Dee Wright Observatory

On the second day of camping my older sister and I took our kids out to the Dee Wright Observatory which is just a short drive from Sisters, Oregon. From there you can see two of the Three Sisters, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington and several of the major buttes and landmarks. It was a beautiful clear day and perfect for the views.

The building was made from the lava rocks at the site and the "castle look" got the kids excited to play Save the Princess and other sword fighting games. They all had a good time playing here.





Up on the top there is a dial to tell you which direction to look for each sight, how far and how tall they are.



The view for the North and Middle Sisters is always my favorite.



In the lower room of the observatory it's also fun to check the patterns of the water stains on the ceiling. It's not exactly one of the attractions but I think it's very cool.

Sahalie Falls

From Wednesday to Sunday the kids and I went camping in Oregon with my sisters and their families. On Thursday morning I took my kids down to Sahalie Falls and followed part of the trail down towards Koosah Falls (which we didn't quite make it to as the kids were wearing out).

This is beautiful Sahalie Falls from the viewpoint. There were several lovely rainbows when we got there in the morning.



This is from the viewpoint above the falls. This rainbow was actually a double but the second was faint and a little harder to catch.



From the waterfall we followed the lower trail towards Koosah Falls for a bit.



The boys LOVED this staircase and we spent a little extra time as they went up and down it. Erin stood with me and just watched as she was worried about falling off and into the river.



In a nice easy spot I freaked Erin out a bit when I went off the trail for a better picture and she was sure I'd fall in which would somehow make her fall in even though she stayed on the trail. I told her to look on the bright side: at least I wasn't standing in the river for the picture like my Dad used to when I was a kid. :)





Later in the week we took the kids out to the Dee Wright Observatory near Sisters, OR and then to Scout lake for a little swimming and hiking along the Metolious River and I'll have more pictures to come. I neglected to bring my camera to the lake but I do somewhere have a childhood picture from when my mom was about my age from that lake. I'll have to see if I can dig it up somewhere.

Animal Ark Wildlife Sanctuary

I have lived in Reno for 8 years-ish. When I first moved here I heard that there was a zoo and I took my kids out there. It was, um, well it was bad. The poor animals looked sad in little dinky squares with not much natural shade, plants etc. The kids didn't like it and we never went back. Not long after that I heard that there is also a wildlife sanctuary here but after my zoo experience I never went out there to have a look around. That was a mistake! We took all of the kids out to Animal Ark on Saturday and it was wonderful.

The viewing areas had a nice view of most of the animals and this big boy came right close up to see us.



The animals have nice big spaces to move around in, the big ones are rotated often so they aren't out all day and there is a lot of natural shade and interest in their homes.



We were there around the time that they were changing the bears around and the kids really enjoyed watching it. They placed fruits all around for Yogi (yes, the bear) to find and we were able to have the pleasure of watching it.





I tried to get a bears-eye view but Glenn caught me.



But after the bear was done I did round them all up for a silly face shot. Everyone tried something except I think K2 thought I told him to pick his nose...



And then they all ran away from me, haha. If you live in the Reno area and have thought about going to the Animal Ark I would certainly recommend it. We'll take the kids there again.



On Sunday we took the kids to my mom's house and just played around.









What did you do over the weekend?

10-10-10 = 42 and Happily Ever After

This Sunday, I was a 10-10-10 bride. A little over a year ago we were deciding on dates when hubby, being a computer geek, noticed that the date was all 1s and 0s and could be a binary number. Since he was sitting at the computer anyway he converted it to decimal and behold, it was 42, the answer to life, the universe and everything At least, it is according to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but maybe there is something to it because it sure felt like a great day to me.



Our ceremony was in a casino since I do live in Reno after all. And I must say if you are getting married in Reno, the Atlantis really was beautiful. We looked at several of the chapels here and considered the possibility of an outdoor wedding. Unfortunately, the weather in mid October is a little too unpredictable to guarantee good outdoor weather (though it did turn out to be a beautiful day) and all of the chapels we saw looked like they might have been decorated in the 80's and then forgotten. I wanted something a little prettier and the Atlantis certainly delivered. They partition off ballrooms and bring in an arch just for the weddings and it's quite pretty.

I didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on a wedding since, as lovely as it was, it's only one day and we have the rest of our lives to be married. Luckily my family and friends are fantastic and honestly, I don't know how anyone pulls off a wedding without the help of friends and family.

All of my photos were taken by family members and friends. Luckily, someone got a nice shot of the Atlantis for me.



Selena made my cake and cupcakes and did a beautiful job. I feel that I am seriously indebted to her for this. The cake stand (cupcake tower) I made with what lumber I already had in the garage and I think it turned out pretty. My nieces Brianna and Julia helped make and place little 42s on every cupcake, too.





Since this wasn't my first wedding and we both came in to this marriage with children we decided that the kids would be our bridesmaids and groomsmen. My children walked me in and gave me away.



Technically Keith was a groomsman but he was 100% sure that he was our miniature Master of Ceremonies.



Family vows were also added to include the children as they are a very necessary component of this life and relationship.





Groomsmen


Bridesmaids


Our first family photo. I told Eric that we should come up with more reasons for him to wear a tux because he looks fantastic in one.



