Travel

I am posting from the couch in my in-laws living room in Portland, Oregon.

Yep, we are on another trip.

I know what you are thinking...

That girl goes on more vacations than anyone I know!

And, I would not be able to argue with you this year.  

We have traveled a lot.

Disneyland 

Hawaii

Alaska

Oregon

But, I think I am done (ish).

(Going with the guy cousins to a BYU game next week, and then I'm done.)

Frank has some work trips coming up and I just keep thinking "I'm an empty nester...I should be going too!"

So we shall see if I go on any little mini trips and tag along with Frank.

It has been a great trip

but we have done lots and lots of driving.

So much driving that Ryan decides where he will stay at night based on how little car time it involves.

Frank's parents live on one side of town,

his sister on another,

and Austin on another...

it's a big triangle that we have traveled repeatedly and daily.

Oh and Austin's work?  Another direction from the other three.
He usually takes the bus which makes for a long commute so we've been giving him rides when possible.

The traffic here in Portland is worse than when we left and it was bad then.

I do not miss sitting on the freeway every time I have to go somewhere.

One main reason we are here is to visit and help Frank's parents.

I can't say that I've been super helpful but Frank has done lots of projects around the house:

Power washed the house and out buildings

Purchased and replaced light bulbs in the kitchen

Cleaned out a shed, rented a trailer and took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill

Trimmed bushes

and there is probably more that I'm not remembering.

We had some fun times with the family including:

celebrating Austin's birthday

Yes, he got Cranberry juice for his birthday. He loves the stuff.

horseshoes in the grandparents backyard

a trip to the beach

badminton in Diana's yard
(where it turned out that the cat also enjoyed the lovely sand volleyball court...she "used" it while we were playing. Yeah. Gross.  But we still had fun)

lots of card and board games

Playing "The Great Dalmuti"

frisbee golf
(three separate times!)

watching an old movie on a hot afternoon

Visiting the Portland Temple with Frank's family

a trip to Multnomah falls
(I never get tired of visiting that beautiful place)

We made fresh peach crisp with peaches that Diana was planning to can.

But when you get me near fresh peaches, well, there might not be any left by the time we leave.

Another big part of the trip was that we met Austin's girlfriend!
She is here visiting for a couple of weeks.

I don't have her permission to put her face online although I snuck a few pictures here that she is in...just no closeups.
 But I will say that we just love her.

She hung out with the family while Austin was at work and she fit right in.

It hasn't felt awkward or uncomfortable at all.  I hope she has felt the same way.

It's really fun to see Austin so happy with her too.

When Austin lived at home he was pretty secretive about his social life.  He never brought any girl home to meet us and we never even knew if he had a girlfriend.

So, to be meeting her and seeing them being affectionate is a real treat for me as a mom.

And, let's be honest, I love her accent.

She's from the UK and I could listen to her talk all day. haha

Frank wrote to Carter this week and one of the things he said to him about katy was "Mom is enjoying her British accent. "

In my letter I told him "She seems very nice and I enjoy her English accent.  She says words like “rubbish” and “whatsit” and “jumper”.  Its awesome."
So, yeah, I'm embarrassing.
_____

Well, I finished this post up from the living room of my own house.
Home again and all unpacked...but tired of being in a car, that's for sure!

We left Portland later than planned so we were driving late into the night.
But, we survived the long drive and we are now all relaxing on various couches and beds trying to avoid the subject of dinner since there's really no food in the house.
Ryan found some cookie dough that I made some time ago and froze...so that might just be dinner tonight!