Summer 2013

Dear Children,

Once again I have become overwhelmingly behind in my writing. You might be able to tell in this description of our summer when I stopped to write about our adventures and when I am writing from recall! After our Hawaii trip, I put some serious effort into planning for Girls Camp food and then headed to Salt Lake City for our SendOutCards convention at the end of May. I love when we are in Salt Lake as it is just better being by the headquarters; touring our headquarters is so impressive. Aaron was able to meet us in Salt Lake and stayed with us. Due to the young girl at the front desk flirting with him as they talked about his hike in the Grand Canyon, we got our room upgraded. Pretty cool! The convention is always very energizing and I love having team members there learning alongside me. I appreciate the direction of the company and so glad I am a part of it. Not only do I love serving with other people and businesses, I like how I am growing with this business.

Another bonus to being in Salt Lake for business is seeing family there. Heidi and the children met us at Aunt Julie's for Sunday dinner and on the way home we got to stop at the cemetery and see Jack's new headstone. It has a photo of him engraved or imprinted somehow. We also got to peer in the windows of a home in Eagle Mountain that Adrianne and Blake were looking to buy. After we left, Aaron stayed longer at the Severson's and actually saw the home that they ended up buying.

If you haven't heard the story about Adrianne and Blake selling and buying a home in record time, you should ask them for details. On almost a whim they put their town-home up for sell before leaving on their Hawaii trip. It sold while in Hawaii and they needed to find a new home since they had to put their ducks somewhere! Things worked out and they moved out of their town-home with a loaded freezer, signed papers and got their keys only to drive the freezer to the new home's garage to plug it in all in one day when the temperature was over 90 degrees!!!

Girls Camp was earlier in the summer this year. The best thing about that was that once it was over, there was an overwhelming feeling of relief for the rest of the summer. The hard part about going to camp in June, especially to the western peninsula of the Puget Sound, is that you must expect it to be cold and rainy. We lucked out. I think that there was only one day of rain. I planned more warm meals thinking the girls would be cold at mealtime but we didn't need that. Each year it is amazing to me how much food we go through though. And this year we missed not having Adrianne with us. She was the most valuable cook in the kitchen last year.

 

Right after camp, Dad and I headed to the coast to take advantage of a Christmas gift certificate from Aaron that we received for a whale watching tour. Luckily there was a last minute Depoe Bay opening so we were able to stay close by and enjoy the coast. Time was critical with work responsibilities so we were even willing to just drive down for the day for the tour. It was quite interesting and a great learning experience plus, we did see whales. We saw whales from our room after also since we know where to look for the whale tours now!

We visited Shawn and Aubrey's family twice this summer; both times being a blast! In June we had so much fun with all the family members who gathered in Oakland. Katie and Morty met us there as the St. Louis Cardinals were coming into town to play the Oakland A's. Since our family has such diehard Oakland A's and St Louis Cardinals fans, it's fun to meet in Oakland when St Louis comes into town to play the A's. The Friday evening flights were getting full so at one point I thought we might have to get into the Bay Area a couple of hours early and pass the extra time by eating dinner at Los Compadres in Hayward. Oh how I love, love, love that place and all the memories!

Luckily, the Friday evening flight was open so Katie, Dad and I were able to work on Friday and then be at the night game in Oakland. Although, we had a little scare since it took over two hours to get to the airport Friday afternoon. While traveling through snarled traffic and talking to Katie on the phone (she was already at the airport) she helped us navigate through some side roads getting us there just minutes before the flight. 

While packing, I realized that I don't have any Cardinal or Oakland gear, so I asked Katie for permission to go in her drawers, with the leftover clothes that she has it the house, and found a couple of St Louis Cardinals shirts. As soon as I walked in the game, Aubrey handed me an Oakland hat so I could represent both teams. It is always fun at a game with Shawn and Aubrey and the boys. They had bought Family Fun 4 Packs so we all had ball park hot dogs, peanuts and a drink to help enjoy the game. I know that doesn't sound very good but it was quite fun to have the FULL ball park experience. Of course, Shawn’s family always bring lots of extra treats. 

The Oakland A's beat the St Louis Cardinals by a landslide. St Louis didn't look like the team we're used to watching. It was nice for Katie and Morty that St. Louis beat the Oakland A's by a landslide the next day, keeping all family members with smiles on their faces.

On Saturday everyone came by the hotel for breakfast and a quick swim before heading to the second game of the series. It was already very warm in the Bay Area so it was smart to cool themselves off before heading to the hot ballpark. Dad, myself and Bryson stayed back to swim and relax by the pool ALL DAY. What fun! Bryson's swimming skills improved even more in just that day. He is a ball of energy. He must have jumped in the pool over one hundred times to swim, retrieve some water toys, hand them all to me and the climb out and DO IT AGAIN! Aunt Denise drove over to meet us at the hotel and spent some time with us at the pool also. That was fun to get updated on her family.

After the game Shawn and Aubrey planned a fun dinner called a Raclette. It is a fun way to eat with grilling vegetables and meat, melting cheese and pouring it altogether for a yummy treat. It reminded me of Heidi's description of French dinners as you stay at the table for a long time talking and cooking and eating. There is always lots of adventures at Shawn and Aubrey's place.

