This year's Coastal Reunion came about because of the busy-ness of the Bullfrog Marina at Lake Powell. We had planned our Reunion to be at Lake
Powell again this year, where Keith works and has access to the houseboats.
During the 'off-season' he can rent one for a fraction of what they cost
during the tourist season. However, this year we planned the trip for September instead of the usual
October meeting, thinking that perhaps we'd have a little nicer weather. (Our last outing on the Lake we had several days of rain.) Because of
this change in plans, or perhaps a little later tourist season, there were no boats available for the time we wanted it. So our plans changed
and everyone came to Oregon. (Well, we all live in Oregon except Randall and Keith's families.)
So we made plans for an Oregon meet. Elaine made inquires around and found that Loon Lake had just the facilities we wanted. After
checking with all parties involved she made reservations for the group campsite and all was set for our Reunion!
Since we had so recently moved, Dick and I were working rapidly to get this house, yard and the camp trailer ready for the planned visits. We
didn't get everything done, but that's OK.
Greg and Carolyn, who live in Sweet Home, about 2 hours from here, arrived on Friday evening. On Saturday, while they were doing some
shopping to get ready for the camping trip, we took the girls, Kaylee, age 4, and
Sierrah, age 3, to the Wildlife Safari. (They think that every time they come they should go to the Safari, and since we purchased a
grandparents membership we get in "free").
After the Safari we went to the Stewart Park pond to feed the ducks. Usually there are a lot of people feeding the birds, but since school
has started, there are not so many folks there and the ducks and geese were hungry and were snatching the bread out of the girls hands before
they could throw it! They went through the loaf of bread in about 5 minutes.
So we came on home and just visited and played the rest of the day. Randall, who lives in Denver, drove to Pocatello and spent Saturday
night and Sunday with his friends who live there. He had told us he would be driving from Pocatello, Idaho on Monday. Not knowing how early a start
he would get, and "knowing it was at least a 15-16 hour drive," I
thought he wouldn't be in until quite late, even though he told me he could make
it in 13 hours! Well, that evening after Dick and Greg's family had gone to bed, I was sitting in the dark living room with the blinds open, 'road
watching'. Then I remembered the old sayings, "A watched pot never
boils" and "A watched road is never traveled". So I got up and went to the
computer room (from which I can still see the road!) and answered some e-mail.
I had just written an e-mail to Jamie, stating that I doubted that Randall would arrive until about midnight and I might as well go to bed. Just
as I clicked on ‘send’, I saw a pickup turn the corner, and as it was traveling kind of slow…like maybe checking addresses…I got up and
went to the front porch and waved at him. It was about 10:15. He HAD made it in 13 hours! I had to send Jamie a correction!
Greg and Carolyn and the girls had spent the evening at her folk's house visiting and playing in their swimming pool. When they came home,
Sierrah was already asleep. We bedded her down on the living room floor where, we told Kaylee, they were going to sleep, and practice
'camping out'. She thought that was fine.
Randall and Alena (also 3 years old) went to bed in the room Greg's girls sleep in when they are there, so when Sierrah woke up in the
middle of the night (remember, she was asleep when we put her on the floor) she decided to "go back to bed." She climbed into the bed and
apparently Alena also woke up. Randall didn't get much sleep; the girls were giggling
and playing, mostly on him. He got on the floor to finish up the night.
Tuesday morning, Carolyn's folks hauled their Horse-trailer to the Lake for Greg and Carolyn to camp in. Now this is not your average
horse-trailer…it has fantastic living quarters! We pulled our tent trailer over…its maiden
voyage for us. And set it up. We had the Group Campsite, just across the road from the water, a few feet more to the bathrooms, and about
100 feet from the playground!! What a setup!! Elaine, you did good!!
Brent, Elaine and Ashley (age 7), who live in Sherwood, about 3 hours from us, came just about lunch time, bringing a lot of food, which we
put out for everyone to make their own sandwiches, etc. Jamie, who lives in Reedsport, about thirty minutes from Loon Lake, came as we were
finishing up lunch and we visited as we cleaned up and inflated the air beds and
inflatable water toys.
Now everyone was anxious to get to the water, so as they all left, I decided to stay at the campsite, just in case Keith and Robin came
they would know which campsite was ours…like, it would have been hard to tell…two
trailers, a tent and 4 vehicles! And very few other campers in the place!! They had called us that morning and told us they
were just south of Eureka, California. I was thinking Yreka, California, which is on I-5, about
3 hours from us. I thought they would be there about noon or one o'clock.
