Tuesday, April 22, 2008

22 April 2008

We got back last night from our quick 4 day trip to Idaho for Zina's baptism. Only about 1/5 of our 640 mile road trip was on an interstate. The rest of the time we drove on narrow highways through sagebrush and an occasional small town. The highlight of Hines, Oregon is this impossibly tall, rickety slide. Our kids found it the perfect place to take a break from the road.


A new YMCA opened in Ketchum, Idaho and we went swimming there with Grandma and Grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins. The YMCA is super nice. Besides a regular lap pool, it has a terrific play pool with a slide, a lazy river and lots of water toys. Zina and Sophie are playing with some of the huge faucets the kids can turn on and off.


Becky forgot to bring Helen's swimsuit to the pool, so Helen went swimming in a swim diaper. There are advantages to being 3 years old. Brandan and Abe missed the pool and enjoyed St. Luke's emergency room instead. Fortunately it was not too serious, and after sleeping nearly the entire 12-hour trip home, Abe is starting to perk up.


Here we are back at Sarah and Joe's. From the left, the kids are Sy, Gibson, Sophie, Sawyer, Zina, Helen and Abe. Sarah and Joe were fabulous hosts. Their normal household of 3 (plus one fat cat Becky regards with hostility) swelled to 15 for the weekend and we all enjoyed their generosity, kindness and phenomenal organizational abilities!


Sarah and Joe's house has lots of examples of the terrific hardware Joe makes like these bin pulls in the kitchen. The bronze is about 1/8 inch thick and feels very substantial in your hand.


Here is Helen curled up under one of Sarah's handmade quilts. Sarah has a great eye for color and pattern and makes several beautiful quilts a year. Those are Brandan's feet, ala Pippi Longstocking.


One more photo from the road- only 3 more hours from this spot to home. We think Katie should say yes.

1 comment:

Maggie, Drue, Salem, Sutton, & Xander said...

Salem loves the picture of the kids on the slide. She now wants to visit Hines so that she too can ride the slide. We're sorry to hear about Abe's ER visit. We hope you're all healthy now.