Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was fun and relaxing. Below Jon and Corina bake us up some cookies.

Lot's of chess playing. Below Adam and Jon locked in a close battle.

We played a game of Risk. We talked Pam into playing with us. She said "I don't know how to play". Yeah right! She whipped all of us and took over the world.

 

 Christmas morning, Pam is excited about the camera that Adam got her.

  Here I am with my new hat, Lorelei said it was about time I had a new one?? I like my old hat, but the new one is nice too. I also got a gun, some waterproof camouflage pants and a new basketball! What more does a middle aged man need?

  Lorelei checking out her new stereo.

  Jon with some tea.

  Cody got a new Bible.

 Adam and Cody having a juggling contest (you don't get the idea that we are competitive do you?)

Then it was time for a serious picture. Left to Right, Lorelei, me, Adam, Pam, Cody, Corina, Jon

And then someone got the idea of getting a picture of us jumping???

A fun day for sure! You can see all the pictures HERE

Birthdays and more birthdays......

Haven't taken any pictures for the past few weeks so I will dig up a few older ones to use here this time. Jon's birthday was the end of Nov. Lorelei's was the 4th of Dec. and Adam's is coming up on the 17th.

For Lorelei's birthday I took her in to Salem and we did Christmas shopping and found her a pair of shoes. We went to McGrath's Fish House for dinner. Lorelei had king crab legs....oh my what a fun mess she made!

Last Saturday we drove 40 miles to Tigard to watch Adam play in the band at church. Then we all went out to dinner at Newport Bay. Adam will be 21 on the 17th! The picture below is a few years old.

Cody is doing well in the 7th grade. His winter music recital is Thursday night so we are looking forward to that. He is also working hard at his chess game. He really wants to qualify for the state tournament this year.

Things around the place are progressing slow! Been cutting back and thinning out some trash trees and hawthorne's but I need to get some bigger trees cut also. I will get the calendars finished up this week so will give me some more time.

Animals are doing well and we are getting plenty of eggs from the chickens. A couple of weeks ago Lorelei decided Queenie needed a bath but it was too cold to do it outside so we put her in the bathtub.....wow what fun that was......not. Lorelei then got the hair clippers and started trimming her....well she was real clean and looking good until we let her outside.

That's about all for now!
Glynn Jr.

Thanksgiving 2010......

Not a typical Thanksgiving for us this year. The week before Thanksgiving I spent curled up in a ball writhing in pain with a kidney stone. After trying some internet remedies and taking one of my last pain pills, Lorelei laid her hands on me and prayed. I closed my eyes on that Friday night and figured that on Saturday I would have no choice but to check into the hospital. I awoke the next morning pain free and have been so since.

During the same week I got a call early one morning and my dad told me that my grandma had passed away during the night. It was not unexpected but it's always a blow to lose a loved one. My beautiful grandma was 95.

On Saturday the 21st my dad called to tell me the services for Grandma would be on Wed. in southern CA. My first thought was to drive so as not to be under the control of the TSA in case I had trouble with a kidney stone. But the weather for Oregon and northern CA was looking cold and icy so Lorelei went on the hunt for a deal to fly down.

So Tuesday morning we awoke to a frozen winter wonderland here in the northwest. Reports of icy roads on the radio prompted me to wake Lorelei earlier than anticipated in case we ran into trouble on the way to the airport. We loaded up and headed out before daylight. We actually made good time with only a few slow downs. We had plenty of time to relax at the airport and grab a bite to eat before boarding our plane.

Because of the storm there were some really cool cloud formations.

We flew into LAX, picked up a rental car and made our way through horrendous traffic to our hotel room in Orange CA. I still can't figure out where 6 stop and go lanes of people could possibly be going at 3:00 on a Tuesday afternoon?

On Wednesday morning we got up and drove to Laguna Hills to have breakfast with Lorelei's sister Penny.

The service for Grandma was Wednesday afternoon and what a wonderful service it was. Grandma was loved by all and there were many tears of joy and sorrow as we remembered her life. After the services we went to my aunt's for fellowship and dinner.
Below my aunt Cheryl and friends.

My aunt Jeanette and my cousin Mary Jo

Add Lorelei and I to the mix and you get the pic below.

Okay from L to R Lorelei, Glynn Jr., Cheryl, Bob, Jeanette, Glynn Sr., Franci and Mary Jo!

Mary Jo's husband Kevin was kind enough to take most of the pictures of all the family. Thanks Kevin!

