Oregon Coast Reunion Trip

The first week of August we spent with my family in a gorgeous five-bedroom house on the Oregon Coast (in Newport, to be exact). It was fabulous! We had such a great time just being together. The house was the perfect vacation house, with plenty of room for all the kids, and so close to a private beach.

We spent most of the time just visiting, playing games, watching movies, eating good food, seeing the sites, and playing on the beach. Good times that will speak for themselves in the pictures below...







I have to admit, it was COLD on this trip. We kept jacket on, sometimes even in the house, and almost always when we went out. Darnit. But the beach was beautiful, and the company was perfect.






Brian and I took a little day trip up to Astoria to meet with our Randilicious, and her friend Rebecca. It was great to see our dear Randi again, and her timely blog entry tells more of the fun details, if you have time for a side trip.

We went over the Astoria bridge into Washington. Very cool bridge. I took a video, but a picture will have to do for tonight...
My favorite beach -- Ecola State Park, near Cannon Beach. It really is one of my very favorite places in the entire world, and the pictures do not do it justice at all! I think it even ties with Walden Pond for favorites, I'm serious. I could write a whole separate blog about why I love it so much, but not today.


Some cute pictures of the cousins together. I tried to get single shots of each of them, but missed a few, I think...











What a fun trip, BIG thanks to my great parents for planning it and making it happen! Brian pointed out, our time in London was bookended by two trips to the Oregon Coast with my family. Our last time being there was in 2004, just weeks before we moved to the UK.

New Car

So, I spent my birthday week at my parents' house with Samantha and Spencer. And Brian spent a few days camping and hiking with his brothers. When we got back together, we decided it was time to really get serious about buying a car.

We were staying at Brian's parents' house those first couple weeks, borrowing their car or truck for our errands. This was not easy on them, I'm sure, though they were more than willing to help us out -- we're soooo very grateful. So, for several days in a row it seemed like our pattern was:

-- look on craigs list at cars and furniture stuff
-- call on the stuff and sometimes go see it (and rarely buy anything we saw)
-- take the kids and go to car dealers
-- test drive cars
-- come home and talk about all the cars and furniture
-- look on craigslist again, sleep on it.

It was so hard to decide what we wanted and needed. We vascilated between a smaller sedan and something with a bit more room. We finally decided on a Toyota Sienna minivan. It's gold. It's roomy. It gets good gas mileage. It has an automatic sliding door. We've already put 3000+ miles on it. It's durable. It's a Toyota. We really like it. Even me. But I still call it a car, not a van or minivan or anything like unto it, just fyi.

Here's the lovely gold mobile, for posterity's sake...
And here's Samantha (note the green goggles -- oh-so-pretty!) and Brian (note the lawyer's poker face) at the dealership, signing the papers for the deal...

We bought it just in time to test drive it on a week-long trip to the Oregon Coast. It past the test with flying colors. It was a GREAT asset to the trip, just for how comfy we were the whole time. Pictures of our happy Oregon time are coming up next. Stay tuned!

Bishop Reunion

As soon as we got home from London, we launched right into a three-day family reunion with Brian's dad's side of the family. It was so much fun to meet aunts, uncles and cousins, and just spend time catching up with everyone. Kudos to Brian's parents for hosting it at their house, and especially to Brian's mom for all the delicious food!

We did a lot of fun things for the reunion that turned out to be a nice introduction to the Treasure Valley area for me. A few of the highlights...

Brian's dad arranged for us to go on a tour of the sugar factory where he used to work. It's where they process sugar beets into beautiful white and tasty brown sugar. We got to see the whole process. One nifty factoid -- did you know most brands of sugar are processed in the same factory, and are exactly the SAME product? I watched them filling lovely white sugar granules into Albertsons bags. Then they turned the machine off for a minute and switched to Western Family bags. No joke. Also, most sugar in our Western United States comes from beets, unless is says specifically that it is cane sugar (C&H is cane, fyi). Interesting stuff.

Here's Brian's Dad in the office where he used to work as a chemist, testing to make sure the sugar is processed properly (that's my very oversimplified description of a complex process).

We also got to see the famous Snake River Stampede Rodeo one night.

That was... an experience. I remember pretending to like rodeos when I was in high school. I even participated in the Little Buckaroo Rodeo as a youngster -- I'm totally serious; I milked a goat, tied a ribbon on a goat, caught a chicken, and even once tried mutton busting, I think. I have the belt buckles to prove it (in a drawer somewhere at my parents' house, of course).

Nowadays, I think rodeoing is just plain CRAZY! I cringed to watch these people deliberately kicking a horse -- or worse, a bull -- to make it buck them sooooo high in the air, over and over until they fell off. Why? Why in the WORLD do people do this?!

