Christmas in Oregon 2021

Winn came down from Bozeman a couple days before our trip to Oregon.  He caravaned with us to Caldwell on Saturday where we got to watch Audrey's team play basketball.  We joined up with Jim's parents and sister there and all watched the game together.  Afterwards we all went out to dinner and then we stayed at a hotel in Ontario, Oregon.  It was nice to break the trip up that way and see family along the way.  

We traveled the rest of the way on Sunday and went to my parents house.  We stayed with them for the first half of our trip.  It was pretty rainy, but we got out some to play at the school down the road, went out to lunch at New Morning Bakery, and drove around to look at Christmas lights.  Jim and I got to spend a night away at the coast to celebrate our anniversary.  We realized we haven't had a night away since before Elliott was born, so it was really nice!  We shopped in Lincoln City, got seafood for lunch and dinner, and had a great view of the ocean from our room.  In the morning we checked out and went to a cute breakfast place in Newport.  We stopped at the Ford dealer because Jim had spotted some new Broncos and he hadn't gotten to see one up close yet.  We traveled up the coast and had pretty nice weather.  We stopped at a few pull-outs and then then drove to the Cape Perpetua Lookout and hiked the Whispering Spruce trail to the Cape Perpetua Overlook.  Then we hiked the Giant Spruce trail to the giant spruce tree.  We also went and saw the Spouting Horn and Thor's Well.    

We ended up in Florence, grabbed some pizza and met up with my parents and the boys at my Grandma's house.  We had a good time visiting with my Grandma and relaxing and then we drove back to Corvallis. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with my brother Ryan and my parents and we went to the Christmas Eve service at their church.  

On Christmas Eve night we switched over to Jim's parents'.  Beth, Winn, and Audrey came over on Christmas and we celebrated yet again!  We had a hummingbird that stuck around most of the day getting photographed.  And we got snow.  It snowed on and off on Christmas day, sometimes some really big flakes!

Elliott vacuuming all the fuzz his new blanket left behind.

Emmett tried to practice basketball as much as he could to get ready for upcoming try-outs.

The snow continued to fall and the day after Christmas church was canceled and the kids got to sled.  We did our home church's online service.  Winn and Audrey came and sledded with the boys.  It continued to snow off and on and the next day our power was out.  Luckily the house stays pretty warm with the woodstove, but since Jim's parents are on a well, no power means no water.  It was Karen's birthday so after hanging around in the morning (Jim and Emmett found a good water source to get buckets to flush the toilets with), we went into town for lunch.  We also picked up some pizzas and went to Beth's place to spend the rest of the day.  The kids really enjoyed playing video games with Winn and we were able to use the gym at the school where Beth teaches PE.  We had pizza for dinner and Beth had made a cake for her mom's birthday.  When we got back that evening the power was back on.  

It was quite a winter wonderland and the kids got to do even more sledding.  Enough snow that they even sledded all the way down the driveway.  They also got to use the sled their Grandpa had built out of old skis and they loved that.

We visited my parents one more time and then we got to celebrate Audrey's birthday with her.

We watched the weather and tried to pick a decent day to travel back to Idaho.  I think it was the first time that there was roadside snow the entire way home.  The roads weren't too bad, but I was glad that Jim was driving.  And it was really good to be back home.