Oregon Trip to visit Dad and Mom

While Janet went to Utah for BYU Education Week, working at the Family History Center and visiting Joanna, Adam, & Lauren and Heather & Daren I took Brianna and Collin to Oregon to visit my Mom and Dad in Port Orford (50 or 60 miles north of the California border on the coast. We spent 5 or 6 days with them and had a great time. One thing about the Oregon coast I didn't realize was that the coast has lots of rocks out in the water. If I knew that, I had forgotten about it. It was beatiful. The weather was good also, especially when you compare it with what we're used here in Houston. Temperatures during the day ranged from 65 to 75 degrees.

We were able to see and do many things; see and walk along the ocean and beach, visit the Point Blanco lighthouse (the most westerly point of the continental USA, go to the pier where the fishing boats come in and go out, pick blackberries and just hang out at home. On the way to the Portland Airport to return home, we visited a retired colleague and stayed overnight with Daren's Mom (Heather's husband's Mom) in Troutdale.

I took some pictures that show some of the sights and things around Port Orford. Hope y0u all enjoy them..

Isn't the coast beautiful? I vaguely remember the beach at Hambug as we went their when I was a child.

Point Blanco is further west than any other land in the continental US. I learned that sea captains can tell which lighthouse they see by the interval of the light (or how often they're able to see the light). I believe Point Blanco's light is seen every 18 seconds.

It's amazing that every vessel in Port Orford is hoisted in and out of the water each day. The boats are easier to maintain, and no barnacles to worry about....

Collin started school this week on Monday (Aug 27). He is running on the school Cross-Country team and ran every morning while we were there.

Ben, Bryce & Elicia's visit to Houston

Ben, Bryce & Elicia spent the 4th of July week in Houston; first staying with us and later staying with Elicia's family on east side of Houston. They returned home yesterday.

While here we went to the Houston Downtown Aquarium. We've been here 12 years and have never been there. We all had a good time there.

I went on severel walks with Ben. He loves to go outside. It rained quite a bit this week and Ben had fun in the rain.

Visit with Lauren, Joanna & Adam

After visiting April & Michael, we continued on our trip to visit Lauren, Joanna & Adam. Lauren was kind of new to walking. We also celebrated Joanna's birthday (a few days early) with Adam's family.

Visit with April & Michael

The first week in May, Mom and Dad visited April & Michael in Denver and, later, Lauren, Joanna & Adam in Stansbury Park.


While visiting April & Michael, we went to a Colorado Rapids vs Houston Dynamo soccer game. It poured down rain and we all got wet even though we had umbrellas. At half time we took cover near the concessions and ended up watching the rest of the game from there. Houston won the game. Mom also spent some time exploring April's sewing machine.

Washington DC visit with Ryan, Jill & Jeff

In April, Mom went to visit Jill, Jeff and Ryan for about 3 weeks. Dad went for 5 days. One day we went to the Mall in Washington DC. It rained most of the time, but we all had a good time.

Ryan likes to dance and was a joy to be around.

I finally broke down ---

Heather last week indicated our web page hasn't been updated in a long, long time. And she is correct. It takes time to keep a web page. So now, I've created this blog spot not really knowing why -- except she told me it was quite fast and easy to maintain. I guess we shall find out.