We actually managed to get all 11 grandkids in one place at the same time.



Though very soon we will need a new picture so we can have all 12... These are my sisters, without whom (along with Selena and Mom) I would have never pulled off a wedding so well.



Not at all hard to tell what the kids are thinking about.




Erin was glad to finally get her hands on some chocolate. Yum!



It was impossible to catch all of the family in any one shot so we took lots. The man on the left of the second shot is Eric's best friend and also our Pianist. I owe so many thanks to him as well.




All of the children had fun blowing bubbles everywhere. So did many of the adults.



All in all, quite a lovely day.

Always trouble when those two are together...

I've known "Mackey" for as long as I can remember. She has always been my mother's best friend and my other mother. She never had her own children and the joke is that she spent a couple months living with us while my mother was in another state for training and that after that she didn't want kids anymore. Well, it was mostly a joke.

It was not safe to let her and my mother go anywhere without supervision as they always got into some kind of trouble, some of which it's probably not safe to mention even here. ;-) Once they went out to buy a pack of cigarettes and didn't come home until several hours later after arresting the store owner for selling liquor to minors (they were both law enforcement).

When I was around age 10ish my mother decided that she wanted to build a garden with a rock wall. To do this she needed a lot of flat and wide rocks and she knew just which mountain to get them on. So she loaded up my little sister and I into the back of the Ford Ranger pickup truck (the bed, not back of the cab) and she and Mackey jumped into the front and off we went. At that time of year it was still snowing up there and the snow was a couple feet high in some places. She drove to the top of this mountain and turned around the truck. Then my little sister and I got out and put down the tailgate. She drove down the mountain at about 3-5 miles per hour as Lee and I ran behind grabbing snowy rocks (with our bare, unmittened hands) and tossing them into the back of the truck. Our hands were freezing and red but we did this for miles.

Eventually deciding that a ton of rock was enough (in a half-ton pickup, mind you) she allowed us to get back into the bed of the truck to ride back down the mountain. We were now sitting on a large pile of cold wet rocks with no heater. So we begged. We asked mom and Mackey to let us sit up front but the seat was only meant for 3 and so they said no. But we kept pounding on the window at regular intervals and asking again. Eventually we wore them down and they allowed us to get in the front.

We started down the mountain again and Lee and I started warming up. Then I noticed something funny on the hood. There was an orange spot on the hood of our green truck. And it was growing. I asked my mother why the hood was turning orange and she whipped the truck off the road and hit the brakes so fast I was wishing we'd had a fourth seat belt. She commanded us to immediately get out of the truck and run to the tree line as apparently the brakes were now on fire.

Mom and Mackey knew not to open the hood as they would only be feeding the fire a better supply of oxygen. But they had coffee cups and they threw the coffee up under the wheel well to try and douse the flames. Up in the trees Lee and I found a couple of discarded 7-11 cups and we ran down to use them to scoop up puddle water to help with the flames. We managed to put out the fire but now we were stranded on a snowy mountain, miles from help and behind the forest service gates, with a broken truck. And it was freezing and getting later in the afternoon.

Luckily a man came by on his bicycle. What he was doing up there I'll never know. My mother tried to yell to get his attention as he went right on by. Then she changed to yelling some very colorful words... As he got a few hundred feet past us he turned around and looked back. Then my mother recognized him as someone she had arrested a few months back (not sure what for). He hadn't responded because he's deaf and hadn't heard her yelling. He came back and we managed to communicate that we needed help and he should go to the forest service station for help.

Well, the station was closed (being a weekend) but I guess he managed to get a hold of someone who tried to call out the ranger on duty. Unfortunately, that was my mother who, of course, couldn't be reached. So they called the sheriff, who was my step-father. He had started to worry a couple hours ago when we hadn't returned on time like we were supposed to. Now he got a call about two women and a couple of children stranded on a mountain with a truck that had caught fire.

When he arrived the expressions he went through were completely priceless. At first he was all business. His face said "I'm the sheriff and I'm in charge here". Then he saw us. His face turned to immediate worry as he realized it was us and wanted to make sure everyone was okay. Then he saw that we were okay and his face turned to rage with an exclamation of "What the hell did you do to my truck!?!".

It turned out later that the brake pads for that year of Ranger pickup could be put in backwards and the shop had done just that. My mother swears that this is the reason that the truck caught on fire and not because she was driving down a mountain while carrying a ton of rock in a half-ton pickup and riding the brakes. I'll let you decide. Either way, we refused to help in any of her later rock wall projects.

Home again

I'm home again and now I think my life gets to slow down for a little while at least. My grandmother's memorial was this weekend and it was really lovely to hear everyone's stories about her and to see the family. All 3 children, 8 of the 9 grandchildren and 13 of the 15 great grandchildren were there (2 great grandkids were home with the flu). I'm working on a special post for Nana that I'll have up in a few days.

In the meantime this was the view for the first 3 hours of our drive home. I stopped a lot. :)











The kids and I stopped in at Crater Lake on the way home and they were fascinated when I told them that almost 7000 years ago this was still a mountain (well, volcano) and that when it erupted the whole top caved in and now here we are at this pretty lake. I like it when they are rapt and paying attention.