Amy Camping

Amy spent a week at Lake MacIntosh in Nebraska with a friend’s family along with a whole bunch of friends. The family rented a condo and spent a week playing on the lake with their boat and jet ski.

Amy commented during the week as to how grateful she was for her skin and that she wasn't fried to a crisp like some of her friends. She also wore sunscreen and a hat.

Another Job for Amy

Amy was offered another new "old" job. Last summer she worked for Lexus as a valet in their service department. When a position finally came open, they called Amy and offered her the job. She was thrilled. It will be 8 to 5 consistently and will still allow her to work a couple of evenings and Saturday at Vasa. Amy didn't want to give up Vasa since she loves it so much. (Even though Vasa had tried to give Amy as many hours as they could, they were happy to work with her schedule and pull back some of those hours.) She will be one busy girl, but will have Saturday morning and all day Sunday off. Lexus is about ten minutes away while Vasa is almost 30 minutes.

Amy has already filled out all of the paperwork for a background check and gone in for a drug test so hopefully she can start on July 27.

Misha Camping

Misha just got back from a couple of days camping with friends (with a chaperone) in the mountains outside Steamboat Springs at Dry Lake Campground. While camping is not my thing, Misha had a fantastic time. She came more prepared than the rest of the crew who never thought of things such as salt, pepper, paper products, etc.

Misha might just need some hammock lessons.

Taste Testing

I came out of my office to find Kristen and her friend Sophie going through the pantry for a taste testing challenge. The girls took turns putting on a blindfold and being fed a mystery item from the pantry or fridge. Probably the grossest thing was a spoonful of ketchup that Sophie fed Kristen.

Stacked Rocks

I brought home at least ten pounds of rocks from our trip to the Oregon Coast. The beach where we stayed did not have sea shells but lots of amazing colors and shapes of rocks. If you needed skipping rocks, that beach was definitely the place to go.

With my rocks, I created two stacks—one in my garden and the other in my office. They are good memories of a place I love and the people I love to spend time with.

Misha to Arizona

Misha flew to Arizona to visit her friend Sam for a couple of days. And, as a bonus, she got to spend time with Grandpa Kline as well. He arranged for the girls to fly with him on a trip to transport blood platelets from Phoenix to Flagstaff, AZ. They had to be at the airport at 5:30 am to fly with Grandpa Kline.

After they returned to Phoenix, Grandpa took the girls to the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force Museum. Misha visited the museum with our family nine years ago, so it was great refresher.

Hiking in Boulder Canyon

Chris and I drove to a hike up Boulder Canyon. We thought that maybe it would be out of the way and less crowded. Not so. The Forsyth Canyon Trail Head was popular with families, college students, and all sorts alike.

We hike to the waterfalls which were mostly itty bitty pools of water at this time of the season. It would be cool to visit in the Spring to see just how vibrant the fall are.  It took me a moment looking at this picture to remember what it was a picture of.  These are the falls in July. Nothingness.

To get away from the crowds, we took a path away from the hikers that might have been a trail and might not. Sometimes we were walking up the side of the mountain hoping to connect with some hint of a path. We met a few others along the way who were just as lost and said they would follow us. Great. Chris had a snapshot of a map and cell service every once in awhile. 

Fortunately, we were able to make it out to a road that took us back the parking lot. I think the sights along the road were most interesting. And the clouds were pretty awesome.

Misha Turned 19

It is amazing that my girls are getting be as old as they are. Seriously, time flies by too quickly. With conflicting schedules and work, we celebrated Misha's birthday on Wednesday evening when we were all home.

Can't forget the donuts and the awesome Crumbl cookies I picked up in Boulder earlier in the day.

Misha sitting in the birthday spot to open presents.

And we can't forget the sword. Misha has had a sword on her birthday and Christmas wish list for years. Sam got Misha a sword.

I think Misha's t-shirt sums things up quite appropriately.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

For years I have been putting off researching more about hormone replacement therapy, even though I felt as though I needed to. 

When a couple different doctors noted that I should not be on the manufactured estrogen I was taking, I finally made the jump. I met Allison Galloway after doing a hormone bloodwork panel. Turned out most of my levels were okay. Except my testosterone level. My level was almost nonexistent. My level was 5 on the low end of the spectrum that started at 3. 

