Happy Birthday, Alyse

After sleeping in until 9 a.m. (yes!) we ran some errands today and then met Kyle, Alyse and the grandkids at Golden Corral in Nampa, Idaho for Alyse's birthday dinner.  Lilly had on her Mexican outfit and modeled for us.

Then we went inside for a feast. 

The kids quickly ate their main food and then we spent about an hour watching them gorge upon sugar desserts and more sugar desserts.  S.J. was so cute eating his cotton candy.  At first he just ate a little bit and then he started shoving his face into the plastic to get bigger bites.  It was hilarious.  By the time he was done, his entire face was filled of pink coated sugar.  

S.J. started off slow...

...but he couldn't get enough!

Lilly had so many treats, I couldn't even keep track - chocolate covered strawberries, macaroons, gummies, cupcake, cotton candy and ice cream.  I don't even think I got it all.  My goodness!

Lilly's got SUGAR GLAZED EYES!!
They're starting to get glazed over from sweet treat overload!

But, she's still going strong!

And ice-cream to top off all the deserts!

After we ate, Alyse brought the kids over for some fun at our RV and we went over to the park and played across the parking lot from where we're parked.  Lilly made a little friend immediately.  S.J. loved climbing up the slide...just like every kid on the planet!  Grandpa came over and he had fun swinging with Lilly and playing with S.J. on the slide.

Then, everyone came back for some water, a few minutes to warm up and Alyse opened her birthday present - Disney's Coco that she asked for.

Then, everyone headed back outside for round two of fun and games and they kids tried to  "Catch Coco" at the ball field grass.  Coco kept Lilly and S.J. running in circles but would NEVER catch Coco.  That dog is F-A-S-T!

Here are two cute and very short videos to show you how much fun they had:

Heading back to our RV

If these kids don't sleep good tonight, I'll be very surprised.  We've had fun here in Emmett and tomorrow morning we have to leave bright and early so Scott can be back for a church meeting tomorrow at 1 p.m. in Logan.  So, we're hitting the road again.

Where's Waldo??

Today I went over to do a little babysitting today and brought Where's Waldo over to Kyle's house that I bought in Seattle a few days ago. 

Kyle was home working remotely so he was barricaded mainly in his bedroom.  I brought S.J. over a new car and he loved that.  He's a smart one.  He figured out that if you roll it backwards it will go forwards.  He also spent a lot of time at his train set we gave him.

For Lilly, I brought over her new Mexican outfit (you can see part of it on the photo below) and  Where's Waldo and we spent about 1.5 hours looking for Waldo, Waldo's girlfriend, Wenda, the Wizard Whitebeard, the dog - Woof, "Bumblebee" (Waldo's friend - Odlaw) the Wizard's Scroll, Odlaw's Binoculars, Woof's bone, Wenda's camera and Waldo's key.

It was pretty fun and she actually stayed it with 45 minutes longer than I thought she would.  Good job, Lilly!

But, after a few hours, my left ear was really acting up and I figured Alyse would be back from her lunch with a friend at any time, so I told Kyle I had to go and I slept the afternoon away.  I've had an ear infection since Feb 18th and the last few days it's really been acting up - probably with going from sea level to 4,000 feet has something to do with it.  Regardless, even my ear medication isn't doing anything for it, so I've made an appointment to get to the doctor before we fly to Holland, which will also create havoc on it I'm sure.  I got in for next Friday, but on Monday when we get to Logan I'll see if they have something that afternoon.  They usually keep a few emergency appointments open then.  We have appointments all week long next week and to make matters worse, the truck will be in the shop to take the tool bed off the back and install a 100 gallon gas tank in it's place.  I'm hoping to get a couple of temple sessions in there also.  I have a bunch 2-3 couples to do and a gob of sealings...Not a lot of down time but I've got to get everything done and we leave for Amsterdam on April 23rd.  Plus, we have to take everything out of the RV we aren't going to need for the summer and put it in storage because we won't be back to Logan until Aug 24th.

