Homeward Bound

The day has finally arrived, we are going home! These last few days we have really been feeling ready to be back. We were all up early and with a final send off from Rashae and her family we loaded in the van for the final leg of our 9 week vacation.


This was really the only time during all our car trips that I was really anxious to be to our destination. It was nice to gain an hour from the changing time zone and we made great time. We didn't plan very well and after passing an exit with lots of fast food places for lunch we thought we'd just stop at the next one. It turned out the next place with any sort of fast food was just outside the Dalles and over half way into our trip. Our choices were McDonald's or Subway and I just couldn't bear eating at McDonald's even one more time. Our kids would eat Subway food but not as good as they eat McDonald's so Jeff was so nice to sit in the car while I ran into get me a sandwich and then we all went to McDonald's. James was very persuasive and we ended up buying him an ice-cream treat in the adjoining quick mart. They only had two sizes of treats, big and bigger. He ended up with this big ice-cream drumstick with brownie bits on top. Thankfully Jeff had the foresight to get an empty cup and spoon so after James failed attempt to eat it off the cone we scooped it all out into the cup. This worked great since he was eating in the car.

The drive really flew by, especially in the scenic Columbia River Gorge. Being back in Oregon we both agreed that of all the places we've been over the past two months, we really love Oregon the best. We pulled into our house at 3:30pm which was much earlier than we thought we'd be home thanks to our short lunch stop. We unloaded the van and put most of the things away. We had done all our laundry at Rashae's house so it was really nice to not be home and have piles of dirty laundry. We were so ambitious that we even cleaned out the van and took out all the seats to vacuum. We wiped down all the seats and side walls but there really wasn't too much to clean since we had kept the van pretty organized for the entire trip.

Jeff's parents were the most amazing house sitters you could ask for! While we were gone they collected all our mail and watered things in our yard. They came over the morning we were to arrive home and turned on our air conditioning and aired out the house. They put a gallon of milk in the fridge and even planted bright new flowers in the planter on our patio table! The best part was they invited us over for dinner the day we got in since we didn't have any food and were really tired from traveling.

When all was said we were gone 57 days and put 3,934 miles on our van. We made some great memories and visited so many friends and family. We're just counting down the time until our next sabbatical in 6 years and 10 months!

Driving cattle

Rashae asked what we wanted to do while we were at her house but we were all feeling so tired at this point that we really just wanted to relax on our short break before heading home.
The kids had swimming lessons so we went to the park while they had their class. Harrison is getting super scary in what he is willing to do without any thought of caution. He saw James climbing the monkeybars so he followed him right up.


Harrison thinks he's big stuff, and he's pretty strong too!

My niece Janette lives with her parents while her husband looks for work so James and Harrison had a lot of fun playing with her two boys Joshua (4) and Caleb (2). They had the most fun riding all the bikes.

This has to be the coolest tricycle I've ever seen! I think someone might have made this in their back shop so I doubt I could find one for James. It was also the biggest source of contention with all the kids wanting to ride it at once.


Jeff was put to work out in the field with the beefalo. This is a cross between cows and buffalo which makes for a leaner meat. One of the calves had pinkeye so they had to get it pinned in by itself. This meant getting all the cows into the second pasture and getting the calf off in a stall by itself. Jeff was great at running and whooping the get the cows to move. (Jeff is in the orange)


Little boys looking on at all the action.

The rest of the day the boys played in the yard and we relaxed. I helped Rashae with a family history project and helped edit a book she is writing about our grandparents.





Later that night Jeff got to help with a cow that had a growth on its neck. They had to pin the cow down and try to lance it with a big steak knife. (Sorry, no pictures!) My nephew Hans couldn't get it so Jeff got to try but it was so tough they couldn't pierce it. While Jeff was out being a cowhand, he managed to get attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes and his legs looked polka dotted.

Idaho potatoes

We left Monday morning with a brief stop at the Church Distribution Center in Salt Lake. We had been so rushed when we visited the first time and I didn't get a chance to buy some pictures I wanted for our kids.

