Christmas Update 2024

After 7 years dormant, the old family blog lives! Sadly, most of the photos previously uploaded here have disappeared, but this little corner of the internet still holds many of our family memories.

LIFE UPDATES:

Just over a year ago, our family made some major changes: The girls joined Ezra at public school (he began in 2021 as a freshman) and Becca ended a 17-year career as a stay-at-home/homeschooling parent.  This was a monumental change for our family, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect!  

Now, in the Fall of 2024, Ezra,18, is a high school senior, works as a barista ("Bro-ista") at Dutch Bros, and plays volleyball for his high school, here’s a short clip.  He has been accepted to several colleges and is still deciding where he wants to go next year, but it's unlikely he'll stay in Oregon.  Still, he knows he wants to major in kinesiology (or a similar major) to become a physical therapist.  His dream would be to work with athletes, but as the biggest extrovert of our family, he'll do great working with any population.

Junia, 16, is a junior at the same high school as Ezra.  She’s a captain on the school's dance team, a major focal point of her high school career.  Juni has been driving independently since September and has applied to several jobs these last few weeks.  She’s hoping to work for Starbucks (a competitor to Dutch Bros, which makes for a fun sibling rivalry). She is still figuring out what she wants to do someday but is intrigued with forensic science, astrophysics, and chemical engineering at this time.  Here’s a video of her dance team’s novelty routine at a recent competition, which they got 2nd place for both last week and at the championships on 12/14/24.   

                               

Junia's in the center in blue below

Phoebe, 13, is in the 7th grade and at a wonderful charter school focusing on the arts. At her school, Phoebe plays upright bass in the orchestra and she plays guitar in the jazz band. She still loves animals and has two cats she cares for daily (Edmund and Rosie).  She is magnetically drawn to play piano, bass, or guitar anytime possible, but especially if she has homework to do.  Phoebe wants to be a sound engineer when she grows up. Here’s a clip of a recent concert  she played in.

Becca has returned to work as a mental health counselor. She's at a wonderful group practice, North Albany Wellness Center, working two days at their downtown office and two days at Albany Options School, a Title I high school.  She’s halfway to becoming certified in EMDR therapy after spending the last year deep-diving into DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), her primary modality.  She’s in the church choir (here's them singing last Sunday), she's also on the Youth Leadership Team for church and her proudest role lately has been doing make-up for Juni’s dance team competitions. 

Eyeliner was applied to 26 dancers for 3 competitions this fall.  

Girls trip to the coast

Ben continues to enjoy his work at Garmin in aircraft maintenance and certification.  He recently finished a two year stint on a FAA’s Aviation Rule-making Advisory Committee that advises Congress.  He just began a three-year term on Salem City Council’s Airport Advisory Committee.  For fun, he plays electric bass for our church’s worship team and bicycles to work when it’s not raining. 

Ben took part in a Oregon BikeMS charity ride this year

He also traveled to Berlin with his dad and two sisters in the Spring.

Speaking of trips, Ben and Ezra spent Spring Break 2024 on a cross-country road trip to bring back a Nissan Altima that Ezra inherited from his great-grandpa Jennings, who sadly passed away just a few months later.  Here's some photos from their adventures:

They stopped at our alma mater in Longview, Texas

Hoover Dam

The Grand Canyon

And back home again...

This summer we spent three weeks out East soaking up family time as we celebrated three major milestone birthdays for family in Tennessee and Ohio.  Here’s some pics:

We celebrated my dad's 70th in Tennessee with family, then had lots of adventures. 

Only 3 of us fell off the raft at one point...could have died, but we didn't!

Ben's entire maternal side gathered in Mansfield, Ohio for Gramma's 90th birthday!

Ben's sibs and families, mom, step-dad & grandma

Me with my Mom-in-love and her mom, the birthday girl

Brothers

                                   

Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame

Visiting family graves

We spent a couple of days in Columbus celebrating mom's 70th

Peace to you in the coming new year!

Up, up and away!

Going up in a hot air balloon has never been something I thought we'd ever do.  When we arrived in Oregon, Ben made some connections at the airport that led to his becoming the new inspector and part-time mechanic for a local hot air balloon company (very part time second job).  So, this happened as a result.

I documented the whole process as it's not something most people do every day, and thought there might be someone interested.  First they tip the basket over and hook up the envelope (balloon).

Below is a picture of the top of a hot air balloon, it has a separate circular piece of fabric called the parachute that can be opened by the pilot to release the hot gases to descend.

On one side they are preparing for the lift.

 On the other, volunteers are filling the envelope with air (intermittently firing the heaters into it).

