Joshua's Birthday

Joshua's birthday was on Tuesday last week and we continued celebrating with dinner at home, followed by a mini blueberry pie for dessert. I'm so thankful for special times to spend together.

Birthday Breakfast

We kicked off celebrating Joshua's birthday in the traditional way by heading over to the coast to spend the weekend with Grandad. We arrived to a delicious chicken dinner Saturday evening.

Sunday morning we had birthday breakfast at a nearby diner. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and visiting. Joshua's first cousin once removed, Gary, and his wife were passing through on their way south, so we got to meet up with them in the afternoon and all have dinner together.

Fall is Here

I held on to summer for as long as I could, but it's officially fall now and I'm okay with that. I enjoy watching the seasons change and trying to appreciate each one. It surprises me how quickly the days get shorter here compared to what I'm used to in California. The trees along River Road also changed quickly; they seemed to turn bright yellow overnight. Our little pumpkin from the garden has now been joined by other autumn decorations, and things feel warm and cozy.

The fall term has begun and Joshua is happy to be taking classes again. This term is the beginning of a new phase of the program since he completed his required philosophy coursework in the spring and is now focusing on the language requirement and examinations.

Adventuring: East to the Mountains

Joshua and I went on our second birthday adventure trip yesterday. This time we went east to climb Fuji Mountain. We had a little difficulty finding the trail head, since it was only marked by a picture of hikers and was over ten miles down a gravel road. But once we found it, the trail was great. It started by winding through hemlock forest with lots of huckleberry bushes. 

The trail is only three miles round trip, but it had almost 1,000 feet of elevation gain and the summit was at just over 7,000 feet, so it got our hearts pounding.

The 360 degree view from the top was impressive and well worth the climb. After the short hike, it was surprising to have such a great view at the top.

We had a picnic lunch at the top, in an area mostly sheltered from the wind. It was cloudy all day, but as we were heading back down the trail it felt like there was a storm coming in and we ended up getting a few sprinkles.

We enjoyed the drive home and arrived mid-afternoon, making it an easy day trip.

Dave and Gayle Visit

Dave and Gayle came up to Oregon at the beginning of the month. They headed over to the coast first and we joined them there over labor day weekend. We arrived Friday morning for a late breakfast after being delayed because of a road closure.

 

 Friday evening, we watched the sunset over the ocean.

 Often, the fog comes in and there isn't much to see as the sun sets, but we had a good one that night.

 Saturday we went out to breakfast and had a busy morning and early afternoon around town, checking out a favorite thrift store, the candy store, looking for quilt shops, and going by the car dealership. That evening Dave made killer lamb kabobs for dinner.

Joshua and I found this beauty on sale for an amazing price while we were at the thrift store, so we added it to the pile of things Dave and Gayle were planning to bring us in Eugene, mostly a third bookcase they brought up from California to match the two we already have.

Sunday, Gayle and I walked around Lake Marie. It is a beautiful lake and an easy one mile walk to get around it.

We came back to the house to find an intense game of cribbage going on; a common occurrence over the weekend. We even had a few games of five player cut throat cribbage, which was a lot of fun. We returned home Sunday after dinner, but then Dave and Gayle came out and stayed with us starting on Wednesday. We enjoyed eating more good food and showing them around Eugene. While I was at work on Thursday, Dave bought a car, so he ended up staying an extra day after Gayle had to leave. So we had a busy and enjoyable day with him on Saturday, buying and putting together a barbecue, racking our wine, bottling beer, and working on getting the entertainment center put back together (he and Joshua had cleaned and oiled it).

Saturday evening, we enjoyed the fruits of our labor by using the new barbecue to grill dinner while we tasted our in-progress wine.

Adventuring: West to the Beach

For my birthday, Joshua has been planning a couple day trips to go on this summer. We had our first adventure yesterday when we headed west over to the coast.

We started by driving through some pretty countryside to a road that runs along the Smith River. It was a beautiful drive, both to get to the river and driving along the river.

 We stopped at a favorite spot along the river which Joshua remembered from times he had been there with his family. One of the rope swings was still there, so we took turns swinging out over the river.

It was a beautiful day and so pretty and peaceful there by the river.

 We walked along the rocks and through the water to explore upstream a little way. Rivers are my favorite bodies of water and I was so happy to be near one again.

We saw lots of little fish and a few crawdads. After spending some time by the river, we headed further west and had a picnic lunch at a pullout by the ocean.

Then we went on the Hobbit trail through the woods.

It was a beautiful little trail with all kinds of overgrown side trails that looked perfect for hobbits. The trail exited the woods at Hobbit Beach.

We were both impressed by the beach. It was large with smooth sand, scattered shells and pretty rocks, and a cliff with rocks at the bottom that looked good for tide pools.

We sat and watched the waves for awhile, then walked along the water.

 A lot of the beach was pretty flat, so when the waves rolled out, they left a large thin sheet of water.

We headed to Old Town Florence for dinner and had seafood at Mo's. With our bellies full and feeling happy and worn out after our day of adventuring, we headed home.

Garden Update 8-25

I harvested most of our beets on Sunday and made a small batch of pickled beets. I decided to try a different spice blend this time, so we are looking forward to tasting them. I love how pretty they look.

Both garden beds have been enjoying the sunshine lately. You can see the rhubarb in the back is really getting large. The kale in this bed has been a real winner too, I'm surprised how well it continues to grow even though it has been warm lately.

Things are getting pretty wild in the larger bed, but we have been taking out the plants that are done producing, so things still mostly have room to grow.

We have finally started harvesting tomatoes and enjoying eating them. The first time we had fresh salsa was a particularly delicious treat.

So far we have been able to keep up with what the tomato plants are producing by eating them fresh. However, since we planted eight tomato plants and had this cherry tomato come up as a volunteer, we won't be able to keep up long.

Our cucumber plant decided to grow up the tomato cage on one side and through the row of yellow beans on the other side and is now growing out into the grass. It has started producing some delicious cucumbers.

The newest addition to the yard, our shade loving scarlet begonias, are doing well also.