Califoregon Living

A favorite tradition of our WA road trip is the Qdoba dinner we share with our friends, John and Ann Jenks.  Same time, same place, with the same precious friends!

Our close friends, Scott and Liann Smith, hosted us a couple nights in North Bend.  They spoiled us rotten and made it so hard to say goodbye!

Oldest daughter Sarai’s husband, Matt, was deployed just a couple of days earlier.  He left a flack jacket in the garage.  The boy put it on.  Well, I put it on them.  It was so heavy, it was hard to take it off!

s’mores in the backyard…oh yeah!!

The day we had to leave for home, the Smiths had a potluck BBQ so we were able to visit with a bunch of our friends.  So special, words cannot describe…

Three of the four ‘P’ quadruplets.  Missing in the picture is the token boy 🙂

Buddies for life reunited…w/the ‘S’ brothers, (missing is baby brother, ‘E’)

Getting ready to say grace over the meal…

A gallery of me and my precious girlfriends…

Lisa

April

Heidi

Kirsten

Lacey

Megan

The boys, with ‘A1’ and ‘A2’

Jesse, Margaret, Kelly, and Sue!

Bob, Mark

Austin, David

Laura, Sarai

Time to say goodbye!  So sad…

One of the boys favorite memories of North Bend is the Twin Falls Hike.  I remember when they were little peanuts and our goal was to just get to “Face Rock”.  Now, we reached the rock within 15 minutes, if even that!  And, we made it to the second falls as well!!

This is a picture of ‘R’ in Scott and Liann’s front yard.  The mountain behind him is Mt. Si.  I love his silly pose.

Dinner with good friends is such a treasure.  Enjoying the evening with the Smith and Gunning families created an evening of laughter, relaxation, and joy.

The guys…David, Scott, and Mike

The gals…Leigh, Carol, and Liann

The kids had a great time catching up.  ‘M’, here with the boys, was the little girl I watched when she was in Kindergarten.  Great days…

Miss ‘A’, growing up so fast!

‘R’, playing ‘Face the Cookie’, with a tortilla chip!

Playing on the trampoline…

I love this picture.  A heart appeared in the outdoor fire.

We spent a couple of nights at Fabio and Esperanza’s.  Alway such a special time with them.  The first night, we had a BBQ and then played some ‘Sequence’.

This hat has some history.  It used to be Uncle Paul’s when he was little.  Now it has been passed down to ‘R’…

Dado and Dada!

Everyone had to work one day, so I took the boys to Top Pot doughnuts and to visit my Auntie DeeDee and my Grandpa Jerry…

It was great catching up with our loved ones!

I met up with one of my BFFs (Heidi), at the mall, with her boys.  This is a pic of mine messing around while we were waiting for them…

The next day we spent the day in Seattle with Fabio and Esperanza.  This is us posing by Chinatown…

Our WA/ID road trip continues…on to Lake Chelan!

The long drive from Sandpoint to Chelan afforded us an opportunity to take a break at the Grand Coulee Dam…

The weather was mild at Lake Chelan.  Typically by this time in July, all the hills are brown and the lake is warm.  This year, the only ones that braved the water were the bodies under the age of 21!

My precious nieces were insane!  No matter how much they were tossed and thrown about, they never fell out!  The first shot is during a slower ride with ‘A’ in the middle…

I love this shot because it has my aunt and uncle’s house in the background…

Every year, our family on my mom’s side hosts a costume theme party for the 4th of July.  The theme is based on a state and my aunt creates an amazing menu based on the state as well.  This year: FLORIDA!

My lovely cousins, Jenna and Katy…

Time for the costumes!  My uncle ‘Gator’, and aunt ‘Sunshine State’…

My brother, the Sunkist orange tree, and my aunt…

My niece, ‘P’ was a UCA Cheerleader.  Their headquarters are in Florida.

Katy was the sun, and my niece, ‘KK’, a palm tree….

And the award for the most creative costume is my mom as THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH!  She taped her face to look like a face lift and covered her outfit with models and marketing slogans promising youth.  She carried two squirt guns…

My cousin, Jenna and in utero ‘R’ as an orange, little man ‘H’ as a golfer, and his dad, Charles, his caddy…

Katy and me.  I was a flamingo…

‘R’, a NASA astronaut, and ‘A’ was supposed to be a NASCAR racer.  He fell in love with this ‘Speed Racer’ costume.  We figured ‘Speed; had driven through Florida at least once…

‘R’, ‘A’, and pirate Daddy!

The pirate and the flamingo!

Uncle Dev showing the boys how to use their very own pocketknives.  I think we went through three bandaids for ‘R’ over the next 48 hours…

Our friend Tim takes his kids to Silverwood on a regular basis.  It’s a special tradition he has with them.  We were honored to have them invite us to join them camping and playing at  Silverwood.

Silverwood is half amusement park and half water park.  It was too cold for us to enjoy the water park, so we spent two full days at the amusement park.

Bumper Boats is a two-part ride.  Some people ride in the boats and spray each other.  Then, on the shore, there are water guns that people can pay with quarters to shoot the people in the boats!

Tim has mastered the trajectory…

Lying in wait…

‘A’…ALL IN!!!

Plotting strategy…

Our turn…

Fun on the rides…

We are Converse family…

Thumbs up…

Ferris wheel…

Hilarious shot of ‘R’ hiding.  He placed a quarter at the right time for a water bomb to soak innocent people on the log ride…

The Silverwood train ride.  A narrated tour around the grounds…

The Silverwood bison…

OOOhhhhh, an old pioneer town.  Uh oh!  We are being held up by train robbers!!

‘A’ is holding up his hands in surrender…

The well explodes!  Drenching us…

Group shot…

The Round Up…

The Panic Plunge…

Going up…

Coming down!

After a couple of nights, we left Grandma and Grandpa, and met up with our friend, Tim, and his boys, for a few nights of camping and playing at the theme park, Silverwood!

Our awesome campsite at the Farragut State Park…

Just a few miles past the park, tucked away in a little cove, is a lovely little town called Bayview.  We walked along the docks while David got a little work done at the only internet access café in town.  Located along Lake Pend d’ Oreille, this areas water depth is 1200 feet, allowing for submarine testing.

Kind of thinking this would give a few family members a chuckle…

My precious posers…

Silly boy…

This shot is taken from our campsite.  I zoomed in as far as I could to capture the boys first official business transaction on their own.  They bought firewood from the  camp hosts…

Waiting patiently for marshmallows…

Night night…

‘A’ seriously attracts dirt like no one else I have ever encountered.  Pigpen  has nothing on him!

We had a pesky chipmunk who loved to rummage through our stuff.  He even ran up my bare leg while I was reading!

After a good night sleep, we rallied for another eight-hour drive to Grandma Margaret and Grandpa Randy’s house.  Luke was thrilled to have the boys play with him…

Walking with Grandpa out to the garden…


It’s  a given, when at Grandma and Grandpa’s, some sort of grain will be in their mouths…

Planting potatoes…




Luke helps water the plants…



Everything slows down on the farm.  Long, country-road walks are a must….
‘A’ loves to stay alongside the adults and talk, talk, talk.  ‘R’ prefers to take it slow and explore everything.  I hung back with ‘R’ and enjoyed watching him touch, and collect objects of nature.

The gifts from ‘R’…

‘R’, measuring himself against a tall stem of grass…

Trying to blow the heads off of these big dandelions(?)…

Getting frustrated and just picking them off instead….

Sandpoint has a nice Farmer’s Market.  Love the flowers…