What a Week!

The week with our grandkids has come and gone--just the memories are left (plus one forgotten item--Tano's computer game, "Wakeboarding"). But, oh what a week it was!

A week ago today (last Saturday), we drove out to Wildhorse Canyon (in Central Oregon) to pick them up, after they rode a tour bus from Missoula, Montana. For us it was a 4--4-1/2 hour ride, but for them it was about 11 hours or so. Not having the heart to stick them right back into the car for another long ride back to our house, we stayed for awhile and let them play in the pool. Wildhorse Canyon is the Young Life ranch on a piece of property that encompasses 100 square miles, out in the middle of nowhere!

In addition to our two grandkids, we had one extra kid (their cousin) to bring back with us, to give him a ride home after spending a week in Montana, going to Bible camp with Nathaniel. (It was their first time to go away to camp for a week -- what fun they had!) Very shortly after getting on our way home, all three kids were sound asleep, which made for a nice quiet ride for awhile. But, then we had to wake them up half way home to stop for supper, so the quiet ride came to an end. After returning Ben to his parents in Vancouver, Washington, we arrived home about 11:30 P.M. on Saturday night.

Sunday morning we opted to let everyone sleep in, and then we had a family worship time here at home. Uncle Jim played his guitar for singing and Grandpa led a little interactive devotional time. Then we all headed out for a river-tubing adventure which took most of the rest of the day.

On Monday all of us (including Jim) went to the coast (2 hours away) to camp overnight at an ocean-side campground. On Tuesday we spent all day at the beach, playing in the water, building sand castles, flying a kite, exploring a dark cave-tunnel, climbing up the stairs in a lighthouse, and touring the Tillamook Cheese Factory (mainly for ice cream cones)!

On Wednesday I took the kids to a park in Vancouver, Washington, for a few hours of playground and water fun with family friends--Jennifer Beatty and her three boys. After lunch Jennifer took all the kids back to her house for some more playtime, and then took them to their cousins' house to spend the night.

Meanwhile, I came back home just in time to shower and change, to go help with a funeral luncheon. We had received the tragic news during our ride back from Wildhorse Canyon, that one of our close friends lost his daughter (in her mid-twenties), as the victim of a brutal murder. Larry went to the funeral and I joined him later at the luncheon.

On Thursday morning I drove back to Vancouver to pick up the kids, and then back into Portland, to spend the rest of the day at the zoo. On Friday morning we drove back out to central Oregon to meet the tour bus returning from Wildhorse Canyon, to reunite the kids with their parents for the long ride back home to Montana. I arrived back home at 5:00 P.M., and they arrived home this morning sometime after 1:30 A.M.

It was a whirlwind week, with tons of fun -- seemed like only half a week! When it was almost over, I was ready for the week to start over and slow down a bit. Already I can hardly wait for next year's week with the grandkids! Click here to see pictures of the week.
Click here to read about the wild week at Wildhorse Canyon.
Click here to view a short video of the Wildhorse Canyon experience.