McMenamins all the time!

We seem to be going to McMenamins a lot lately. One night Cari, Doug, Caitlyn, Mark, and I went to the one off of Scholls for Doug's birthday. He likes this one, so off we went. Don't you love Cari's glasses???

Heck, everyone is wearing glasses.

Doug seems to be able to take care of himself.

So WHAT the heck is Cari doing?

Number one?

Then when Dad was in town he, Mark, and I went to Edgefield.

Mark loves to sit outside.

Ater lunch you have to stroll and check everything out.

The artwork.

The gardens.

The golf course. It's all here!

We love it out here, and like Dad said, we'd probably be out here nearly everyday if we lived nearby.

Even the street signs are fun.

And Dad and I went to John Barleycorns for lunch.

Dad gets a kick out of the fact it's next to a warehouse. Gotta take a picture!

Love the coasters. Dad talked our waiter into getting him a few to take home.

This is 'part' of my favorite beer. I like to order a 'Rubinator': a mixture of Ruby and Terminator. I think Cari turned me on to these. Man, I love my children!!!

Dad and Relay

My dad came up to attend the Survivor Celebration at the Relay For Life in Beaverton. Here he waits for the first lap to begin.

All our Survivors gather. Some of our Survivors are so very young: too young to have to fight cancer already. I hate cancer.

Dad joins in the ranks. Beautiful sunny day.

Rachel and I cheer from the sidelines.

Not sure if Dad is telling Mark to back off, or shake his hand! LOL!

I joined Dad in walking. I'm so glad Dad could make it!!! I miss Mom and thought of her often during the Relay. I have to admit I cried a few times.

For the Luminaria Ceremony I set up 'The Empty Table'. My other hubby Victor read the text that goes along with the table and he did an amazing job, as I knew he would. And ask him about having to read a hand written copy. Ask me about having to hand write out the text! I've discovered that printers really are our friends.....

Clackamas Relay created a large, wooden Luminaria, where folks could write a message to their loved ones, or a thought, or just the name of someone whose life has been touched by cancer. I wrote about Mom.

Sunday morning they announced the winners of the bake off, and I won! I won overall, and money was donated to my fundraising account, and I won for presentation and I won a great carry case. I love it!

At the closing ceremony Kathy talked about how I'd gotten her started in Relay so many years ago. I'm so glad we did so, and I'm glad we're still together in the fight against cancer. And you know, I'm not sure why I'm saluting....or whatever....

Kathy introduces the members of the 'thousand dollar club'. Her daughter Charlie sat with me (she's too darn cute and I always get a kick out of her). And she's our top fundraiser! Go Charlie!

After the ceremony it's time to pack up and get ready for next year.

Clackamas also loaned us a big ole green balloon and everyone had 'fun' taking it down.

We got spirit, yes we do. We have spirit: HOW ABOUT YOU?

That was Sue's message to us. Be sure you have spirit in your life, and lots of HOPE.

Here comes the bride.

Cari and I drove up to Washington to attend my niece Megan's bridal shower. It was at a friend's home and their home is in an amazing location. Look at this view!

Cari loves her Grandma Jo!!

This young man decided he should also be in the picture.

Mary Jo, the mother of the bride. We are going to have so much fun at the wedding!!

The guest relaxed on the deck. Wonderful weather.

Owen had a great time, and was good as gold.

Megan received lots of wonderful gifts.


And more gifts....

See?

Here is a view of the house from the yard. Wonderful!

Views galore.

Cari loved hanging out with everyone.

I can't wait for Megan's wedding. I adore my future nephew to be, and I love Megan so very much. What a wonderful family we have!!!

Kayaks rock!

While on our vacation Mark and I went kayaking. So much fun! These folks were great.

We got there and one of the first things they told us was that the main time folks fall into the water is when getting into the kayaks. Oh great.

They walked us through getting prepared. A family of four were on our trip and they were a blast! The dad was excited about learning more about the sea life out there, and he loved sharing all of this with his children. That made it so much fun. And as a matter of fact we all even had fun just getting ready, laughing and making jokes and such. What a great way to start our experience.

So we may not be stylish, but these get ups kept us dry folks.

Made it in without falling in! Yeah!

Here we go. We're on our way.

We had wonderful weather for the trip, and the water was pretty calm.

We took a rest on a bed of kelp. Never thought I'd find myself doing that....

Our guide was extremely nice and you could tell she was having a good time sharing her knowledge with us. And we ensured that anything we removed to take a closer look at was treated with respect and put right back where it belonged.

Heading back.

This was so fun: I can't wait to do it again!