The real kicker for me was when the announcer came on the loud speaker in a chipper voice and said, "Just for all those of you who may be wondering, the rider from last night's rodeo who left on the stretcher [insert cowboy name here] did in fact break his neck." That was said between announcements that kettle corn is still being sold in the corner of the arena, etc.!!?! Nuts, I tell you!

Samantha was really tired and didn't get into it at all. Spencer fell asleep on Aunt Alysa.

We also went picnicking to a fun little town called Melba. It was tiny, and way out there -- gave me a good "lay of the land." The kids loved the swings, the adults loved the food and conversation.

Then we all went swimming at a fun hotsprings nearby. Spencer had his first real swim in a pool, he loved it. So did Sammie, of course.

The reunion ended on my birthday, so I skipped out a little early to head South and spend a few hours with my family on my special day. Brian surprised me before I left, with a delicious chocolate/caremel cake, and a gift certificate for a massage and pedicure at a day spa the next day! It was the perfect birthday treat. My mom watched my kids while I spent the day after my birthday treating myself to shopping and the day spa. Boy do I feel spoiled.

Leaving London

So, I'm going to start where I left off... in London, saying all my last goodbyes to life there. It was hard to leave, and I miss it, and sometimes I have to pinch myself (or read my own blog) to remember that it wasn't all a dream. Those last days before we left were overwhelming, to say the least. So many things packed into so little time.

The actual move was quick and easy, but the final cleaning took MUCH longer than we expected.. two whole days! (Yeah, Joyce and Charles, go ahead and have a laugh on us!) I think it would have gone a lot quicker, except that we had both kids with us almost the whole time we cleaned. That was rough. Poor Spencer hung out on the vinyl floor with a boppy pillow and nothing else, because the movers packed every last blanket, oops. Samantha took a nap in a closet in our empty bedroom, hiding out from the vacuum. We ate bread and jam, and chocolate cake, because I had already gotten rid of all our food. I stopped counting how many times I washed the back patio doors for the "last" time... only to have Sam run her fingers and nose and tongue across it once again. Brian rented a steam cleaner for the carpets, which was heavy and hard work, and took a LONG time to use.

To top it off, I got some terrible stomach bug the night of the move. (Still can't think about that chocolate cake without cringing slightly.) We were staying with very gracious friends for those last couple nights, and I spent most of that first night laying on a towel on their bathroom floor -- some house guest, eh?! Brian cleaned the flat, delivered give-away items, and took care of me and the kids like a champ on that last Saturday. Then he spent all night that night--and I do mean ALL night LONG-- cleaning out his files and office at work, poor guy! He was even late for church the next day because of his last all-nighter at the office. -- Just a reality check as to WHY we're leaving, I guess?!

So, I write all these nasty details of the moving out stuff just to remind myself (and anyone else who may be thinking of moving) that it is NOT fun, and NOT something to do just on a whim. Ug.

The good (and sad) part was the final goodbyes with all our friends. I took so many cute pictures of people at church, I have to post some of them just because these people are so special to me, and I miss them.

Jenny (below) is expecting a boy, due in December. We are VERY excited for her, but sad she won't get to use all Sammie's hand-me-downs this round. ;)

Tanya and Michael were so good to us. Sam LOVES them, and still talks about going to Michael's house sometimes.

Josie and her darling kids -- Noah is still a favorite, and Samantha wants to go see him all the time. She does not like me to tell her it's too far.



The two Samanthas -- maybe someday they'll meet again and become great friends!

Peggy, Jean, and Margaret were three amazing ladies I visited quite regularly. I loved getting to know London through their experiences. Sam loved Peggy's ceramic dogs and stuff animal collection.

Me and my lady friends...

We stayed with the Leavitts those last days (they have a nice bathroom floor). Samantha fell in LOVE with them, and especially enjoyed saying "Marquita" over and over, even though I told her to call her Sister Leavitt.

The flight was much easier than some others we've taken, probably because we were all so wiped out. Also because we had an overnight stop in San Diego. We got to stay with our friends Anne and Rob, who have two boys about the same ages as our kids.Anne was my pregnant buddy in London for awhile before they moved, and their boy, Drew is just two weeks younger than Spencer. The boys were thrilled to meet, as you can tell...

Samantha and Brock had a blast playing with all Brock's toys. Sam talked about him for days after we left.

We also took in a quick visit to San Diego Zoo, so fun! It was just long enough to make me want to spend A LOT more time in San Diego. What a GREAT place. Anne and Rob made a smart choice moving there, I think.



One more trip to the airport, one more time for Sammie to carry her little blue suitcase with the bees. And finally, we made it home, safe and sound.