So, I chose to have a pellet inserted in my butt that would give a slow release of testosterone over the next three to four months. That part didn’t feel so good at all. I felt pretty crappy for the first couple of days. 

Over the past month I am hoping for hot flashes to lessen and waiting to see what other changes might occur.

Amy's New Job

Amy has been working diligently to find a job this summer. It wasn't until the end of June when she received not one but two offers. The first was to work at Vasa, a high end gym and the second was at Dick's Sporting Goods.

Amy was thrilled with the Vasa job and being able to work in an environment that she has come to love. Dick's didn't get back to Amy for almost two weeks after initially telling that she got the job, and when they did she already had a busy schedule with Vasa. Dicks' wanted her to be able to work all weekends and some days during the week. Amy decided to turn down working with Dick's as they were less flexible and she would not have any days off during the week.

And she has already made friends at Vasa.

Kristen's Monopoly

Kristen created her own Monopoly game specific to our family and some of the vacations we've had. I love that she is so creative.

Oregon Coast Day 9 - Home

We had a harsh wake up call at 5:30 am as we had to leave for the airport at 6 am for our 7 am flight. 

Fortunately we were only five minutes from the airport. If only all of our trips to the airport were that convenient. I think we were all a little bit ready to be heading home. Minus the face masks and Kristen dropping her air pod under the feet of a couple sleeping in the row behind her, our flight home was uneventful.

Happy 4th of July.

4th of July

Our 4th of July was pretty low key. We returned from our vacation to the Oregon Coast and pretty much spent the day unpacking and chilling. Amy headed out to hang with friends. Misha also spent the day with her friends.

Kristen wasn't thrilled that we weren't planning much. I told her we had just spent the past week planning fun stuff.

We did watch the fireworks. There were at least 20 shows that we saw across the area, not to mention the fantastic show on the lake next to us.

It was low key, but we were okay with that.

Oregon Coast Day 8 - Back to Medford

Our checkout time from the airbnb was 11 am. We were driving back to Medford today and hoped to find something fun to do along the way. Chris had looked up swimming holes in the area but the weather didn’t cooperate too much. The wind wasn’t blowing as hard this morning as it had other mornings, but a fog bank had moved in off the ocean and kept temperatures low.

We drove back up toward Crescent City and on to Hiouchi (Hi-oo-chi). Some of our group were decidedly crabby today, and few suggestions were not met with positivity. We hiked a short ways in Gasquet, considered driving back to the Redwood Forest to hike more, and decided to backtrack to a small cafe in Hiouchi for lunch. Perhaps food would be the ticket to happiness. 

The attitudes improved only marginally.

We stopped again at Illinois River Forks State Park. It had a little swimming hole but was busy with families enjoying the long weekend. Chris and the girls decided to “share” a beach with another group and inched into the lake. It was fairly chilly. I sat on the banks to watch, take pictures, and enjoy the scenery.

They even jumped from a downed tree branch.

We worked on finishing off some more of our snacks and continued on to Medford. Since none of us really wanted to spend hours sitting at the hotel, we explored Medford a little, found the temple in Central Point. We drove around to check out the area for its potential as a retirement area someday. Not sure.

We checked in at the hotel, dropped our stuff off, left Kristen to relax and shower, and got some dinner at Pita Pit. Kristen wasn’t too keen on our choice for dinner and opted instead for us to bring her some food from Panda Express.

Chris and I dropped Amy and Misha back at the hotel and decided to explore Ashland, that is, once we got going in the right direction. It had a Boulder, Colorado feel for the part that we were able to see. The sunlight was fading fast. Chris wanted to drive one exit up to visit the West side of Ashland. That proved to be a mistake as the next exit was Ashland Hill Park. It started us onto the Siskiyou Pass toward California, which was under construction, and offered very few opportunities for turning around. I texted the girls "Dad made a wrong turn and we are now headed to California and can’t turn around because of road work." We exited the freeway at Ashland Hill Park only to find that the North bound ramp was closed. So, we had to get back on the freeway still going south and hope that we could find a way to turn around before getting too far into California.

We were finally able to turn around and started our way back. An interesting, unplanned adventure for sure.

