All Things Anne » Aunt Fran

Home Again!

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:06:01 +0000

After an exciting 11 days, we’re finally back home from our Oregon tour. “Tour” sounds more important than “trip”! But that’s what bands do when they travel, right?

Anyways! I’ve got a whole lot of pictures here (we all know everyone loves pictures, right? And if a picture is worth a thousand words…this will definitely turn out to be a novel!). Hover over the pictures for a caption and a larger image.

Thursday/Friday, June 19, 20
Saturday, June 21
Sunday, June 22
Monday, June 23
Tuesday, June 24
Wednesday, June 25
Thursday, June 26
Friday, June 27
Saturday, June 28
Sunday, June 29
Monday, June 30

A big thank-you to Grandpa, Grandma Kathy, John, and Paul who opened their home to us; Immanuel Lutheran Church, the Manor, and Lacomb Bible Church for inviting us, and all the wonderful people there…and the biggest thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ who made the whole trip possible and provided for us bountifully through His followers! Glory to God! Amen.

Monday, June 30

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:02:13 +0000

Since we’d gotten such a late start on Sunday, we didn’t get home until around 8 pm. It was a very weird day, driving all day. I bet you didn’t know that sitting in a van for hours on end is exhausting, did you? Well, if you didn’t, it is. But the work wasn’t done; when we got home, we unloaded the trailer, because it had to be taken back the next day. We didn’t get to bed until late that night, too!

And we’ve been home ever since! Pi (my cat) was soooo glad to see me, she’s slept with me every night since we came home!

Sunday, June 29

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:01:20 +0000

We got up early on Sunday to make the two hour drive to Uncle Steve’s church, which turned out to be a 1.5 hour drive! After the service was a “wedding”, where a couple who had been married for 35 years renewed their vows (the man arranged it as a surprise for his wife), which was neat, and there was a potluck, and…of course, wedding cake! The people there were so nice, we felt right at home!

Then the boys and Dad set up the music stuff (which took a few hours), and we did a soundcheck, then went across the street to Uncle Steve’s (he’s the pastor there) for a bit, then we changed into our concert clothes, and went back across the street and gave a concert. I think that one went better than the one at Grandpa’s, too! After that was a very nice finger food buffet (everybody wants us to get fat, I think!), and after a while there, we went back to Uncle Steve and Aunt Barbara’s to change and hang out for a bit.

Uncle Steve restores and remodels cars. I guess this is his latest finished product!
Uncle Steve and Aunt Barbara. In case you can’t tell, Aunt Barbara is the pretty one on the right and Uncle Steve is the other one.

Then we went back to Grammoo and Papa’s, where Grammoo loaded our trailer with food! We didn’t get out of Grammoo and Papa’s until 1:45 am. Duke was very happy to be with us again!

Saturday, June 28

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:00:26 +0000

Aunt Jeanie and one of her sisters came, and brought us girls 7 totes full of fabric! Very cool! The boys and Dad went to Grammoo’s to get the U-Haul trailer (we’d left it at Grammoo’s…we left Duke there, too), and when they came home, we went to some Russian’s house. The dad, Mr. N., used to be one of Dad’s drivers.

We had dinner there…it was soooo good! There was a potato-chicken casserole; pink cabbage salad; a salad that tasted like scalloped potatoes; a green salad; and these biscuit/pastry things that were round that were stuffed with sausage, then for dessert: diamond wafers (like from sugar wafers), layered with Russian caramel (that’s better than our caramel, it has the consistency of lukewarm hot fudge sauce, and is less sweet than our caramel), and these cookie shells about the size of a walnut, also filled with Russian caramel. It was all very good!

Us and the Russians…left to right (back row): Diana, Mrs. N., Mr. N., Dad, Mom, me, Beth. Middle: Vita (with the Daddy’s girl shirt), Em holding Elle Jane, Kate, Tess, Jay, Eric. Front: Stephen (Victor’s friend), Victor (who wouldn’t smile for the camera!), Joe, Rase, Abby, Ben.

Friday, June 27

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:59:17 +0000

Friday was another non-busy day, so guess what we did? Went places! We took Paul and went to the Guitar center, where we dropped off Dad, Paul, Ben, Joe, the twins, and Tess; then the rest of us went to Goodwill, where we saw Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Earl! Aunt Jeanie had said the day before she hoped to see us before we left, and there she did! After Goodwill, we went back to the Guitar Center to see if Dad and the kids were done (our phones were roaming in Oregon so we didn’t use them; Papa gave Dad his phone to use, but there was only one!). They weren’t, but Aunt Laurie’s old boyfriend Leo was there, with his wife, and we talked to him for a little bit, then went to Costco. After that, we picked up the ones at the Guitar Center, then went to Grandpa’s.

After dinner, the boys and John and Paul went bowling, and were gone until like 1 am!

Thursday, June 26

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:58:23 +0000

Dad, Beth, and I went to Grandpa’s store to get some parts for installing grab handles near the garage door in the morning, and the boys (including John and Paul) went to look at the train yard. Some older fellas had brought some neat old cars to take pictures of next to the one engine they fired up.

Cool old cars
Cool train pic

Cool train pic
Cool train pic

Thursday was a fairly non-busy day, which was pretty nice!

Wednesday, June 25

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:57:46 +0000

Early in the morning, the boys went golfing. Ben was his own caddy, Eric caddied for Paul (the golfing expert in the family), John took his own too, and Joe was photographer.

