The last day of the trip

On our final part of the journey, we decided to stop by Lake Shasta and see the beautiful water. This is what we saw.

We had stopped at this spot before, and had fun hiking along the water, skipping rocks in it and enjoying the scenery. This time it was all dry. Normally the water fills the valley to the right of this road.

At another stop we found some toys to play on, but still no water we could get to.

After much driving around and asking for help, we finally found a way to the water. We had to go on a scary dirt road, I had been assured by the friendly guy who gave me directions, that I would be fine taking my van down, since he had just driven down it in his non-4wheel drive truck. Getting down to the water was not a problem. Getting back up almost was. Sadly, it still wasn't a beach area that we could play in, but it was nice to actually succeed in our quest of getting to the lake.

Sandra and I walked into the water. This really freaked Fletcher out, and he dug his heels in, then started to lay in the mud, to keep away from the water.

Crooked River Canyon

A beautiful stop. The Crooked River Vally Gorge. The drop off here is over 300 feet. There are signs all over telling you to leave dogs in your car, because many have fallen to their death. The signs have pictures of dogs falling off a cliff. I was cautious and let my dog stay in the car. That would have been a bit too tragic for me. The valley is so deep, that it made me a bit dizzy to try to look down it. I had to be brave for the girls.

North Pole or Equator

Do you know which is closer; the North Pole or the Equator? For a few minutes today, we were right in the middle. I am happy to be heading back towards the equator and warmer weather.

Shoe Tree

We are on our way home. We are stopping to see interesting things along the way. This is the Shoe Tree. It is in northern Oregon along Hwy 97. It is a dead tree covered in shoes. There are hundreds of shoes tied on and tossed over the branches. We were wishing we had some shoes to add to it.

Cammie's Sad Picture

Cammie drew this picture a few days ago on my phone. She was getting a bit homesick and was really missing her dad.

My Grandma

This is my grandma. She is the one whose history/memory books I went to copy. I managed to finish all 15 books. It took around 25 hours of work all together. Grandma is 92 years old. She started keeping memory books when she was in high school. As she had kids, she just kept everything in boxes, then as they got older, she sorted things out, then finally put them into books. It is not too late for me. Most of her books were about her kids and grandkids. It was fun to see all the pictures and write-ups about all the family events from when I was a kid.

Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

Grilled Marshmallow/Chocolate Chip Sandwiches

1)Spread slices of bread with marshmallow cream and melted chocolate chips.

2) Put together sanwich style, then brush melted butter on outsides.

3) Grill both sides to toasty golden brown. Enjoy

For Dessert: Fruit Pizza
















A meal you would only get at Grandma's House.

Saturday the girls, their cousins, and my dad went swimming in Yakima's indoor pool. Apparently the water was cold, it took a lot of persuasion to keep them swimming.

This is Cammie and her cousin, who is just a few weeks younger than her.

They have the same smile.

This is my Dad showing his grandchildren a Totem Pole he helped carve. My dad has always loved working with wood. This last year, he and a friend took on the project of making this pole for a family member of his friend. It took them about 9 months of carving, preserving and painting to finish. Now it is waiting for the spring to be transported to its resting place. As compensation, the person who commisioned the pole, is sending my parents on a trip to New Zealand, where my dad served his mission.

Fair Day

Friday we went to the fair. I have not been to a fair for many,many, many years. It involves a lot of walking around.

The girls had fun collecting freebies from the information booths, and looking at all thejunk people were trying to sell.

(Here they are banging on a lot of rusty stuff,

that is an attraction there)

We walked around and saw lots of animals. The girls were a little sad to learn that these were not pet animals, and that they were intended to be eaten. Mindy started wondering if she wanted to eat meat anymore, now that she had seen the pigs, cows, and chickens that most of what she eats comes from.

Of course, we indulged in some yummy fair food. GIANT Elephant Ears, covered in cinnamon sugar, that filled us up for the rest of they day. I'm already craving more of the chewy, warm, fried deliciousness.

My Set-Up

The real purpose for this trip is so that I could work on copying my grandmothers history. For several years I have been wanting to copy her many books of family history/memory books. About a year and a half ago I decided that with the good quality of scanner/printers I could come up and just copy everything, then go have it professionaly copied and bound into books for any other relatives that wanted it. I made plans to come during this break from school, and then had the happy realization that I now had a laptop, so I could just scan the books into it, which would be much faster than scanning and printing.

Today I went to my grandmother's to get the books. I had thought she had about 9 or 10 books. My mom thought she had about 5. It turns out there are 15. This is going to be much bigger than I thought. I managed to get 2 books copied tonight. Luckily I have a whole week to get this done.