with her great grandsons. Jay is an unwilling picture poser these days, but David is still too young to know one way or the other, so I caught a few photos of Great Grandma and David together doing patty-cake.

As we traversed our way to Eastern Oregon we stopped at a childhood memory spot for me so I could share it with "my boys" (Matt, Jay, and David). PALOUSE FALLS. It was beautiful since the surrounding was green from the wet spring we've had and the falls was big and full with the winter run-off water.

We had a stressful stop at the Les Schwab in Walla Walla after bottoming out our car on a rough stretch of road on the way. It resulted in a bent brake protector that then collected dirt and rocks on our back brakes resulting in the most horrific screeching - a nails-on-chalkboard type of sound. Thanks to Les Schwab it was a "no charge" service knocking out the rocks and dirt and bending the piece back (phew!). We left our car at my cousin Lori's house in Walla Walla and piled into my Mom's mini-van for the remainder of the trip. We arrived at my Aunt and Uncle's BEAUTIFUL log cabin around 4:30. It is not really a cabin, though. It is really better described as a luxurious lodge.

Percy, my Aunt and Uncle's fixed male cat, was the first to officially greet us at the cabin and was a super friendly pal, especially to Jay.

Mom and I took the boys out for a walk after settling in a tiny bit. It was good for all of us to get the fresh air and stretch our legs after the half day of travel from Eastern Washington to Eastern Oregon. Can you believe we had lots of snow as we made our way over Tollgate Pass on MAY 2!? We were so glad to arrive at the cabin that afternoon.

Above: The neighbor's horses coming to check us out on our walk down the lane.

Below: Matt and PopPop (Matt's Dad) on their way out to scout for turkeys late Monday afternoon. (They left while we were taking our walk.)

Tuesday morning Matt, PopPop, and Matt's co-worker/friend Lance left at 5:30 a.m. to spend the morning looking for some tom turkeys. I enjoyed a quiet morning in the cabin with Jay and David. I especially enjoyed watching the geese with their goslings. I counted 12 goslings, but I'm sure there were more.

Later that morning Aunt Beth and my Mom arrived from the main house so we could spend the day together. I love this photo PopPop captured with his camera of Aunt Beth saying something sweet to David.

Uncle Lee spent the morning planting trees. The 4-wheeler sure comes in handy for getting around the property!

Lance and Matt

The guys decided to try their hand at fishing from the pond that is stocked with bass and sun fish.

Taking a break early afternoon...

Even Shadow, my Aunt and Uncle's dog took a nap on the wrap-around porch!

After Jay and David woke from their afternoon naps, we played up in the loft of the cabin for a while. Mom grabbed my camera and caught a few photos as we looked down from above.

I love this photo of 10-1/2 month old David - what a precious smile he has!

Tuesday, May 3rd, was my 34th birthday so we enjoyed a buffet feast of pulled pork, cornbread, green beans, salad, and lemon poke cake for dessert.

After dinner the boys enjoyed playing up in the loft. A twin mattress goes in this area of the loft where they are crawling around on the support slats having fun.

Afterwards we sat down for some photos. PopPop sure caught a great one of our little family. We're all looking at the camera and smiling! Hooray!

Below is a picture of my Aunt Beth and Uncle Lee - our gracious, hospitable, wonderful "hosts" allowing us to stay at and use their beautiful cabin for a couple days. (Aunt Beth is my Mom's oldest sister.) Love you both so much!!

Wednesday morning, May 4th, while the rest of us were busy packing up the vehicle, PopPop took the boys for a little ride in the wagon. They LOVED it!

Wednesday morning we left for home. As you can see from the photo below, it was glorious day weather-wise.

What fun it was to visit and explore a picturesque part of the Palmer Valley. Again, many, many thanks to Beth and Lee for allowing us to make some wonderful memories there.