Turner, Oregon

After having such a big day yesterday, and having such a late night last night, you can imagine my hesitance toward getting up at 7 to head to church but, I did it! I was so looking forward to seeing all my friends who were unable to make it to the party and who had been such a great support to me during these last 2 years. Poor Bishop Cluff came to me, all excited about getting my announcement and looking forward to the party. When I told him it was the previous night, you could see the disappointment in his face. I told him it was fine… we’d be having another one next year for my Masters, and we’d pull out all the stops. Since I’d been dealing with a sore throat for the past week or so, I decided that it wasn’t the best idea for me to go work in the nursery during the second hour, so I had the opportunity to go to all of Sunday School and Relief Society. It was just a nice little “breather” from the last week of insanity.

On my way home from church, I called the twins (who were just beginning to stir), and Beckie (who was shopping… enjoying the ability to walk to the mall). Once everyone had been fully showered, dressed, and caffeinated we were off to Salem to have a nice Sunday afternoon with “Uncle” David and his family. We had SO much food left over from the night before, that we carted it all down there and it made for a great “miscellaneous” buffet. Everything from potato salad, lunch meat, cheese, to corn dogs, pizza bites and rolls… it was obviously more about the company and the conversation (as it should be when family gets together).

I happen to keep in touch with David and his family quite regularly… but it had been close to 16 years since my sisters had seen him, and they had never met his wife and children. It was a nice reunion for everyone. After lunch/dinner we wandered around the property (6 acres) and the barn (basketball hoop, motorcycles, 2 cows & a horse) and the backyard (trampoline)… for the sake of ease… let’s just refer to this as 5-year-old’s heaven on earth!!

We rode the horse







Petted the cows (one who got very acquainted with my rear end)



Jumped on the trampoline


Shot hoops, petted an iguana, fed apples to the horse (Willy), and turned several shades of red when Bryan was forced to take his shirt off and strut his “Popeye” muscles and his “6 pack skeleton”. I’m pretty sure the “video” demonstration of his Napoleon Dynamite dance was the final step toward pushing him into isolation for the rest of the day. Sorry about that Bryan. Thanks for being willing to “strut” for us girls. ☺ It was so hard to leave cause we were all having such a great time... and can't wait till we can do it again!!



Sunday evening, Beckie met up with some friends from the Bay Area… Alex crashed out pretty early, and the twins bleached their hair (not their best work… but I’m sure they’ll fix it when they get home). I was on Alex’s timeline… I was ready to crash around 11 or so. From what I’ve heard since, I missed a late night pajama run down the halls in my apartment building between the laundry room and my apartment. Sounds fun… but so did sleep!