Christmas in Oregon

Thursday December 22^nd, Jet and I picked up James from his work in downtown SLC. To save on parking we parked in the lot next to his work and took the bus to the airport. The flight to Oregon was smooth, but stopping in Reno made the trip longer. James had the experience of changing a diaper in the world’s smallest bathroom aboard the plane. We arrived in Portland and were greeted by James’ parents who took us to his brother Nate’s house to stay the night. We picked up some groceries at Safeway the next morning and James got Amanda one of her favorites gourmet hot chocolate from Starbucks. We pack up and left to go to the cabin in Gates.

We stayed 3 nights at the cabin and had a great time and every member of James’ immediate family was there: Virgil, Annette, Nathan, Maile, Grant, Gavin, Gage, Greyson, Hannah, Allan, Jonathan, Timothy, James, Amanda, Jet, Martin, David, and Whitney. 18 of us in all. We had so much fun together watching movies, making gingerbread houses, a Christmas program, having a billiard tournament, and eating lots of good food. We also put on a special Christmas program with carols, testimony and a skit for the children. On Christmas day, James’ mom Annette made fantastic belgium waffles and later that day we took Christmas dinner made by Maile and Whitney to the church where Grandpa Don Hurst is a pastor. We took a four generation picture of Grandma Ruth Hurst, Virgil, James and Jet. After dinner we sat in the chapel and sang Christmas Carols. James favored us with a few Polish Christmas Carols. He thought we wouldn’t know if he couldn’t remember the words, but he got caught and it was a pretty good laugh.

After the cabin we went and visited James’ boyhood friend Tyler in Salem. We spend the rest of the day visiting and watching movies with David and Whitney and stayed the night there. Since we had a car (thank you Annette and Virgil), we decided to visit Amanda’s grandparents on the coast in Waldport. They were so gracious to let us come on short notice and we had a great time catching up and visiting.

We made our way back from the coast on Thursday and had lunch in Monmouth at J’s dinner on 99W with Hannah, Annette, Martin, David and Whitney and a special needs client Nathan. After lunch we made a stop at the Independence airpark where James immediately fell in love with the idea of a fly-in community. He would like to live there someday to be able to taxi an airplane from his house to the runway. We then went to Goodwill with Annette, Martin, and Tyler even showed up. We found some books, a toy phone for Jet, and some Vans shoes for Jet. That evening James played basketball in Monmouth with his brothers David and Martin. We stayed that night with David and Whitney.

As our trip was coming to a close we made our way back up to Hubbard to visit more with Nate and Maile. They invited us to go to OMSI with them and it was a blast. Jet loved the toddler room and enjoyed playing in the water pools, and with the balls. After OMSI we caught up with my brother Ted and went out to eat at Old Chicago for pizza. We went back to Hubbard to celebrate our nephew Gavin’s 9^th birthday. Jet had such a fun time playing with his cousins and they enjoyed him too. Our last day of the trip was spent getting ready to leave. James drove down 99E and took a trip down memory lane passing Gervais High School, friends’ houses, Brooks Elementary and Lakeside Drive to pick up his mom in Dallas. They came and picked Jet and I up in Hubbard and we left just in time to catch our flight to Utah to celebrate the New Year.

It was a whirlwind vacation! It was so wonderful to see everyone and we are grateful for the hospitality and love shown to us by our family. Here’s to an even better 2012! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!