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| Mother and Son |
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| The Cabin at Black Butte |
This has been a fun-packed week. We were to pick up Kitta, Peter and Case at ten o’clock
Monday morning and start our trip to Black Butte Ranch. At nine-thirty Kitta called to tell us
that their exchange student from Japan had been in a bad bicycle accident on
Sunday night and was in the hospital.
They didn’t know when she would be released nor if she would be able to
come to Black Butte with us.
Things were really up-in-the-air.
She was also scheduled to take some exams that day. We should wait an hour and see what the
doctor would say.
It was four-thirty in the afternoon when we finally departed
with Kitta and Case and all the food.
Peter needed to stay in Portland in order to get their exchange student
settled. He would drive up later
in the evening or the next day.
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| Grandpa and Case Ride Bikes |
We drove to Salem and then up the mountains through the
Santiam Pass, past Detroit Lake and then to Black Butte Ranch. The scenery was spectacular. It was a hot sunny day and the
mountains and lakes were at their best.
Black Butte Ranch is a vacation community built in a pine forest
surrounding a grassy meadow and lake, with open views of the Three Sisters
mountain peaks and Black Butte itself.
There are about seven community swimming pools scattered through the
forest, and bicycle and running trails throughout.
We stayed in a three bedroom, two bathroom lofted
cabin. There were bicycles,
tricycles and toys throughout. We
had a great time with Case. We
went swimming, hiked the trails, and bicycled. On Tuesday, we took a break and drove into Sisters for some
lunch and ice cream. We walked the
touristy streets in ninety-degree temperatures.
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| Grandma and Case go Shopping |
We came back to the cabin and changed into swimwear and
hiked down to the closest swimming pool.
Peter arrived at the pool at about four o’clock.
After dinner we drove over to the golf course to eat popcorn
and watch the stars. That was ok
until the automatic sprinklers surprised us. We changed our plans and went to the meadow to see the
stars. The sky was ablaze with
stars like I remember when I was growing up in the country. There is nothing like getting away from
the city lights and really seeing the night sky in all its glory.
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| See the Deer |
Wednesday morning we had our breakfast out in the trees on
the deck. We were visited by two
deer that came within ten feet of where we were eating.
In the afternoon, before leaving for the trip back, we had a
little picnic on the Lodge lawn, across the lake and the meadow, with a full view
of the meadow, the forest and the mountains. What a beautiful place to relax and, what a wonderful
vacation.
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| Father and Son |
After arriving back in Portland and attending a Ward
Missionary Correlation meeting, we drove out to start our third mini-vacation in
Hillsboro with Lis, Nathan, Toby and Ali.
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| Scripture Time |
On Thursday we started the day off with scripture
study.
The Cook household, being
techy as they are, turned on the super large wall mounted flat screen monitor
to the hymn of the day.
We sang
along to the piano accompaniment and the four-foot high hymnbook page.
Then the Book of Mormon with four-foot
high pages appeared and we each read five verses in a row until we were
finished with the chapter.
After
prayer, we ate breakfast, packed a lunch and drove to McMinnville where we
spent the day at the Evergreen Water Park adjacent to the museum housing the
Spruce Goose.
On top of the
building housing the water park was a 747 plane housing the entry ports for the
four water slides.
When we entered
the building, to our right was a large Wave Pool, and to the left was a forest
replica with a real helicopter and fire-fighting water bucket dousing what
might have been a forest fire.
Water was continually pouring into the large bucket.
When the bucket was full it would tip
over onto a platform and then fall down onto the waiting guests standing in
the pool below.
The temperature in
the building was about seventy-five degrees, but outside the temperature was
close to one-hundred degrees.
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| Toby on The Waterslide |
We spent the whole day in the water park with one lunch
break at about two o’clock and dinner at Jack-in-The-Box on the way home. We had a great day.
On Friday we had breakfast and took our time getting in
gear. We planned to spend most of
the day at Bullwinkle’s Family Fun Park in Wilsonville. On the way we stopped by Nathan’s
workplace at the Aurora Airport.
They were serving a BBQ to all the employees and their families. We looked around and saw the new plane,
then topped it off with cake and ice cream.
At the Family Fun Park the kids walked the ropes, climbed
the climbing wall, rode the water bumper cars with mounted water guns (everyone
got wet) and rode the motorized cars on the tracks.
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| The Family Gets Wet |
The temperature was close to one-hundred degrees, so it was
time to go to the Wilsonville fountain and play in the water. After that we ate at Red Robin and
drove home.
On Saturday we planned the day around the activities at
OMSI. We started with the
exhibits, and then we ate lunch.
We checked in at the Jet Boat to see if we could ride it. They were sold-out but we could
check-in fifteen minutes before two o’clock and see if there would be room for
us. We went back to OMSI to see
the Omnimax film. There were some
cancellations so we got on the Jet Boat for an hour’s thrill-ride. Then back to OMSI for the planetarium
show. After that we went through
the exhibit spaces and played with the brainteasers until they closed at seven
o’clock. We ate at Panda Express.
It was a very successful day.
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| The Jet Boat Ride |
Today we attended Hillsboro Stake Conference where Elder
Nielsen was the visiting authority.
We had a BBQ for lunch and then, while I got caught-up on the blog, everyone else fell asleep on the sofa, in the chairs, and on the floor. A nice quiet afternoon.
We will go home this evening and clean up a few loose ends
before getting ready for our third mini-vacation next week with Tova, Jeff,
Kyton and Simon.
These are great experiences for us. Thanks to all of you!
Norma and Gary