Tonight, everyone is just recouping in their own zones.  We'll sit here in the RV and watch a movie or a couple TV shows.  It actually turned out OK because Scott has a bunch of things he has to do for work.  He was up for a meeting at 5:30 a.m. and he probably won't get to bed until about 10 p.m. waiting to close projects from work.  Poor guy!  He's a hard worker.

A Bubbly Video Sort of Day

I spent the majority of the day today over at Kyle and Alyse's place hanging out and then babysitting about 3 hours.  They live in a little rental house on Dittman Drive.  I brought the kids half of their presents from Mexico - Lilly got a cute dress that she wasn't impressed with at all 😢 and S.J. got his drum that he loved.  I think Lilly wanted a toy, too.  Oh well.

It was a "bubbly" sort of day since the kids loved chasing bubbles.  S.J. is really getting good at his speech since his ear surgery and he's a happy little guy.  I loved this photo I took of him smiling.  What a happy kid!  And, his smile can just melt your heart!  Lilly was a Miss Chatty Cathy all day long.

I got a couple cute very short videos of Lilly and S.J. chasing bubbles, too.

I was very impressed with S.J.'s counting today.  He constantly repeated his number 1-10 like a pro.  He's ready to master the Alphabet now.  And, Scott sent me a 12-second video of Coco and Chanel running through the park at our RV location on his lunch break.  They were so happy to be FREE and just run.  I guess today was also video day.

Lilly should be dubbed the Hot Dog Queen.  The girl can put away those things so fast.  I had to chuckle because Lisa and Cierra HATE hot dogs but Alyse and Lily LOVE them!  So funny!  They are all products of their mothers. I guess.

Even though S.J. was a happy camper, I don't think he was feeling all that great and he napped off about 3:15 p.m.  Lilly finally quieted down then when she got mesmerized with a TV show she was watching.  Other than that, she's a non-stop, talkative and active 5 year old with so much energy you could bottle it up and sell it and become a millionaire.  

Kyle came home at 5:15 p.m. from work he brought home a new thermometer and when I told him S.J. wasn't feeling that great he applied it to his head and it said 105.2 then the other side and it was 101.4 then in his ear and it was 103.  He tried it on Lilly and hers were all weird and he tried it on me and I was a mess.  I think he needs to calibrate it.  LOL.  I headed back to have dinner with Scott at the RV before we returned at 7 p.m. to hang out until 9 p.m. chatting and then we all watched Moana with all her ocean bubbles.

Web Photo

Tomorrow, I'll be over at some point to babysit again while Alyse and Kyle have lunch together on his lunch break...I'm exhausted today.  It poured rain all night last night and that may have kept me up.  I think I could have slept all day long.  My eyes have just been really sleepy and I didn't get up until 10 a.m. this morning.  I hope I'm not getting sick.  That would NOT be good before we go to Holland in 10 days!

Coco in Emmett

Arrived in Emmett about 1 p.m. today and had a quick drive over from Deadman Pass.  Alyse asked me to babysit the kids while she went to work and I said I'd be over at 2:50 p.m.  Little did I know that the clocks didn't change to Mountain Standard Time AND I had locked my keys in the car so I made her very late to work!  How frustrating!  😟  What a rough day, today.  But, Lilly and S.J. loved watching Coco in the RV and then Grandpa brought home McDonalds.  Personally, I 💖Coco.  It's one of my all-time favorite Disney movie!  Remember Me!

We're staying the Hoppell Field and RV Park in Emmett like we did last year.  Everything is just the same.  We're in unit 6 this visit.  We LOVE staying at this park. It's really GREAT!  The last time we were here it took me about 20 tries to get lined up and this time it only took about 3.  Scott said I had it on the first try but I wanted to make an adjustment.  So, I'm getting better in the backing up area.  That's good!  It was actually quite warm when we arrived but by about 6 p.m. storm clouds were developing.  We're only a 5 minutes drive away from Kyle down 12th Street and then up Mill Rd to his street.  So this location is easy and close to them.  Kyle showed me the fabulous birthday gift he bought Alyse.  It will be fun to see her reaction.

