At the Sea, At the Sea, At the Beautiful Sea.

Over Christmas vacation, Dan and Tessha made plans for us to spend a weekend at Seaside, Oregon with some of Dad's family.  They picked President's Day weekend and invited Gaylin and Pam and Thane and Colleen.  Tessha and Patrick with join us for the night and we were all excited for the trip.

Dan and I flew over on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14th) and Tessha and I went to Anna's Bridal to do a fitting on her wedding dress.  It's beautiful and looks wonderful on her but needed some more alterations.  We spent some time at Tessha's place just relaxing and Dan watched some movies for a while.

 

Saturday morning Tessha drove us out to Hailey's gravesite.  It had been a while since we were there so although it was raining pretty good, it was also very nice to spend a little time there.

Sunday we all got up and ready for Church and then we went to the Fanno Creek Sacarmant Meeting. When we got home we changed clothes and loaded the cars. Patrick and Dad headed off in their larger car and Tessha and I followed in the smaller car.  We needed to take two cars to the coast so Patrick could come home early Monday morning for work and the rest of us could stay a play a while. 

Brighton had a robotic tournament and afterwards he drove on over to Seaside.  We stopped at this little diner and a little town on the way.  The hamburgers were very good and the diner was quite quaint.  It reminded me of Paisley.

We arrived in Seaside after it was dark but we got settled in the Presidental Suite and readied things for the arrival of the others.  Galylin and Pam were coming with Thane and Colleen and they came soon after we got there. 

We sat around and visited and visited.  It felt so good to catch up with everyone.

We took a family picture and headed off to our beds for the night.

The next morning (President's Day) Thane and Colleen and Gaylin and Pam fixed breakfast for everyone. 

 

 

 

 

 Patrick ate and then left to get back to Portland for work but the rest of us went out to play on the beach.  It was raining off and on but that didn’t stop any of us. 

 

 

After checking out of the Wyndum we drove south and stopped along other beaches.  It was a cold, windy, rainy day but we had fun.

 

We ended our time together at the Tillamock Cheese Factory where we toured the factory and enjoyed an ice cream together.  Tessha, Dan and I headed back to Portland and the others went on further south. 

We had dinner out that night and took some over to Patrick who was hard at work. 

The next morning Tessha took Dan and I to the airport very early and we made the return trip home grateful for our time with family.  It just doesn't happen often enough.

Our Last Spring Break in Baltimore

Earlier this year we learned that Daniel and Dalynn were planning a move to the Salt Lake area this coming summer, so we made arrangements to make one last trip east.  I had a few days off during March/April for spring break and on March 27th we drove to SL.  We stopped by Maddox for our dinner.  It was interesting because most of the way down it had rained and rained and then poured more rain.  It was cloudy and the sky turned dark very early.  I am getting where I don't enjoy driving at night when it's harder to see the road.  When Dan suggested that we stop for dinner I was somewhat reluctant because I knew it meant it would be darker when we got into SL.  However, we had to stop somewhere and he really had his heart set on Maddox, so we pulled off the freeway and headed east. 

Dinner was wonderful and we both really enjoyed our meals and by the time we were ready to leave the rain had quit and the sun was out.  We drove the rest of the way in bright sun light.  I counted it as an added blessing for stopping.  We stayed that night in SL and then flew out the next morning.  Dan was able to get on the first flight out to Denver and then on to Baltimore.  I waited in SL for the flight to Detroit and from then on to Baltimore.  Dan got there about 1/2 hour before myself.  Daniel was planning to pick us up at the airport but at the last minute Dalynn came with the girls for us. 
It was so fun to be with their family again.  Alisha had set some birthday gifts for the girls and they had fun opening their packages.  Alisha had bought them each a very fun outfit. 

 

The next day (Friday) Daniel had to work so Dalynn drove the rest of us to Gettysburg.  It was raining there, as well, but that didn't stop us for going into the Visitor Center and then driving around the grounds a bit.

Before we headed back to Reisterstown, we stopped at a Carter's outlet store and bought each girl a new Easter dress.  They had fun trying them on and I had fun watching them have fun. 

 

Ember picked out a headband that looked like Elsa had in the Disney movie "Frozen".  She wore it everywhere for 3 days including while we watched the show that evening.

On Saturday morning Dan and I went with Dalynn and the girls to Mika's riding lesson.  We sat in a corner, windowed room where we could watch Mika ride in a variety of formations.  She was really rather good and so cute on top a what looked like a huge horse. 

 

Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting but Dagny wasn't feeling well so we went room after that.  Dalynn made us a wonderful dinner and we enjoyed relaxing at home with them.  And of course, it snowed.

Early Monday morning Daniel took us back to the airport and we flew home through Denver together. However, our luggage didn't make it past Denver.  It didn't arrive in Salt Lake when we did so I went to ask about it and they said they would send it on the next flight.  There was another girl there who had also lost her luggage and they told her the same thing.  She was riding to Pocatello with someone who was leaving right then so I told her I'd bring her luggage when it came in.  We waited for the call but it didn't come so we went to visit Kristi's family for a little while and then we stopped at Costco for a hotdog before we drove to the airport.  We had to wait till the 10:00 PM flight came from Denver. 

With the luggage in the car we drove home.  I was so very tired it was hard to stay awake.  It took us till 1:00 in the morning to get to Pocatello.  The young girl was so sweet and really appreciated us bringing her luggage.  It was a little thing to do since we were driving right by on our way home.  We got home around 2:00 and feel happily in bed for a few hours.

We will always be grateful for the blessing of being able to visit Daniel and Dalynn's family in Baltimore so many wonderful times before they move closer to us.

Seth Presents his Paper

On March 7th, Seth was invited to present a paper he had written as part of a Graduate Student Graduation Project.  Now, mind you, he was still an undergraduate, but his papers had been so impressive that the graduate students as if he would like to present two of his.  Really, it was quite an nonor even though Seth wouldn't say so. 
Dan and I got to go down to ISU for the second presentation.  It was really good!! and I was very impressed.  I will say that usually Seth does impress me when he presents ideas and philosopies so I shouldn't have been surprised, but in that setting and with the audience that was present, he was very impressive and I was grateful to have been there watching.
I didn't actually take any pictures doing the presentation because I didn't want to distract from it but I took a couple afterwards when a young man was visiting with Seth about his work.