The drive went relatively smooth and we even ate McDonald's in the car to save time since we had already stopped so long in Salt Lake. Our kids really are good at eating in the car without a mess. And a good thing too since our van isn't even a year old yet! We had to stop for a break and switch drivers at a rest stop along the road. Jeff discovered we had run into a giant dragonfly which had given its life in the name of our road trip. I made him take a picture because it was so huge!


When we let Harrison out he ran right up to the bench by the building and sat there with his arms folded and legs swinging. He was just grinning and happy to be free from his car seat. James soon joined him and we had to take a picture of the rare moments when our kids were sitting still voluntarily.



At 5:30 we arrived in Fruitland, ID at the home of my oldest sister Rashae. We had dinner and then for Family Home Evening we all went out to their garden and worked. The kids dug up potatoes and then we all picked raspberries. The mosquitoes were terrible! There were literally swarms around and it kept feeling like they were flying up my nose. We sprayed everyone really good with repellent. I am lucky I inherited my father's immunity to mosquitoes. I never got bit once and I didn't spray anything on me.
Here's my nephew Daniel and his dad Eric doing most of the digging of the potatoes. There's nothing more fun to me than the family out working in the garden. It reminds me of when I was growing up and raising our fields of vegetables.


Later Jeff got in with the shovel.

With Caleb and Harrison it was mostly eating and not filling the bucket.

Sharing the berries with mom.


My boys are more into figuring out the mechanics of the tractor than posing for a picture.


Later that night after the kids were in bed my brother-in-law Eric mixed up fresh raspberry jam and it set while we all sat in the hot tub. We ended up taking home 4 big containers of delicious jamberry (as James calls it). In the hot tub we had to light citronella tiki torches to keep the mosquitoes at bay but it made for a fun, festive atmosphere.

Short stop in Eagle Mountain, UT

We were planning to split our Utah time with my siblings but my sister Sharlan was in Michigan with her daughter who just had a baby and my brother Martin was in Wyoming all week on a youth Pioneer trek. We got to spend Sunday night at Martin's house in Eagle Mountain and went to church with his family. It was Pioneer day and the entire ward was dressed like pioneers. It was obvious we were the visitors! Their entire stake had gotten involved in the Pioneer trek with all the preparations and stake pioneer activities for two months and it all culminated with the trek which ended this weekend. They only had sacrament meeting which was extended to 1 1/2 times as long as normal and the rest of the block was canceled so they could have people talk about their trek experiences. It was fun to see my brother in action as he was recently called into their Bishopric and it was his turn to conduct.

Martin's family was so fun and his boys really took to playing with James and Harrison. They built a wood ramp and duct taped it to the table and sent various vehicles down.



We planned to have dinner with the Twede family, one of the Bowden's close friends from Charlotte who happen to now live in my brother's stake. Martin let James help make the brownies we took to share.




The kids had a great time in the yard while the adults chatted. And what would be a summer social without homemade ice-cream? When they were making the strawberry kind James kept eating handfuls of the diced fruit before they could put it in the freezer. Then he kept us constantly updated on the progress. "Nope, not done." A few minutes later, "Still not done." When it finally did finish we had to tell him because he had lost interest and gone to play.

Pioneer Celebration

It has been really fun to be in Utah the week of the 24th of July. It makes it even more meaningful being in the place where it all started, where the pioneers originally came. Everything is rich in pioneer heritage around here and there was a big festival in Spanish Fork for the week. We are too cheap to pay for the over-priced carnival rides so every time we drove by we had to make up an excuse of why we weren't going.
We were all up really late the night before (too much Wii and Mario Galaxy!) so we had a hard time getting going early to the parade on Saturday morning. A big thanks to Craig who did manage to get down there early and rope off a spot for us. It was back from the road but we managed to squeeze the kids up on the curb. They decided to stand the whole time to be ready for candy so we all ended up moving to sit by the street.


The kids all got a pig mask from some Credit Union. They had a huge pig balloon in a cape as part of the float.
My kids are not aggressive enough to hold their own in the fight for the little candy that was thrown so James just came and sat back by me. Harrison would walk back and forth from the line of candy-crazed kids and the curb. He found some kids stash of candy on the empty chair next to us and would not leave it alone so we finally asked their parents to move it so he wouldn't eat it.