Tomorrow, we get a little bit of rain and then it's dry for the next two day.  My plants will be happy about that.  I lost one of my flowers to mold in Oregon and Washington from being too wet.  They are outside waiting lots of sunshine.

Deadman Pass on the Oregon Trail

We packed up the Montana and left Olympia, Washington this morning about 9:15 a.m.  It was raining but before we could go, Scott had to get on the roof of the rig and sweep off all the fallen pine cones, twigs and branches that had fallen during all the rain we had here before we could put in the slides.  It rained just about the whole time to Vancouver but the traffic was light so it wasn't bad.  Once we crossed the state line into Oregon, we drove along the Columbia River which is always a gorgeous drive with the mountain, water and trees.  I-84 is a great road and with the light traffic made the drive enjoyable.

You can see the Columbia River on the left side.

We enjoyed driving past Multnomah Falls.  It was in very full since the snows are melting and the ground is full of water.   If I had been in the left lane, I would have been better prepared to take the exit, but I'm just adding a web photo of it for you by Columbia River Gorge.  It is also a great website to explore about the Columbia River as well.  I noticed circles drilled in the side of the mountains with water pouring out also.  And, wildlife wise, there were 4 large mountain goats on the side of the road grazing and the strangest deer I've ever seen - the front half looked like a normal brown deer but the back looked like an Appaloosa horse! 

Columbia River Gorge Web Photo

We originally planned to stay the night at the Rufus Landing Recreation Area right and fly the drone over the Columbia that we found from a blog post by Wheelin' It, but we were there by 2 p.m. and it was too early to stop so we decided to go on to Boardman, the halfway point to where we're headed.

Wheelin It Web Photo

Wheelin It Web Photo

But, even at Boardman, it was barely 3 p.m. so we decided to go just past Pendleton, Oregon to the Deadman Pass Rest area for the night.

Boardman Rest Area - Exit 160

Mosier Rest Area - Exit 73

I have always liked the Deadman Pass Rest Area because it's tucked in the mountains above Pendleton, but it also meant we were going to climb up the steep grade.  The good thing is that we've done the grade and now we can just head on into Emmett tomorrow an hour earlier than we anticipated.

Deadman Pass Rest Area - Exit 228

Once we got to the rest area, I just happened to look down at my truck tire and it looks like there's a big gash out of it.  So, now we will probably have to stop in LaGrange tomorrow morning to have it looked at better so we don't get a blow out.  Gee.  Our truck only has 18,000 miles on it, too.

Deadman Pass Rest Area is very nice.  Both cars and trucks enter at the same entrance and the truck just swing around to park.  When the cars are done, they swing around to the back of the truck side and both exit the same location.  The rest stop is small but large in amenities.  There are two dog walking areas on both the car and truck sides and they are grassy areas - not gravel like most rest areas have.  At the main info center there are also maps of the state for you to take, a small but pristine bathroom facility, two vending machines and LOTS of picnic areas.  There's also a porta-potty on site as well.

There is an Oregon Train Interpretive Center to learn about the Oregon Trail.

You can see our rig between the buildings.

After we parked our rig on the end parking spot and got the generators going, I noticed that there was an Oregon Trail - Trail Site with a step going over the barbed wire.  Curiosity got the better of me and I climbed over the fence and walked along the path until it led to a large meadow.  To the left I saw a house so I decided not to venture further, but I noticed to the far right was a pretty meadow of purple flower so I went over there then followed the Oregon Trail path back to the rig.  It was a nice walk, even though it had started to rain.  It's interesting to note that our bedroom is right in the path of the settlers took on the Oregon Trail!  Kinda cool! 💖

You can clearly see the path made my wagons here.

Well, time to shut down.  I've been working in the cap of the rig and we didn't pull out the slides.  It's a bit tight, but doable.