OGA- Part 2

This section features alot of pictures of upper California in the Redwood National Forest. There really is no way of adequately describing this place, other than maybe at the temple. The solemnity, majesty, and grandeur of it is hard to describe. And the trees were so BIG!

Just some peeks into the forest. It was very beautiful.

Here a few pictures of our camping. I got pretty good at making smores. I started setting the graham and chocolate near the fire so the chocolate started melting, then adding the gooey marshmallow. It was a huge mess to eat it, but very Yummy. Derek was the Head Cook whenever we were camping. He made all the meals, and I was the packer, and take-downer. We developed a pretty good system. In the picture just above this note you can see Derek doing dishes- I could get very used to this!

It was like driving toward the end of the world- who knew what's behind all that fog!

We took a little detour of the Highway onto a scenic route called, "The Avenue of the Giants" It was very cool, and worth the extra time. Off this road you could go see, "Giant Tree". That was the name. Simple, but succint. Ladies and Gentleman, may I present: Giant Tree.

And here are some of the vineyards near Napa Valley. Very pretty, though too bad they don't grow something else, like Bon Bons. That is one tour I'd love to go on!

"Our Grand Adventure" Part 1

I"m going to finally tell about our trip. We took TONS of pictures, so going through them all and deciding which to use was quite a job. I decided to just show the highlights but even that was alot of pictures, so I'm going to break it up and try to post a few pictures everyday. This first segment are many of the pictures along Highway 101 down the Oregon coast. If you have never driven down this Highway you should make it a point to do it sometimve. It is a beautiful drive, and there are many places to stop to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The weather was gorgeous, and it was such a nice start to our trip. We drove from Spokane to Newport Beach, Oregon, and stayed at a cabin/hotel right next to the beach. We stayed there on our Honeymoon, so it was very neat to stay there again.

We had to get the timing just right with this picture to get it with the wave crashing behind me. The sea was so tumultuous and impressive! It got to be a joke between us because there were so many places that were named something with Devil in it like Devil's churn, and Devil's throat, and Devil's elbow, or whatever. We started making up names like Devil's pants, and Devil's upset stomach, etc.

I like this picture even though its way too close and only a partial shot of us!



Although the day was very mild and nice, the night got really chilly and windy. This was not a staged shot, just Derek waiting for me to say smile!

I'm glad the flash got this...

We have returned!!

Well it's been a great two weeks, and we are weary now with all the traveling and adventures we've had, but we are back! We're trying to get back into normality. We took a ton of pictures, but although our computer is working again, it is being goofy with the internet. I"m at the library catching up on things. As soon as it is working again I'll put a post up with pictures. I missed you all and reading your blogs!

New Calling

I forgot to mention that i got a new calling! I had known about it for awhile but wasn't called for a few weeks, so I forgot that it is still new to most everyone else. I got called as the Young Women's President for our ward. I feel very overwhelmed, worried, excited, blessed and humbled to be able to work with these amazing young women. I'm glad I had a chance to get to know them a little as the adviser the last couple months, it has helped with the transition. Anyway, pray for me that I do well and help these girls learn all they can while on my watch!

It's...it's...ALIVE!

Of course, I mean our computer! My computer savvy husband brought it back to life, and now its better than ever. He built our first one, and after sending out for some more updated parts (it all worked out for him, he's been asking to update different parts of our computer for awhile now. This gave me a good reason to give in. I couldn't agree to newer parts when our old ones still worked perfectly fine!) he was able to put this one back together again, refurbished!

But, I was happy to find this picture because this is actually a really funny movie, sort of a spoof on the original Frankenstein. The Young Frantenstien is a good choice for a clean, funny, family movie.