Right after we returned from California, Kyre, Adam and Klaire came for a visit over the Fouth of July weekend. Much of our time was spent at a softball tournament for Sunny. Luckily it was in Beaverton so everyone could watch her as a family. We postponed our trip to the St. Paul rodeo so we could get to more of her games. By the time we went to the rodeo Meeja had joined us so that worked perfectly. It was apparent that the girls were just at the rodeo for the cotton candy! They were happy campers with their cotton candy.

After Kyre, Adam and Klaire went home, Meeja stayed through the week. She is a fun girl to have around. She is adventurous and a risk taker as always. You can be certain there will be some falls and immediately you will hear Meeja as she pops up, “I'm OK!” We even worked on some of her Girls Activity Days booklet goals. She LOVES to be outdoors either riding a bike or skating on rollerblades.

I changed and washed all the sheets from the last visitors in time for Nate and his friend, Laura Berk to come for a weekend. They had lots of fun things planned including a downtown Portland walking tour. That was very interesting; they invited dad and I to join in. We filled our days and even picked berries to make jam, had an omelet from Canby Farms at the Saturday Market and played games Saturday evening with Grandma Maldonado. Nate likes to cook so they made us dinner Sunday evening. It was a delightful visit. 

Right after Nate's visit we worked a couple of days and then headed down to Oakland again; this time to celebrate Shawn's birthday with him. They invited us to go with them to the California State Fair in Sacramento. We stayed over night by the fair and then Dad, Shawn

and the boys traveled to Sonoma for the drag races. I was so impressed with the fair. We spent the day and into the evening walking the fair and going to a concert that night. The boys are like the energizer bunny! The boys were all in heaven being able to go to the drag races and I was in heaven that the ladies didn't go!

Upon returning home from Oakland we got ready for Dad's annual Utah Lake Century. That gave us a great excuse to see Adrianne and Blake's new home and help them with some new home projects. They have a beautiful home with lots of room for themselves and a great yard for their ducks. The main job we did was to paint their fence. Their homeowner rules say it has to be a certain color of gray We worked hard but had great fun. We even took a break to watch Adrianne show one of the therapy barn's horses at a horse show and meet the owner in the canyon on a later evening for a campfire.

Heidi's family was in Canada while we were in Utah so they let us use their van. That was convenient to have. Even though we didn't see them, we saw Honey as Adrianne was dog sitting for them. While we were in Utah, Katie ran a half marathon here in Portland so we missed supporting her!

Adam came for an alone visit the next weekend. He rode the train up by himself which was so cool. He is earning money for a trip to Washington DC with his school next Spring so he was anxious to work alongside Dad in the yard to make some extra money. The night that Dad drove him home, I left for the beach with Grandma, Carol Stanger and her mom. We were there for two nights and played MANY hours of games.

Meeja came back up with Sunhee from Friday through Wednesday of the next week. We had lots of girl fun with them and even started working in Sunhee's Young Women personal progress booklet. She is very goal oriented and loves to learn. After the girls left, Alina rode the train up here for the weekend and you can image that we played tons of games. She does not like to lose so sometimes that adds playing more games until late into the evening until she has won enough. It is hard to beat Alina at anything anymore and certainly NOT Boggle! When I took her back to the train station, I decided that I am going to plan a trip for Dad and I on the train, somewhere to take our bikes and ride. The train looks like so much fun. On the way back, Alina was able to ride in the top glass dome area of the train. Isn't that cool?

 

We are headed to our next adventure, Klamath Falls and Crater Lake. I booked World Mark long ago and told family to meet us there if they wanted. Only a couple of family members let me know early on that they would go but in the end, most of the family will be gathered there. It should be fun but a little squishy! I will write about that separately.

Dad and I have tried to stay busy with work throughout our travels. Dad has been good to work hard to keep the concrete business alive as well as can be. He has no builder contracts so every job takes a lot more work to get. Thank goodness to the relationships that we have been able to build in the last few years with previous clients so they keep talking about us to their friends and family. Most of our jobs are referred homeowners these days; we thank SendOutCards for that. We are still on track to retire in 2016 even with the industry having such bad years. Our plan is for our SendOutCards income to pay the bills from that point as we want to have the same financial abilities during our retirement even though the construction downturn ate into our retirement investments. 

Dad stays in shape with his cycling. He entered lots of centuries this year. He road to the beach on the back roads through McMinnville in the Reach the Beach Century in May. It rained the entire time and he was very chilled by the end; his energy was sapped. I have never seen him so depleted. A Clark County 68 mile ride took him into Vancouver and Lacamas Lake area. When Kyre and their children were in town, he did the Hagg Lake Triathlon one morning and then met up with us at Sunhee's softball tournament in Cedar Mill. Tour de Cure was in July. I met him at the end and we raced downtown to meet up with Nate and Laura on a Portland Downtown walking tour. Dad doesn't act like he has just ridden 100 miles! He rode the Ulcer Utah Lake Century with Uncle Jerry this year and that was the first time he really cramped up. He admits that he rode too fast in the beginning (trying to keep up with his younger brother!), not pacing himself safely. Alina was here visiting for his last century, that was the Beaverton, Banks and Beyond. I would like to ride a portion of that ride one of these days. I hear that it is beautiful.

  

Whew, now I am caught up. I may have missed some important new though. Love you lots, Mom