It was now already after two and they weren't there yet. Greg and Carolyn had a set of walkie-talkies so they took one and left
one with me. I would call them if the kids showed up at the campsite and they would call me if they showed up at the beach. They packed the
two kayaks Greg and Carolyn borrowed from her folks, and all of the water and beach toys into Randall's truck and he drove while everyone else
walked down to the lake.
After they had been there for some time they called me and suggested I just leave the walkie-talkie on the table with a note for Keith or
Robin to call us, and come on down, the water is fine!! So I went down, but stayed in the shade, and didn't get in the water. The weather was
perfect, hot enough to be comfortable in the water, a slight breeze occasionally,
cool enough in the shade, but not too cool for comfort.
The kids had a very good time, the little ones playing in the water and sand, feeding and chasing the ducks. Greg and Randall took each of the
younger girls for a long ride in the Kayak. Then they taught the older ones how to paddle. When they'd "mastered" the technique, the
teacher took out one boat while the new boater paddled the other one on their own.
Randall and Greg took the Kayaks out in the lake and decided to 'water joust', where you dig your oar into the water and splash your opponent. Lots of fun, and Greg just happened to splash Randall with a very good
one, but in the process of digging his oar so deep for the splash, he tipped his own kayak over!!
We decided it was time for dinner, so we packed up all our stuff and went back to the campsite. We had prepared dinner and were just about
to eat when Keith, Robin and Lindsey (age 10) drove up, following Randall who was the taxi service for the Kayak's and beach
paraphernalia. They were on Highway 101, and if I had understood where she told me they were,
I would have known they wouldn't be there until evening!
We had brought a lot of firewood with us and the guys built a good fire, over which the marshmallows were roasted…and not one of us had
remembered to bring the graham crackers and Hershey bars!!! So there were no
s'more's!
We had a very good evening, sitting around the campfire and talking. Jamie left before it got dark, as, like her father and I, she doesn't
like driving after dark. And it is a narrow, winding road from the lake back down to the highway.
All of the little girls slept in the back of the horse trailer…not to worry, Alan, Carolyn's dad, had cleaned it very well…no horse manure
in this trailer! Lindsey preferred to sleep in the tent with her parents, probably a good choice. Alena woke up in the middle of the night and
had to come and get into our trailer with her dad. But the other three slept there all night.
The girls had such a good time playing together. The playground was just a hundred feet from where we were and Lindsey took one of their
walkie-talkies (they had just acquired them) and Ashley took one of Greg and Carolyn's
down to the playground, and we were in constant communication with them…constant!
But the big girls did a good job of entertaining the little girls and we adults had a good time just visiting.
As soon as lunch was over, everyone went back down to the lake. More swimming, more feeding and chasing of ducks, more playing in sand for
the kids…more sunbathing for the adults! Jamie and Carolyn and Robin had their cameras with them and were busy snapping shots of all of this
fun!
David and Colton (age 11) who live in Cottage Grove, came after we got down to the lake and Colton soon joined the girls in the water. They
all seemed to be having a very good time. Greg gave him the instructions for the Kayak and away they went for a nice long trip across the lake.
Now that all six of the Owen Kids were here we took lots of photos, and had another camper on the beach take a few shots of the entire group.
We went back to camp when it started getting cool and everyone was getting
hungry. After dinner we sat and talked a good long while, enjoying the campfire, while trying to stay out of the smoke. The kids
were preparing a play for us to view when it got dark. It was entitled "Snow White and
the Seven Dorks"
Lindsey was the wicked queen, Ashley was Snow white, and Dick had a duel role as the woodsman at the beginning and the handsome prince at the
end. David was Grumpy, (he wouldn't go and perform, he said he was playing the part…Grumpy!) Colton was Dopey all the other kids were the other
Dorks, but I don't know who was whom. The little ones didn't know what was going on, but they were having fun doing it! Randall finally went
with the other Dorks and became the leader…singing, "Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's off to work we go". The little ones really liked that part.
When the "handsome Prince" kissed the princess, she woke up, saw who had
kissed her, screamed, and fell dead. (her head was supposed to blow up, but the special effects weren't there, we just had to use our
imagination…we knew how it was going to end…someone squealed!) It was a marvelous
performance!
David and Colton left and drove on home. Colton could only miss one day of school.
This night Alena just bedded down in the tent trailer instead of trying to stay in the horse trailer, but all the other ones were there. Lindsey
stayed in her own bed in the tent. Greg beat Dick out of bed the next morning, and had the fire started. After breakfast and showers, we had
to clean up the campsite and get all the tents, trailers, sleeping bags, air mattresses, etc. packed away and headed for Jamie's house. The
night before we told Jamie that since Don wouldn't join in on the noise and confusion at the lake, we would bring it to him! We talked about having
tuna sandwiches at her house for lunch that day, so we all drove over there.
