Oregon - The Redwoods and the Coast

On Wednesday, we loaded in the car again and headed for northern California and the Redwoods. We stopped at a beach and had a picnic lunch. We droved through the Redwoods and stopped and hiked a couple of trails. We decided to drive up the Oregon coast for a ways before heading inland and back to the resort in Klamath Falls. That turned out to be an adventure! The road the map said to take was not much more than a paved 4 wheeler trail (at least it was paved!). It took us up into the mountains and wound around forever! It was fine until it started to get dark, then it became pretty intense. Blake was driving through switchbacks and very curvey windy roads with no guardrails. What should have taken us about 2 hours took about 6, we finally made it back to the resort at 1:00 am!

Blake and Diana on the beach. It was really foggy and chilly.

Blake, Jared and Brian checking out the ocean near Cresent City, CA

All of us inside a Redwood tree!

Pictures from Randy!!!

Birthday Candy!

He saw this on the way to Estevan. He thought it was funny.

They caught the mouse that had been in the silverware drawer!

This lamp is from England, it is like the lamps that President Hinckley would proselyte under.

Is this what they mean when they say the mission field?

The new mission truck?

He says "Look, an old tractor, I had to get on and pretend I was driving!"

I have a picture like this when Randy was really little standing on either Terry or Bart's combine.

I'll bet when he was little, he never thought this is what he would be doing on his mission! He had a glorious time doing service on this farm.

Gas Prices too High?

Last night, on Rose Road this is what we saw. I guess it's a real sign that fuel prices are too high!

Camp

Blake and I spent the last few days at Girl's Camp. It was a long few days! We only had Beehives going to camp this year, for some reason there is only one Mia Maid and she wasn't going. So we had a very young, somewhat immature 13 Beehives. I did have 5 of my Laurels being Youth Leaders with the Stake and it was so nice to have them come to camp to see me!

Deon Ulrich wrote the skit, and she made all the leaders have parts, too. Meg and I were cheaters!

Softball

Today we went down to the ball diamond to play a little softball. Jared batted first, he hits it pretty hard.

Blake was the pitcher.

Now it's Celia's turn to bat, she hit it pretty good.

Brian could hit it the farthest.

Now it's my turn, I didn't hit it very well.

Blake had trouble hitting it at first, but then he figured it out and hit some really good ones.

When we were done, Brian kept saying, "Well, that was some pretty fun softball playing!" He said it over and over, I guess it doesnt' take much to make him happy.

Fireworks

This year we did something different to see fireworks. We just stayed in Blackfoot and went to the green belt. We drove over by the river on West Porterville and parked the car, then we walked on the greenbelt down by the river, over the freeway bridge and by the golf course. When the fireworks started, we just stopped and sat on the path. We could see the fireworks just fine. We took Ralphie and he just barked at the fireworks, he wasn't scared. Then when they were over, we had flashlights and walked back to the car. I've never walked that path in the dark before. I'm sure the fireworks show in Idaho Falls was much better, but we sure didn't have to fight the traffic. We made our own little adventure, and and a new memory.

Tennis and Cows

On the 4th, we went over to Matsuura's to play tennis. There are cows in the pasture right by the court, if you hit a ball out it might land in a cow pie!

This cow is watching the match!

The cows are really noisy when they are drinking! They don't use proper tennis etiquette.

Oh, how cute, Jared and Blake have matching flag shirts.

Yard work

Last Monday, Blake and Jared really cleaned up our yard. First they mowed the lawn, then fertilized it, then they trimmed up some of the pine trees, then they hauled them away in Red. I had thought earlier in the day that the trees were taking over the yard, but I didn't say anything about it. Well, Blake must have thought the same thing. Now they are cut back and the yard seems to be bigger again.

Jared had to get in the pickup and smash the branches down so they could get them all in. This is their 2nd load.

Tennis Tournament

Jared played in a tennis tournament this weekend. He played singles and mixed doubles with Megan Dalley. He was a little disappointed in the way he played. The competition was pretty tough. The worst part was a family, brothers, sisters and cousins all with the last name of Wright. The kids ranged in age from 10 to 14, and they are amazing players! They must live at the tennis courts! They played up, so they were in the older age brackets. It's pretty hard to take, losing to such young players.

His singles matches were played at the IF High Courts. Of course it was really windy on Thursday, at least it was hot not cold wind.

The mixed doubles matches were played inside Apple Athletic. This is Jared and Megan and their baby opponents, Brody and Leah Wright. Leah is 14 and Brody is 13. They are going to be absolutely dominant in high school. Jared is glad that his life is more than just tennis. He thinks these kids must not do anything else but practise.

4 wheeling, again!

Blake and Jared went 4 wheeling on Tuesday up near Spencer. There was still snow banks in some places. Jared had fun riding through the snow. He almost got stuck, but seemed to be able to get through. (This is not the video I wanted to upload, the one I wanted must be too long or something because it wouldn't ever upload)

Blake found the video button on the camera and now he loves to take videos. He fills up the memory card really fast! But it's really fun to have these little video clips!