Thanksgiving morning saw us roll out of bed early to make our way back to the airport. Our schedule was to fly out of LAX at around 12:30 to Seattle then a 3 hour layover and back to Portland arriving around 7:00 p.m! So our Thanksgiving meal this year was a pizza at the airport. We still stopped and said grace thanking the Lord for all that is ours. It wasn't the Thanksgiving that we had planned but we made the most of it and it was good to see family that we had not seen in some time.

At home we enjoyed the company of our three boys. Adam was home from Portland with his girlfriend Pam. We had missed Jon's birthday on Tuesday so we invited Jon's girlfriends parents and siblings over for dinner on Saturday night. Corina's mom and dad had all of our boys over for Thanksgiving and it was such a comfort knowing they were well taken care of in our absence. We had a great meal and good fellowship.

Glynn Jr.

Mt. Shasta?

Last Saturday Lorelei and I got in the Expedition and headed south not really sure where we were going to end up. I needed to pick some parts up from my dad and he was going to head north with them. We took off about noon. My dad and Franci didn't begin driving north until about 7:30 that evening. The plan was to meet somewhere halfway.

We stopped in Grants Pass for dinner and although Lorelei had seen a billboard earlier about an Applebees there, we were not able to find it so we settled for Denny's. We DO NOT recommend the Denny's in Grants Pass! Onward we went through the many curvy sections of I5 that take you through the mountainous southern part of our state. It was raining off and on but that's not unusual for November in Oregon!

Crossing the border and on into California, it was nearing 8:00 o-clock and the next big town would be Redding about an hour away. We had a bad hotel experience in Redding a few years back and Lorelei was not looking forward to that being our stopping point for the night. Just about that time we were passing the town of Mt. Shasta and the sign before the off ramp had a Best Western listed. I said "hey how about here" before I finished the sentence Lorelei said "Ok".

We checked in to a beautiful place with lodge type furnishings and a real log fire burning in the lobby. We decided to go for a walk so we put on an extra sweatshirt. We went across the street to a very nice little market that looked closed from the outside but once inside was bright and well stocked. I must have counted ten or twelve people working in this market and only one other customer at 9:00 o-clock on Saturday night. Lorelei got some lunch meat and some bread to make us some sandwiches for the next day. We walked around the small shopping center that included an auto parts, bank, Radio Shack, cinema and a hardware store that had fishing gear! I told Lorelei, you know you are in the right place when the hardware store has a huge fishing gear section.

We tried calling home but we had no cell service. We had talked to Cody earlier in the day and he was all set and Jon was going to be home after 8:00 from work so we were not too worried. I was a little worried however that I really needed to talk to my dad first thing in the morning to find out where they were and how far we needed to travel to meet up with them.

As usual I woke up and looked at the clock and it was 4:30. I ran through the different scenarios in my head. How far had my dad and Franci drove. Do I need to just get up and drive south, meet them and then come back for Lorelei? Could I wait a couple of hours and then Lorelei and I both head south? I decided to go find cell service and try calling. I waited unit almost 5:30 before rolling out of bed and telling Lorelei the plan.

So I get this brilliant idea (sometimes I get these) maybe I could get some pictures of sunrise with Mt. Shasta in the foreground! Trouble is, I wasn't sure where Mt. Shasta was. Yes I was in the town by the same name but it was dark when we pulled in and it was still dark when I threw my camera gear in the truck and headed out. When I got to the main intersection it looked like heading east was at least going up hill and if I could get high enough I could get cell service. So east it was and yes it was going up! After about 10 miles the road began to look and feel different? Hmmm.....what's that on the road. About the same time I looked over at the side of the road and in the darkness there was snow on the ground, so what was on the road was ice! I slowed down and in the beginning glow of the morning I rounded a corner and realized where Mt. Shasta was. I was on it! Well so much for getting a picture of sunrise with Mt. Shasta in the foreground.

I finally found a spot where I had service and pulled over and called my dad. They were going by Lake Shasta! Wow they had driven all night with just a nap break. They met up with us at the hotel as we were finishing breakfast. Lorelei and I went back to the room and got ready to leave while my dad and Franci ate. We then loaded up the parts and let them use the room for the rest of the morning to get some much needed rest.

Lorelei and I headed out to do a little sightseeing and begin the drive back home. We drove up to the highest point we could on Mt. Shasta where they had the road closed. The peak of the mountain was shrouded in clouds so we didn't get a good picture of it.

We found this really cool old bridge near Rogue River and stopped to take some pictures.

We had a fun drive and got to see a few new sights!  A few more pictures are HERE

Glynn Jr.