Beautiful Oregon day Hiking to waterfall and the beach

We were able to take a couple of hikes to enjoy the beauty or Oregon. This trip was to Drift Creek Falls and a suspension bridge that was on the trail. It was about a three mile hike but fun. The birds were also very musical as we went along. Renetta and I saw two bear prints in some of the mud! The slug in the video is a banana slug!

Father's day with dad

Dad had a great father's day. He seems to be so happy to be where he is even though he's not always sure where that is. We had a fun day with him. We were able to get him cleaned up and a hair cut and shaved and then took these pictures after church!

Family Cookout in Monmouth, OR

The day after we moved dad/Grandpa, we had a wonderful cookout at Rich and Renetta's. I was in the 70s and beautiful even with a threat of rain! It was so much fun for everyone. Here's our slideshow from the evening.

Dad's Moving Day and New Scooter

Michael and I just got back from a week in Oregon. We moved my 94 year old father to Monmouth, OR last week from the retirement center where he lived in Forest Grove, OR to be closer to my brother Richard and Renetta, who are his primary care takers. He did pretty good. Friday morning of the move, he got nervous and a little scared but after calming him down he did very well. We drilled him all week about where he was and his apartment number and how close Rich and Renetta are to where he lives and I think he's got that!

When I shut off his phone, the lady asked me how long he had it. I told her it was the same number I had as a child. She said she could tell it was pre-1965! I don't think we will ever have him learn a new phone number.

To lighten his day, we got him a cute yellow scooter! He loves it and can get outside and go for walks with Rich and Renetta. He got confused and thinks he has his car though! The only down side, is the day after I got home, Rich told him we were back to SC safely and he said, They came to Oregon and didn't come and see me! Oh well. . . he seems very happy with things and is eating well so I won't complain!

I have a video below with pictures of his new apartment and a video with him on his scooter.

Another walk through the garden!

I know this is turning into a garden tour but that has been our life this year in are "spare time" and something we really enjoy (except when it's in the 90s). We're about done with our strawberries but have some peaches about ripe. In fact, I took this picture and then picked them!

It seems like we can see our grapes get bigger every day.

One big job for Michael this week was making a bed for our blueberries. We still need to mulch them but hope they can grow like crazy for a lot more next year.

These beds are our green beans which are just about to bloom and our sweet potatoes. We also got the cane berry posts put in and wires strung. That was a hard job for Michael!

We're excited to have a fig tree that will produce this year.

What a storm can do!

We love watching our birds in the morning by the bird feeder. We have several families of red cardinals that visit.

My flower beds are taking off. Our hydrangeas are just starting to bloom.

We have a triangle area that I've been trying to put in wild flowers and perennials to fill it out.


We had a pretty violent thunderstorm come through Thursday night. Several big trees were blown over. In fact, it may have been a tornado. Anyway, our little maple tree that is about 7 years old and coming along nicely was a casualty.

Education Conference at SVU - Let Freedom Ring

This past weekend we went to Southern Virginia University to an Education Conference! It's a two day event instead of a week like at BYU an only has about 200-300 people that attend but it's wonderful. You get a chance to talk to the presenters and ask questions like Michael did!

Our good friends Claudia and Leslie Bright also attended and it was fun to visit with them in between sessions and at meals. They really feed us well!

We have gone for four years to these conferences. It's a five hour drive through the mountains and they are a relaxing time to be together and learn new things.

25th Anniversary of the Spartanburg II Ward

Two weeks ago, we celebrated the Spartanburg II Ward's 25th anniversary. It was organized April 1, 1984. We had a lot of fun activities and a special sacrament meeting. Here is a video of those who attended the cookout and Saturday evening activities.