These two guys are hard to see, but they are running along as the envelope quickly raises up off the ground, helping it stand up more slowly.  It looked like fun.

 We all piled in (did I mention it was a 6:30am take-off?).

 Look up!

 ...and we're off!  They gave Phoebe a platform so she could see over the edge of the basket (she's not taller than her big sister quite yet).

 Beautiful Newberg, Oregon reminds me of England...

...only with mountains (see Mt. Hood).  We reached 2000 ft at our maximum elevation.

The landing was more than "bumpy", she told us to get into crash position, we hit a field, then stood up and watched as we slow motion bounced up then back to crash position for a second "THUNK!"  We hit the side of a ditch before finally landing.  Our pilot asked Ben and one other guy to get out and help move the basket.  You'll hear our pilot talk about whether the envelope would come down on something sharp like a sign or stake in the field.

Then everybody else got out of the basket, but the pilot asked me and the kids to stay in, we didn't expect to be tipped over!

Then, we were all invited to help roll up the envelope and to push out the air.

 Juni and Phoebe were thrown on top to help roll out the air

It all fit in this bag and loaded onto a trailer that also carried the basket.  We rode in the van that pulled it back to the air field.

Volunteers who sign up to launch and chase hot air balloons get a free pass to ride every seventh time they volunteer.  Seems like a fun retirement idea.  

They served us a fancy breakfast when we returned to the air field.  It was a memorable morning! 

I just have one question.  Why is it "a hot air balloon" and not "an hot air balloon"?   

February in Review

Some of our February highlights include driving East an hour an a half to the mountains to play in the snow in Sisters, OR...                                  

                                     
                                       

Sisters in Sisters!

From the top of the sledding part of the hill:

From the tippy top of the hill, about 5,500 feet:

 ...and driving an hour and a half West of us to get sea level to play at the beach the same week as our trip to visit snow in the mountains.

                                      
                                      

              (Some beach rocks, in case you were wondering)

                                      

                        February was also when Juni learned how to ride a bike in one day (oh glorious day!),

                                     

and Ben starting back to riding his bike to work (which he did from our rental home when we first got here, but hadn't since September after our move).  Now he rides to work any day it's not raining, which is about 50% of the time.  He was recently promoted to Avionics and Modifications Team Lead at Garmin AT Repair Station where he is also Chief Inspector.

We also decided it was time to get back to normal chores around the house.  The kids now help with dishes and laundry, set and clear the table, sweep the floor, and clean the bathrooms regularly in addition to keeping their own spaces clean.

Don't worry, they still play every afternoon after school with the neighbors and get to be kids.

As do we!  Here we are with our buddy, Gouda, the Guentner's Garden Center gorilla who lives close to our house.

This is the month that I pulled a tooth out with pliers for the first time.  Ezra had a loose molar that was bothering him, so we fixed that problem.  I'm also back to cutting Ezra's hair.  We aren't doing much besides school and playing right now, we're still getting grounded.

Here's some Oregon observations from February:

The tsunami-like cloud we saw one day.  We have seen three huge rainbows since arriving in OR.

The weather here is temperate ranging between 30-70 all Winter. I have NEVER in my life experienced such a warm February, most days are in the 50s or 60s.  It's finally raining consistently as we were told it would in Oregon.

THAT is why I see fast food places with covered outdoor seating.  The weather is moderate enough year round that as long as one is protected from the rain (and wearing a sweater), you could sit outside year round.  

We have a covered back porch and we didn't think much of it until others visited and said, "Oooh, that'll be nice in the winter!"  Yup!  Of course, it's fun to play in the rain too.

This is a tree near our home that I just love so much!  The kids laugh at me when I pull over to take pictures of things like this.  It's for you, my lovely dozen blog readers.  I do these crazy things for you, which makes me kinda crazy, I suppose, or is it you, for reading this?

Finally, I've been wanting to share the cars with you! They have normal cars here, but they also have a disproportionate number of old cars.  The reason?  No salt on the roads!  If it gets cold enough to snow, they use sand, but all the rain usually washes it away.  We love seeing old Slug Bugs and other vintage cars all over the place.

In the news, Oregon State Capital building has all fifty state flags outside it, or at least it usually does.  This week, it removed the Mississippi state flag from the circle of state flags after giving Mississippi fair warning that it needed to lose the bars and stars from it's flag or risk it being removed from our courtyard.  Mississippi was not apparently phased by Oregon's threat. 

This is the new invention that has Garmin employees talking as well as little ones in my family.  Evidently, we HAVE to save up for one.  I'm not so sure about that.

We love you, you crazy readers, you!  Thanks for visiting our little place in cyberspace!