Coast Trip

The weatherman forecasted several days of sunny weather so Nancy and I decided we should not let them go to waste. We packed a picnic and debated whether we should go to the mountains or the beach. Since it was sunny but still a bit brisk we opted for the coast. We decided to go down the Washington side of the Columbia River which pretty much follows the Lewis and Clark route. This was our first trip on this route. We stopped at the informational markers along the way to refresh our memories of the historical trip. Portland is about 80 miles inland but is a sea port so several times we saw ships traveling on the river.

We stopped for a picnic along the way and absorbed sun the whole day long. We walked on Long Beach and saw the preserved skeleton of a whale that had been washed ashore years ago. In the Lewis and Clark journals they mentioned coming across beached whales and how horrible they smelled so covered them with sand. We were glad it was only the skeleton we came across.

Celia and Gopher

We babysat Cecilia and Gopher (Brett and Kasey’s dog) for a couple of weekends while they were working on the Hansville house, getting it ready to sell. We had fun going on walks, reading, playing dress-up, and some of the usual grandparent activities. Cecilia likes to dress up in her princess outfit. She had to find a “magic wand” every time we went walking and liked to sing the song from Cinderella in her own 2-year-old version: “Bibby, Bobby, Boo”.











Gopher was often mesmerized while watching birds, squirrels and the neighbor’s chickens. Roy and Suzanne’s dog, China, joined him in the vigil whenever they visited.

Brinkley’s Visit Ridgefield

During a skype call with Rosemary and Mike Brinkley we discovered they were going to be in our area just before they were scheduled to fly out of Portland on a trip. We were glad they could stop by for a quick visit and to see our new house. Roy and Suzanne also stopped by as it was Ray’s birthday and we had dinner at the local Mexican restaurant to celebrate. Brett Kasey and Cecilia joined the celebration at the restaurant and returned with the group to our house for ice cream. Cecilia enjoyed Ray’s musical birthday card.

Ridgefield Park

Just down the street from our house is the Ridgefield city park. When Kari, Charles, Travis and Wren were here we made several trips to the park where the kids enjoyed playing on the equipment. Of course we adults also enjoyed getting involved.

Lawsons in Ridgefield

In early January we had Kari, Charles, Travis and Wren as guests when they were able to stop in Vancouver / Ridgefield on their way back to Alaska after Christmas in Tennessee. They first spent time with Brett, Kasey and Cecilia on the weekend but during the week when they were working Kari, Charles, Travis and Wren were with us. Bertha was also here and we created a number of wonderful memories. You may have noticed that we have more chairs now but we were using some folding chairs and had to eat in shifts. We were still in the process of moving from Hansville to Ridgefield. We had completed moving enough beds so everybody had a comfortable place to sleep. The grand kids all loved the musical dancing Santa….which drove the adults crazy!

Christmas with Brett and Kasey

We did not have all of the family together for Christmas at the same time but enjoyed celebrating the holidays in our new home. Bertha (Mom) came up with us from Eugene for a few days. Brett and Kasey had a small family gathering at their new place on Christmas Eve. Luckily they were able to get the furnace fixed so we were all able to stay warm. Norm and Sheryl were there from LaGrande and of course Cecilia was the main attraction.

First Ridgefield Guests

We took possession of our Ridgefield house on the last day of November and of course we had to celebrate. Roy, Suzanne, Brett, Kasey and Cecilia stopped by, and even though we did not have much in the way of furniture we enjoyed some pumpkin pie and conversation.