Only in a Utah parade would you see a float like this. This was my absolute favorite of the day- it was so realistic and the huge group of Polynesians walking in front were so energetic and enthusiastic. That's how all the parade participants should have been!

And don't forget the missionaries...
And lest we forget what holiday we were celebrating, this was the only "Pioneer" entry in the parade.
Harrison is my super hat wearer. He loves this hat. When it falls off he will pick it up and run to you and tug on your pant leg until you put it back on. When the wind blows and he feels it coming off he will clamp his hand over the top to hold it down. I love that I don't have to worry about his face being sunburned!


Julie and Craig's friend invited us all over to their house for dinner and watch the fireworks. They back right up to the field where the fireworks are launched so it was prime viewing. We had very restless kids in the afternoon so to kill time we went to feed the ducks at a local park. We ran out of bread pretty quick so we played on the toys. Harrison is getting to be quite the daredevil and was swinging from the bar over the slide.


There were so many kids at the dinner that they mostly tussled over who got to ride which bikes. After we ate we moved all the tables so they could have a bigger riding area.
You know, when it comes to fireworks every time I think to myself my kids would really love the show and would be missing out if they didn't see them. We thought this in Disneyland and over the 4th of July and I didn't learn from those experiences. Here we were doing it again- keeping our kids up obscenely late just so they could fall asleep during the show and then be super cranky the next day. The fireworks in Spanish Fork were even worse because they don't start at dusk, they wait even longer until the rodeo is over so the fireworks are the big finish. This meant the show didn't start until about 10:45pm, a mere 3 hours past my kids bedtime. I wouldn't mind the late hour if James and Harrison enjoyed the show, or even showed mild interest, but they do neither. After the fireworks finally started James came over to me and complained the entire time about wanting his pajamas on and totally ignoring the amazing color explosions going on behind him. Harrison just wandered around climbing on and off chairs the whole time. Am I too hopeful to think that next year they will be older and it will be different? Time will tell.

Happy Birthday James!

On July 23, our little James turned 4 years old! After his time with Grandpa Buzz and playing with his logging equipment, James requested a Skidder cake. Hmm, now how does one go about creating such a cake? All you have to do is leave the engineering up to Jeff!


We spent all morning working on the cake since we're on vacation and didn't have anything else to do. James wanted to help so I put him to work unwrapping the tootsie rolls so we could mold them into the claw part. We got busy and when we looked over he had molded a handful into a ball and was eating it!


Here's Jeff crafting the claw-like arm which is the part that grabs the logs.


James wanted to frost something so we gave him a bag of black frosting and he made the mud around the Skidder tires.



I thought it looked like it needed something so we added trees made from the giant pretzel logs. We smooshed some of the taffy we got on our factory tour and shaped it into the green leafy part. Unfortunately our tootsie roll base wouldn't hold up the trees so we ended up hot gluing them to the board.

And here's the finished product. Could a boy be any happier to have such an awesome birthday cake?! The tires are Ding Dongs, the front shovel is a peanut butter bar, peanut clusters are laying around for rocks and we crushed up Oreos to make everything look dirty and muddy. Just like Grandpa Buzz's skidder!




That night we made delicious homemade pizza for dinner. Julie even made the California Pizza Kitchen recipe for BBQ pizza which was nothing short of amazing!! Afterward we had the big birthday party. James did great blowing out the candles.

Jeff had to dismantle the frosted tootsie roll crane which happened to stay attached to the pretzel "logs". We had so much cream cheese frosting on the cake to shape it that a lot of the pieces were almost more frosting than cake, yum!

Harrison picked off the bottlecap headlights. Most of the kids didn't want cake, just the ding dongs and trees.
Here's James with his presents. He got two small Lego sets, his own bucket of Biggie Beads, the kid version of Uno, and a color extreme coloring book.


What a sweetheart James is in our family. He keeps telling me he's getting older because he found hair growing on his legs. I'm not sure where he got that from. He's very excited to start preschool in the fall and take swimming lessons when we get home. Being our oldest, it still amazes me that he is growing up so fast and isn't our little baby anymore.