Oregon, Part 1

During the whirlwind summer I've had, I was able to go to Oregon with Conor to visit my brother, his wife, and my 3 nieces: Jon, Jen, Madi, Livi and Gabi. I always have a blast while in Wilsonville, and this time was definitely no different. Conor was busy with boring baseball, and Jon had to work all day, so that left us ladies to go wild and crazy! You'll never guess what crazy antics we got into! That's right, we went to an Oregon Trail Center and the Oregon City Museum. Jelly?

In all honesty, I am a huge nerd, and after teaching about the Oregon Trail for 3 years, I really enjoy learning more about it. Olivia suggested that we go, and how do you resist a cute 11 year-old that wants to do something she thought of for you on her summer vacation?!? Although I think Olivia wished she hadn't brought it up once we got there, I still had a blast. Here are some highlights from our adventure:


Madi being a typical teenager on her cell phone, even though she is surrounded by lots of dead animals...


A list of ways to receive "lashes" from your school-teacher back in the day. Children all across North Carolina are lucky I'm not teaching this year, this would have been upheld for sure.  (You should be able to click on the picture to make it a bit bigger to see better.)


In case you were wondering if Gabi is a Bean or not, the kids all sat down at old fashioned desks, and Jen asked us questions that might have been common knowledge in the mid 1800s. Gabi drew this instead.


A list of items that may have been needed to get started on your journey from Independence, MO to Oregon City, OR. Told you I was a huge nerd.


This box is a replica of one that a black female slave rode in for the entire 2,000 mile journey to Oregon. Slaves were not allowed to make the trek, but this woman was free, and chose to stay with her family that she worked for. They had this box built into their covered wagon. Can you imagine? She only came out at night once everyone was asleep so she could stretch her legs and grab something to eat.


I love that this was in a book of common remedies used in the 1800s, since doctors were hard to come by.

After we left the Oregon Trail center, we drove up to an outdoor elevator which took you from one city block to the next block below it. It is the only outdoor elevator in the US, and it's a bit bizarre. There were lots of pictures to show how they built the elevator, and there was a man behind plexi-glass that took us up and down. Somehow I forgot to take pictures - check the link above to see it.

After that, we decided to make one more stop at Multnomah Falls and the Oregon City museum. The girls were so excited that they could hardly contain themselves. Poor girls. Jen and I had a blast, and they really were troopers! More photo highlights:


Oregon City is one of the earliest settled Western cities - it is where most pioneers were heading when they left the East Coast for fertile lands, religious freedom, and a new life. This part of the day was the most interesting. There was some seriously weird stuff in the museum, and as I look back on it now, I'm not 100% sure what it all had to do with Oregon City. Anywho, they had lots of pictures on the walls, some interesting "artifacts" and the remnants of an old pharmacy.








Out of this entire wall photo, this is the one kid that stuck out to me (can we talk about his arms - they're enormous!)


Gross.

After a fun day, we came home to relax for a bit - we played the Wii (Gabi is ridiculously good), ate a wonderful dinner (homemade pizzas where we were attacked by killer bees, according to Madi and Livi), then went for a couple rounds of bowling - it was going to be Gabi's first time!

You have to check out these two videos I took of Gabi. The first one is of Gabi playing Mario and Sonic at the Olympics on the Wii. She is competing in the Trampoline, and her determination is amazing. The second one is of Gabi bowling for the first time - she did great!





Here are some other great pictures from bowling - all in all, Jon won both games and Jen has the best strike dance, but I really won because my sunglasses matched my shoelaces.









Part 2, OMSI coming up soon!

It's just what we do.

I was able to get together with Susie during my trip home since we barely got to see each other before I headed East - it was really good to catch up. Sue told me about her wedding planning, Susan told me about her new classroom, and Susie told me about her latest shenanigans in her new house and with Chuck and their friends. We had a great time. And for the record Sus, I paid this time, so next one's on you!

Pinky Swear

Just wanted to let all 3 of my faithful readers know that I'm still here - hi Conor, hi Susie, hi, uh...

Just wanted to promise myself that I will be updating soon. I am still in Washington and without a personal computer, so I have nowhere to upload my photos, but there are more blogs coming soon - friends, family, Portland, Boise, Utah, Mike's wedding, etc - I'm so mentally prepared to blog that I'm ready for events that haven't even happened yet! Just don't forget about me, ok? Patience is a virtue.

Groovy

Megan was in town for a day from Coeur d'Alene (look Meg, I spelled it right!), so the three lovely Glasseys went out on the town for the day. After getting the dirt on Meg's new boyfriend, we hopped in Ann's car and headed to University Village to get some lunch, do some shopping, and catch up. We ate at Johnny Rocket's and although our waiter was a little on the odd side, he did win us over by making ketchup people that looked like us - Ann's had cute hair, and Megan's had freckles!

After lunch, we did some window shopping at Fireworks, Sole Food, Louis Permelia, and a shop where Ann bought a hat for next year's Hat Day at Mann Elementary. I don't know how I forgot to get a picture of her in her hat!

Next we drove to Redmond to get our nails done. I was going to get electric yellow to match my shades, but I'm not that cool, so I went for electric blue instead. We saw Groovy Hair Guy across the street in all his glory, so I can officially go back to NC now, my trip is complete.

