Our Weekend

Sunday Evening, July 9 2006

Dear Family,

This last few days have been memorable. On Wednesday we had my sister, Shauna, and her husband Rick Laurel visit us on their way to Victoria, BC. We had a nice dinner here (salmon and more) and they stayed the night. Then the next day, my Mom and John visited us on their way from Chilliwack, BC to Mom's place in Occidental. We had another great dinner here and they stayed the night. Friday afternoon I drove Mom and John up to Timberline Lodge. We enjoyed the views of unlimited landscape on a clear warm day, some white bean chili and ale in the pub and stopped at a burger place near Sandy called "Calamity Jane's". Mom used to be (still is by John) called Calamity Jane and so she got a kick out of it as I knew she would. Saturday John was having balance problems so they stayed the day to recuperate and left this morning for Occidental. It was nice to have them relax at our home for a while. Courtney and the boys came over Saturday and had a picnic on our lawn with them and Mom played frisbee with Logan.

But Kaaren and I weren't here yesterday because we went to the Oregon Country Faire - a traditional fair of creative exuberance in the woods west of Eugene. I've put pictures (the ones I think I can put out publicly at this point anyway) on the flickr site you can reach by the link on our website. Kaaren and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. The sights and sounds were so unusual and exhilarating. It was huge. It would take days to really see all the displays and vendors and bands and jugglers and speakers exhorting return to the earth and respect for nature, etc, and impromptu parades (the whole thing was a parade, I remarked to Kaaren) and small musical groups and people with interesting get-up and garb or no get-up and no garb, and artists wall-to-wall with so many beautiful creations. We came home with a combination toy box/marimba made of red alder and cedar and a beautiful velvet skirt for Kaaren and a multicolored natural small broom (hobbit size) for sweeping out our treehouse.

Kyrstyn's group, March Fourth, was the big hit at the end of the day and there are quite a lot of pictures of them and the crowd around them.

It was an unforgetable day and we look forward to going back next year.

Our gardens are really beautiful and provided roses of many colors and fragrances for the church meetings today. They have also provided roses through the house for a few weeks. But the heat is beginning to take its toll on things.

I'm including a picture of the tree house on the website. I plan to finish the stairs tomorrow evening. Guess which part I designed and which part Kaaren designed?

I heard an interesting quote today. "You make the laws but I'll make the music and move the world."

We had a remarkable sacrament meeting today but I think Kaaren can tell you better about it - she took more notes. Ask her.

love,

Dad