Ben on the left, Eric with Paul’s bag in the middle, and Paul on the right

Ben, with the club he used through the whole thing. An exercise on how not to play golf is as follows:

Stay stiff
Swing like you are playing baseball.

Dance!
Paul’s feet. Note the dirt from a scuff? That’s where Ben whacked.

And then, Paul, showing us how to do it the right way!

Beautiful form
No dancing!
Joe’s self-portrait

Later that day, we went to Grammoo’s and Papa’s, after the boys got home. It was Papa’s birthday, so we had a cake for him, and he opened his presents. Uncle David, Aunt Fran, and Cody came, too.

Joe pogo’ing, Ben in black watching, Jay’s the short one, also watching
Cody, testing out his pogo stick skills…Joe and Ben watching

Papa with the shirt Uncle David’s family gave him, and the chocolates we gave him

Tuesday, June 24

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:56:38 +0000

On Tuesday we hung out at Grammoo and Papa’s, then in the late afternoon, we went to the Manor, picked up John Wayne, and went to Panda Buffet (Grammoo and Papa followed us). John Wayne was so funny; on Sunday he said us girls would have to wear elastic-waisted skirts, because he expected us to eat a lot! He said we all had to have at least three plates, to get his money’s worth.

On the way there, we saw some cool cars…

I like that blue one best
The black one is cool
I like this black one next though

…and welcome to Portland and all its traffic! Ew. ‘Busy’ on our road is more than four non-neighbor cars in a day! Rush hour is like 20 cars in a line. This was just awful! Stop and go lights on the freeway? Bizarre! Ok, so we sound like country hicks. Really, guys, there IS a life outside the city! (Not to mention, the air is better and there’s less strange people! But then again, strange people are interesting to observe!)

John Wayne is also a follower of Jesus Christ, which was pleasant to find out!
He was very interesting. One of his plates was a plate of fried shrimp. He ate the shrimp and left the bready stuff; he said the bready stuff filled him up too much and the shrimp was the expensive part! At one point, after we’d all finished and were stuffed, the cooks brought in a new dish, and he insisted we all had to try it, and it had to be all gone or the cooks would be upset! So we had some, and it WAS good! (What’s the superlative of “stuffed”? Whatever it was, we were it!) Then we took some pictures!

All of us, John Wayne, and Papa
John Wayne (on the left) and Dad

Grammoo, Papa, and John Wayne

Monday, June 23

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:55:01 +0000

Monday afternoon around 1, we went to Uncle David’s. We were there for a while, then Grammoo and Papa came, and Steven’s girlfriend Samantha, and we all went to a restaurant for lunch, where we met some friends of ours that we hadn’t seen since the September trip a couple years ago. It was yummy!

Grammoo
Steven and his girlfriend Samantha, who was not on drugs. Promise!

Then we went back to Uncle David’s. The boys played on the pogo stick for a bit.

Joe
Steven

Uncle David, Dad, and Papa. See any family resemblance?

Uncle David
Dad

Papa

¿Yo quiero Taco Bell?

Gizmo, one of Uncle David’s chihuahuas
Dobby, the other of Uncle David’s chihuahua’s, Dad and I liked this one better.

Steven’s friend Alex, a Kempo expert, came over and the boys wrestled with him. He beat Steven, Uncle David, and Joe, and drawed with Eric. Ben didn’t wrestle, but he arm-wrestled and won. Alex wasn’t very big, but he sure was flexible! He moved like a cat and had legs like snakes. While Alex was there we had really yummy dessert (chocolate lava cupcakes and strawberries over pound cake and angelfood cake), then he left and the boys wrestled with Steven.

Alex (in black) and Joe
Steven (left) and Joe

Steven and Joe again…
Joe liked this one…Steven kicked and Joe grabbed his foot!

Then we went to Grandpa’s and went to bed. And that was the end of the fourth day.

Sunday, June 22

Anne-the-cat — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:40:14 +0000

Sunday morning, we went to Grandpa’s church. There was a man with an upright bass, and he let me try that; it was cool! Then in the afternoon, went to the Manor, which is a retirement home. It was a very nice place! We gave a concert there, and it was a lot better than the one the previous day! We didn’t use ear monitors, too. Someone at Grandpa’s church had printed papers with little bios about each of us on it, and there were leftovers, so we handed them out to the folks at the Manor. There was this one Chinese man, and I watched him a little; he sat there with the biography paper and memorized all our names! So afterwards, he came up to Dad and shook his hand and called him by name, and the boys! His name was Wen Han, but “Wen” sounds more like “Wayne” with his accent, and he was calling himself John Wayne! He was a funny old guy, and he invited us to go out to Panda Buffet with him on Tuesday!

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any performing pictures from the Manor, but here are a few other ones!

A bunch of us toured the Manor with Mrs. Ethel (the elderly lady on the far left…she’s 92, believe it or not!), and one of the boys took a picture of us on the bridge
Another bridge shot

If you wanted to know what the backs of the outfits look like, I’m on the left, and Mom in her modified one is on the right. Hers was a modified men’s vest pattern.

Then we went back to Grandpa’s. It was Paul’s 17th birthday, so we had lemon meringue pie for his cake, and we had dinner, then went to bed!

Paul and his pie…no, he didn’t turn 1!