I love hanging with Meg and Ann - I can't believe the next time we'll be able to do that is at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Crazy.

Thank Goodness Brandi knows people

All of us gals haven't been together in a long time, and a reunion was long overdue! Although Melissa couldn't be there, and we missed here a lot, we still had a blast - who's planning for next year ladies?

Corene was nice enough to drive to our shindig, so Caroline, Corene and I went to the airport to pick up Tien. We got to the cabin around 11:00pm, and fell in love immediately. Brandi's friends the McVicker's have a cabin on Lake Roesiger in Snohomish, WA and they were kind enough to let us stay there over the weekend. We had everything we needed - a kitchen, table to play games and chat, ping pong table, upstairs loft, bathroom/shower, and a boat!

On our first night there, we unpacked all the food (I think we somehow thought we were staying there for weeks, rather than days) and sat around the table and chatted until about 3am. It was great catching up with everyone. Here is what my friends are up to now.

Tien is living in San Francisco with her boyfriend Isaac. She is doing marketing for a blogging company, and loves her life in SF.

Corene is still working for Medrix in Redmond, and is dating a wonderful guy named Dave. She lives in Snoqualmie with her cousin Chandra.

Caroline is currently living in Redmond with Horia Dociu, from high school. She is interning in Redmond as our own Leslie Knopp. She will be going to Portland State University in the fall to get her masters in Urban Planning and Development.

Brandi plans to go back to Boston in the fall to continue working with Harvard University as a softball coach, and right now she is living at home with her parents in Redmond, and is teaching clinics to kids who can't swing good. This update does Brandi no justice, she has a million other things going on, but too many to blog. Get your own blog B-Funk!

After waking up from the sweltering heat in the loft, we got up and had some breakfast before we got our suits on and lubed up for our day on the boat. Brandi's wonderful friends offered to come up during the day to take us out on the Lake, and we all had a blast. Caroline and I stuck to the intertube, Corene made wakeboarding look like breathing, Brandi made dock-starts look like walking, and Tien made wakeboarding look like quantum physics. Just kidding Tien! Tien was a trooper and even tried - Caroline and I stuck to the easy stuff. She was able to get up almost everytime, but then her body would get a little ahead of her, and she'd fall. We took turns being on the boat and going around the lake, sitting on the dock soaking up the perfect weather we had, or swimming around to stay cool.

We were all exhausted and ready for lunch by the time we made it back to the dock. We ate, took naps, played some games, bocce balled, ate dinner around the campfire, chatted some more, played a few more games, and CRASHED upstairs.

Our last day there was really relaxing - we played card games around the table while chatting (Corene was able to shoot the moon while playing Hearts!), ate lots of junk food and homemade goodies that Brandi made, (mmm... streudel...) then went outside to soak up a bit more sun before we had to pack up and go back home. I had such a great time laughing, joking, playing, and hanging with my favorite girls - I can't wait to do it again!

Fans? We don't need no stinking fans.

Madi and I left Birch Bay on Thursday to spend a day with mom and the rest of the girls before I went on a trip with my best friends from high school. It was unbelievably hot inside, so we set up camp outside - it was the best! The mosquito bites were totally worth it.

Birch Bay 2009

It was time to go to Birch Bay for the 26th time in my life, and almost all the family was there: Dad, Kathy, Jon, Jen, Madi, Livi, Gabi, Denise, Ali, Pax, Greg, Kari, Max and ME!

Conor couldn't be there because he had to work, so we all made sure to fart a little extra, take a couple naps on the couch, and lose at Mormon Bridge to make it feel like he was actually there.

Although the tides were awful, we still managed to enjoy the beach as much as we could - making sand castles, wading around in the gross and disgusting water, smelling the "fresh" air, flying kites, playing games on the beach - whatever we could fit in.

When not at the beach, we walked down to the C-Shop where I got my first bee sting ever. It was not fun at all, I don't recommend it.

We also spent lots of time on our lawn learning that all adults (except for Jen) cannot hula hoop. Madi is just plain 'ol good at the Hoop, but I loved that the other girls had their own unique style - Olivia hula hoops like a rockstar, Ali likes to do the funky chicken, and Gabi has instituted a sort of "crab walk." The first video below is of a few family members trying it out. The second video is of Madi impersonating her dad.

We also went Go-Karting. Somehow, the twins won both of their races - Pax won with Grandpa, and although Jon was somehow thwarted by his evil little sister, Ali won with Jen. Olivia and I were in it to make the pictures look good.

There is a Thomas the Tank Engine train that runs at this Go-Karting place, but I refuse to ever go on it again because I have this sinking feeling that I will either die there someday, or that it is the future setting of a horror film. It was hard to resist Max's cute face, but Denise, Rick and I stayed back while everyone else went. Honestly, these two pictures do not do the creepiness any justice...


All in all it was a great trip! We were able to play lots of board games at night, which is always fun. We escaped the heatwave that hit the rest of the state by being near the ocean breeze. We were able to watch the sunset almost every night, sno-scone night was a blast, we had two birch bay firsts - the power went out the first night we were there after we drove through a crazy lightning storm, and we made our neighbors so angry that they called management to come yell at us. The only thing missing was the tall guy in white shorts drinking out of his beer stein. Maybe next year.