Oregon & Idaho

As you probably know by now most of our "vacations" end up being to Oregon and Idaho because that's where our families are. At least once a year there seems to be some sort of event in the family that we go home for. This time it was for my niece Abby's wedding reception.

We flew into Portland as usual because it's cheaper than flying into the small town in Idaho that I am from. Colin's parents live about an hour outside of Portland so we got to spend a couple days with them before driving over to Idaho.

While we were in Oregon we had a bbq with Colin's college roommates and their families. We hadn't seen them since our wedding, so it was fun for me to get to know them and for Colin to relive the "good ol' days". It was a great way to start out our vacation.

We spent a day at Lost Lake with Colin's parents. It's a beautiful lake at the base of Mt. Hood. We rented a row boat and Colin rowed us around the lake. We had a picnic there later that afternoon. It was pretty cold out on the lake that day so I was wearing a sweatshirt most of the time, but for the half hour or so I went without it, I managed to get a sunburn. I think I'm the only person who goes to Oregon and gets a sunburn EVERY time! People think it rains there all the time. Not so!

We made the 6 hour drive to Idaho and had lots going on there. We happened to be in town when there was a 50th anniversary party that was being held for my former bishop and his wife who was my mia maid leader when I was growing up. It was so much fun to get to go and see them and so many others from the old Lewiston 2nd ward. A lot of them didn't know who I was until I told them, but even that was kind of fun! I got to see my friend Kimberly, and her family.

And Kimberly got this great picture of some of our young women leaders. The 2nd on the left is Sister Thornley who was the one celebrating an anniversary. I have such love and fond memories of these women who spent so much time with me when I was a youth. I still want to be just like all of them when I grow up. :) Amazing, beautiful women- all of them!

I got to see my BFF Catrina- although we didn't get to spend as much time together as I would like. It always seems to be that way. We had pizza at our favorite pizza place as is our tradition. We both showed up wearing green. We didn't plan it that way, it just happened. It happens to us quite a lot. It was fun to catch up and see how her kids have grown.

My niece Abby got married. This is her new husband Jake!

This is their baby Gracie

Me and my brother

My nieces and nephews. Of course I couldn't get all 8 of them together for a picture because that would have been too easy!

I also got to see my friend Catherine at the reception. She couldn't make it to the 50th anniversary party the night before, so it was great to catch up with her there.

It was a busy but fun 8 days. 4 of them we spent traveling in the form of driving or flying, but we made the most of the time that we had. We didn't really follow a diet when we were there because there was too much good food that we only get to eat once a year and we needed to take advantage of it! Both of us only gained a couple pounds though. Not too bad considering how much we ate! Now it's back to the gym and back to the diet. I think I need another vacation!

Ziplining

Ever been? Every year Colin's optical engineering work group gets to take the afternoon off and do a group outing. The activities change from year to year, but are usually pretty mellow things like going to a Fishercats or Red Sox game. Well, this year, someone in their group(DEB!), had the bright idea that they should go ziplining because it was on her bucket list. I just want to go on record right now saying that I don't want to do anything else on Deb's bucket list! :)

Anyway, when Colin first told me about this I thought it might be kind of fun. Stupid of me, I know! The night before the big outing, Colin brings home the liability release form that you have to sign before you can go. That's when the nerves started to kick in a little. The fact that I was suppose to sign this paper that would hold the place harmless if they failed to make sure I was buckled properly to the wire that I would be "zipping" down (with nothing underneath to catch me if I fell), somehow just didn't sit well with me. Despite my misgivings, I signed the paper.

We met up for lunch beforehand which was a bad idea looking back on it because my stomach wasn't feeling so great after we were done! A storm was predicted to be coming through, and secretly I hoped that it would show up before we went and that we wouldn't be able to do the ziplining because of the weather. No such luck.

They have you do a little practice run first, only 10 feet or so off the ground, so you get the idea of what you will be doing. Well that didn't seem so bad- but then again, it wouldn't have killed you to fall from that height! Here we are after our practice run, still optimistic about the adventure.

After our practice run, it was on to the real deal. The first line wasn't too bad. Not too high up and not very long in length. "I can do this", I thought. For the second line, we had to go up on a ski lift to get to the top of the mountain. I don't ski and had never been on a ski lift, but I always thought they looked like fun. Guess what? They aren't! I felt like I was going to fall out of that thing the whole way up. I hated it! I was riding with Colin and the 21 yr old summer intern Sam. Sam was a skier so he knew to pull down the overhead bar so I would at least have something to hold onto. Thanks Sam!

I should tell you that Colin and I have always made fun of the "hills" in New Hampshire that the locals call mountains. We are from the west coast where there are actually real mountains. I won't be making fun of the New Hampshire hills anymore though because when you are standing at the top of one and your only way down is to be hooked to a wire with nothing underneath to catch you if you fall while you go "zipping" at speeds of up to 40 mph to the other side, you feel like you are at the top of Everest!

There were 5 lines total I think, and on the worst one you had to climb a spiral staircase to get on a tower (because at 2200 feet we weren't high enough up already)! You couldn't see where this line ended it was that long. There are 2 lines side by side, so 2 people go at a time, one on each line. Colin was always the person on the other line when I went. Did I mention that the people working there all looked to be about 17 or 18 years old and were just there for a summer job? This is who I'm trusting to make sure I am buckled in properly?? Definitely crazy! Anyway, after they get you hooked up to the line, they tell you to "go". Well I was always holding on to the handle for dear life and if you push the handle all the way down, that is what makes you go. So on this super scary line, I accidentally start going before she says "go", and the last thing I hear this 17 yr old say as I start zipping down is "uh oh". What do you mean "uh oh"? NOT what you want to hear when you are a couple thousand feet in the air with nothing underneath you but trees and the hard ground!

Since I'm writing this blog post, I obviously lived to tell about it. There were times I wondered if I was going to though! I'm happy to say that all 12 of us escaped without injury. Here is a picture of us after we finished the course. You can see by my face that I'm a little shocked and just really grateful to have my feet on the ground again!

Remember that storm I was telling you about? Well, just as the last of our group finished the zipline course, they shut it down because the storm was rolling through. If only we had been just a couple hours later...