The girls (adult girls) decided they would rather go to a restaurant for lunch. So when we got to Jamie's house, we just visited. She had
baked me a birthday cake…yes, this day was my birthday, and I had all the kids around me to celebrate!! We had our 'birthday' party and then
we all went into Winchester Bay for lunch at Pizza Ray's. After lunch Jamie took us to her store and we were allowed to pick out
whatever we wanted of her things for FREE! The girls had a ball! Aunt Jamie did her Christmas shopping the easy way…let them pick it out and
take it with them…no wrapping and no mailing!!
After the shopping trip, Brent, Elaine and Ashley headed for home and a stop at Brent's parent’s house at Cottage Grove on the way. Dick and
I headed on home. Every one else went down to the Ocean beaches. There was a misunderstanding about where they were supposed to
meet. Greg said Third Beach and Randall said First Beach!!!
Randall, Keith and Robin, along with their girls went down to the Pacific Ocean, first beach. Jamie joined them after she finished up at her shop.
Lindsey was picking up shells. One of the things she had chosen at Jamie's store was a red basket which she managed to almost fill with shells.
She found a perfect sand dollar on the beach - a rare treat. She ended up sopping wet from playing in the waves. (Well, there was water and
Lindsey definitely likes playing in water.)
Alena learned about chasing the waves and them chasing her. She had a great time chasing a seagull up the beach and following dog tracks in
the sand. She found a lot of logs to climb up on and jump off of. Some people were just down the beach from us and they had two kids with them, so Alena naturally had to go and socialize. The tide was coming in and
a wave came up to where they were and the mom had to grab Alena as well as her own kids to keep them from all getting soaked.
Everyone enjoyed the huge surf that was pounding the beach that day.
After Randall and Keith's families left the ocean to drive on to Sutherlin,
Jamie went and joined Greg's family on the third beach. She found that they were still there. Kaylee was building the Portland Temple in sand and Sierrah was having fun playing with a kite. There wasn't enough
wind to fly the kite, but Kaylee ran down the beach with it for photos!!! After taking a few photos, Greg and Carolyn also left for the drive back
to Sutherlin, and Jamie went home.
After we got home, we parked and unloaded the trailer. Just after we finished with that David and Colton came and not too long after that
all the others arrived. We packed up all the necessary things for our dinner
(Bar-b-Que steaks and hot dogs), towels etc., and went up to Carolyn's parent's house to
enjoy their nice big indoor swimming pool. We had a very good time, watching the grandchildren have a lot of fun splashing each other. This is the
first time we have had them all together. Even Kaylee was jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side of the
pool without any "floties".
She just 'dog-paddles', but she is doing very well. Several of the adults took advantage of the hot tub.
After a fun evening of swimming and a good meal, we came back home.
David and Colton stayed for quite a while and we all had some more good visiting
time. David brought over a muzzle-loader Black-powder rifle he had made. It was beautiful. He is going to be making them for a gun shop there
in Cottage Grove, where he lives. What an opportunity…to do what you like to do and make some money at it! After they left we all got ready
to go to bed.
We put all the adult "kids" in the bedrooms, the girls were in the
Living Room again, this time Lindsey slept on the couch, and we took the family room. Our computers are there and since we get up earlier than the rest
of them, we will have something to do while they are still snoozing!
Well, when we got up about 6 a.m., Keith was already up and out at his car, working on the passenger side front door window. It wouldn't roll
up or down. He had brought the part with him and this was the first chance he had to work on it where there were tools.
I made breakfast for everyone who wanted it and after Keith had finished with the repair job they and Randall and Alena climbed into their
vehicles and drove away.
Greg and Carolyn stayed another night, and then on Saturday they packed up and left.
We now have a very still and quiet house.
Post Script…Randall and Alena had some more adventures on the drive home…Randall
tells us that driving home from Sutherlin, Alena had another new experience when she got to "pee in the dirt" for the very first time. They
were on a lonely stretch of highway in eastern Oregon, 70 miles from nowhere.
Well…when a 3-year-old says "I gotta pee!!!" you can't just tell
her to hold it for another hour!
After again visiting with Kerry and Cherryl in Pocatello, Randall and Alena left Keith, Robin and Lindsey there and started the last leg of
their ourney, thinking that they would get home around 7:30 p.m. However, after sitting in stalled traffic for an hour and a half 30 miles west
of Rawlins, Wyoming on I-80, Alena had another new experience ... peeing in a cup.
They then had to deal with construction backups through Rawlins. The westbound lanes east of Rawlins were backed up for over 15 miles!!!
Randall said he was glad they were going east!! They had yet another delay due to an accident 20 miles west of Laramie. They finally got home at 12:30
a.m. and went directly to bed!