And EXHAUSTED!!!
And now, two months later, it really is starting to feel like home here.

Out of the loop

Wow! I really HAVE been out of the blogging loop a LONG time. They've even renovated the "dashboard" page of Blogger while I've been away. I wonder when that happened?

Well, I am sure my wide readership has either been checking daily for news and getting their hopes dashed every time, or the less-nice ones have already relegated me to their "seldom-updated-blogs" list. I don't blame them, considering I went from an average once-or-twice-a-week entry, to once-a-month, and no pictures, to boot! Apologies and repentance. I really do have big plans of back-tracking, filling y'all in on the last two months of my life -- with more than just a couple sentences. No more "we're busy" posts from me, okay?

But this is not the entry for all of that, unfortunately. Spencer is teething and is one SAD boy downstairs. He just cut his TWO bottom first teeth at the same time -- on the airplane coming home from Boston. That's right folks, we've been in Boston for the last few weeks. Doesn't that count for something when you chalk up the many weeks of blogging absence? I did not have reliable daily internet there, nor did I feel like doing play-by-play of our trip as it happened.

And before Boston was "move-in" week. It was VERY exciting to see a couch arrive, and a table, and a bed, and those nifty bar stools. And most important, the PIANO! Oh yes, pictures and enthusiastic details are coming.

And before "move-in" week was the Oregon coast vacation/reunion with my side of the family -- I mentioned it earlier. And before that was our anniversary and the buying of the new car. And before that, the Bishop family reunion and my birthday celebration. And before that, well... the final details of leaving London.

Don't think I've forgotten all I need to record! It's all "up here" and WILL be written down, complete with all the pictures (or at least a select few). But... as I already said, Spencer is teething, which means he is wailing and hollering somethin' fierce downstairs and needs another round of cuddlles and bum pats and soothing words from mama. So, I'm off again. But only for a little while this time. I PROMISE this is the week we will download those hundred thousand pictures from our camera and play catch-up on blogging.

(It's also the week we get to meet our new nephew, Cole. And clean out the van. And start a real SCHEDULED ROUTINE at our house! So much to look forward to!)

FINALLY, FINALLY online!!!!

Okay, so the first week without internet access was kind of nice. It was good to have a break, to feel like I didn't have to worry about the "outside world" for a little while.

The second week was annoying. How am I supposed to get settled in a new home, new life, new everything and no connection to the "outside world" ??! How am I supposed to keep track of all my friends and their kids and their dogs? (I really do have a friend who just started a blog for her dog, no joke.) How am I supposed to buy furniture off craigslist when I can't even get ON craigslist in the first place?!

The third week was endurable, but only for the fact that we were on vacation at the coast and fully occupied the entire time. Oh, and also for the fact that we DID Have a connection at the beach house, though I didn't have much time to log on.

Week four, and I was about to go CRAZY! You may think it sounds kind of nice. But I dare you to try it. Try to go for a week without getting online. It's a rough, tough life, I tell you. I admit, I am addicted to the internet. Not that I am a computer junkie who sits at the screen all day. Far from it, actually. But I MUST know that connection is available for me. Life just doesn't function properly without it. Are we agreed?

That said, I plan to do some catch up blogging here in the near future. But I don't know if we have lots of pictures loaded on yet, or if those will have to continue to wait. I'll give you the skinny for now, then maybe backtrack later. Today was a first "real" day in our house. We've technically been here since July 30, but the internet only got installed yesterday, so I discount pre-online time, naturally. (Also, I already mentioned the Oregon trip. which took up a lot of the first weeks. Brian is scoffing that I don't count those first days as "real" but hey, when kids are sleeping on the floor, and we're living in suitcases, I just can't feel like this is really where we LIVE yet, okay?)

We had our nephews and niece over for the afternoon today, playing hide-and-seek in our big empty rooms and tag in our back yard. (Thanks for a fun visit, John, Cooper, Ella and Seth. Sorry Seth lost his shoes, Dalana.) It was fun. It's finally starting to feel like a home now, even though we still can't decide on couches or what color of woods to use for shelves or tables or anything. We're getting there. We got a toddler bed for Sammie last night, she was thrilled. We also got bar stools and a dining set for a bargain price, though we still need to set up the table and wait for the chairs to come in. I finally got our suitcases unpacked into our closets, so at least we aren't living off the floor anymore. Brian did a huge "staples" shopping trip to stock our fridge and pantry. And I did a trip to get trash cans, rugs, broom and mop, etc. We're still waiting for our air shipment to arrive (10 days has turned into nearly 4 weeks now!! arrrg!) But we've been told it has cleared customs finally and is scheduled for delivery next Tuesday. (I whine, as that is still five days away. I have not very nice things to say about this long of a wait!)