Our last stop of the evening was at Fred Meyer's for a few breakfast items and to fill up the rental car. 

The girls had showered and were winding down watching shows when Chris and I returned to the hotel. 

Oregon Coast Day 7 - Jet Boat Tour

Chris and I walked on the beach for 3.5 miles. It was a brisk wind blowing in our faces as we walked northward to the jetty. I was just glad we were able to walk with the wind at our backs on the return trip.

Today was the day for the jet boat tour. It started at 11:30 and we tried our best to bundle up in layers. We were told that the weather would be cold close to the ocean and warm up as we skimmed upstream on the boat.

We had a couple of families in front of us on the boat and a younger couple behind us with a young son named Magnus. His first couple of “wheeees” were cute. The next 500 were not.

The jet boat zoomed up the Rogue River with Darren as our driver. He gave great info about some of the wildlife, the history, and the bridges along the river.

There were a lot of smaller boats coming down the river, lots of people camping along the river, and many just hanging out for a bbq on the holiday weekend. Each time we came upon groups, Darren slowed to a crawl in order to not cause too much wake. Some groups, having experienced the jet boats before, yelled “spray us” as we passed. Darren was happy to oblige and either created a big wake or sprayed the groups as we passed on by.

Some groups even did their best to spray us with water cannons as we passed. They weren’t too successful but Darren had a lot of fun pulling doughnuts in the river and showering us with water.

My advice, cover your legs and hands with sunscreen. Put sunscreen on your face. Wear layers. And if you really want, bring a blanket for the beginning and ending of your tour for the crazy cold wind.

Early in the afternoon, we stopped at Agnes on the North side of the river for our first pit stop. We brought some of our left over pizza for a quick snack.  Good thing since we didn’t actually stop for “lunch” until 4 pm on the south side of the river. If you can see, the sign on top of the store read "High water, December 22, 1964". The store sat at the top of the bank, quite a hike above the river.

We rode up to Blossom Bar in the jet boat and then began our return trip. We stopped in Agnes at the Cougar Lane Lodge for lunch. We thought the food would only be so so, but were pleasantly surprised with a tasty late lunch.

Since our lunch was so late, we just had leftovers and popcorn after returning to the condo around 6:30 pm. Fun day.

Chris and the girls had sunburned thighs and faces. I wore capris and avoided a sunburn there but managed to get a little pink on my hands and feet.

Oregon Coast Day 6 - Brookings

Happy Canada Day! 

Since we drove North yesterday, today we drove South to Brookings and Harbor. Chris stopped along the way so I could take a few photos.

We visited a small farmer’s market. It was meh. Chris got stuck listening to some guy who made leather belts. He finally extricated himself, and we walked through the market. Misha bought a knife and Amy bought some raspberries and strawberries.

Chris had researched the area and found an azalea park online that looked pretty cool in Brookings, but it was a big disappointment when we arrived. Many of the trees looked as though they had died, and we were just short a couple weeks of the peak blossom time.

I took this picture in a public restroom. “Not Cleaned Twice a Day”, just so you know.

We found a few tourist shops by the dock and Misha found a sweatshirt to buy. That’s kind of her thing. She has a lot of sweatshirts now.

We made a quick stop at Fred Meyer for some lunch meat and then pulled over at Harris Beach State Park for a picnic lunch.

Our next stop was Thunder Rock Cove Viewpoint. It looked awesome. The sand was warm and the beach fairly deserted. The wind blew the sand against our legs leaving them feeling as though they were being sandblasted. Hmmm, perhaps that was why the beach was so deserted. I thought it cool how the wind blew the sand around the stones on the beach. We explored a bit and then continued on. 

Chris and I wanted to walk along the Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor. Kind of worked perfectly that the girls weren’t interested in hiking with us. They drove the car a couple of miles up the road and waited for us to meet them.

They probably wouldn’t have liked the hike much anyway. It was a bit challenging, but a good workout. We passed by Spruce Island Viewpoint and finally reached the girls two and a half miles later at Arch Rock Viewpoint.

We ate leftover pizza and pasta for dinner, trying to eat up the groceries we had purchased earlier in the week. We hung out at the beach to enjoy the sunset, find the best rocks, and take pictures followed up with a dip in the hot tub to warm up.