The things I'm loving about our new home so far...
-- By far, the biggest, best bonus is living close to family. It was so fun to have nephews and niece over today. And yesterday, Sammie was thrilled when Grandpa and Grandma Bishop stopped by for a visit. I love that we got to have my parents and sibs stay with us on the way to the coast for our reunion. How wonderful it is to be able to see these people I love so much! It is worth it, for everything I miss in London. I love being home.
-- The air conditioner. I'm actually a little TOO chilly tonight. But I love that our house stays refreshingly cool while it's toasty hot outside. I like that it IS hot outside, hot enough to actually NEED our AC.
-- The minivan. Two weeks and 2000 miles after purchase, and I admit I am a fan of the minivan. Only, I don't ever actually call it that. I still can't bring myself to be labelled like that. I still say "let's get in the CAR" or "I left the phone in the CAR." Yes, I know it is a minivan, but can we please just not say the word? If we call it something different, I really, really like it so far. It is roomy, and easy to get to the kids, and we just hauled our bar stools and dining table and hutch home in it. (Two trips, but still!) I'm impressed, much more than I thought I would be. It gets pretty good mileage, too, which is very important to me.
-- Our big master bathroom/closet suite thing. It's a whole nother room, people! It's amazing!! We have this huge two-sink vanity, a big corner tub, a nice shower, separate toilet room, and walk-in closet with TONS of shelves and racks. I know this is standard equipment to all you fellow American new-home-owners. But it's NEW to me, and VERY impressive! How am I supposed to fill all those drawers and shelves!? I love it.
-- The new fridge. It was a big decision, and we opted for a side-by-side model with an ice maker in the freezer door and the water/ice dispenser in front. It's so fun to get water from the fridge, nice and cold and icy. And I am basking the HUGE amounts of freezer space. Some day I will probably be frustrated that there's "just not enough room." But for now, I'm almost giddy with the thought that we have MASSIVE bags of chicken, peas, corn, stirfry veggies, mozzeralla, etc. And still PLENTY of room to spare for whatever we fancy! It's a miracle, really. (Reminds me of the time when I was little and I really did start crying when I told my mom "I'm so thankful for refrigerators." I now qualify that with "I'm so thankful for BIG, AMERICAN refrigerators!)
-- The hardwood kitchen floor. I'm actually terrified, not knowing how I'm supposed to care for a hardwood floor. But I LOVE the look of it, and the feel of it under my feet. I want to keep it so clean and pretty. It just adds such a warm, homey feel to our kitchen. I really like it. And if anyone has tips on how to keep it looking lovely, please feel free to share.

I need to go for now. I am reading Stephanie Meyer, finally. And as many of you know, it's not easy to do "other" stuff (like blogging) when I really want to know what happens next in my book.

Later, but not too much later, I hope!

Howdy from Idaho!

Finally! A few minutes of time with a speedy internet connection. This will be short, and no pictures. But I had to write a quick hello to let the world know... WE ARE IN IDAHO! yay!!
We made it safely home, and have continued flying by the seat of our pants ever since.

What's keeping us busy? Well, here's the quick list:
-- We stopped in San Diego on our way home for a quick overnight stay with our friends Rob and Anne. That was great -- a nice rest-up and a visit to the zoo before we flew on home.
-- For the past two weeks, we've been staying with Brian's parents, who have been sooo wonderful to put us up while we got things ready to move into our new house.
-- We had a Bishop family reunion the first weekend we were back, including tickets to a real rodeo, swimming at a hot springs pool, and DELICIOUS food and great company for three days running.
-- I had a great birthday this year. We went to church with Brian's parents, then had ice cream and a gorgeous chocolate cake made by Brian. Then I drove to see my family for a few days, taking Sammie and Spencer. (Brian went camping with his brothers.) As a special present this year, Brian paid for a massage and pedicure for me. What a treat!! I highly recommend it!
-- Amid all the busy family time, we have been spending $$$ like crazy, trying to get our house livable. Big purchases so far include: washer and dryer set, fridge and freezer, bed and box spring, and a new car!
-- That's right, we finally decided on a car earlier this week -- a Toyota Sienna minivan. I know, I don't look like the minivan type. Believe me, this is an adjustment. I've been promised I will love it. Those of you who promised better have some kind of guarantee, just in case. ;)
-- So, tonight most of my family is coming to spend the night at our new house, on the way to a Hone Family reunion at the Oregon coast. Does the fun ever end?! I imagine eventually we'll settle down and start living normally... but not yet!

Stay tuned for pictures, once we finally get internet and phone service at our new place.