Oregon Side Trip

We took a whirlwind trip to Oregon in early September. Rudi & Carla Booher and family had insisted that we visit them in their US home, and we were happy to be close enough to oblige! It was only a four hour drive from Jake's parents home, our Western Washington "home base".

Our first stop, however, was... Well, at some gas station between two points on our journey, where we got stuck after a diaper change! "Fanny", Jake's 1969 Ford Fairlane (a VERY COOL car, if you're a guy :)  ), sometimes gives us fits since it sits unused while we're in Bolivia. Here we were waiting for it to cool off...and then a jump-start (from a man who spoke Spanish)...before hitting the road again! (By trip's end, Jake had figured out how to get us going without jump starts every time. Cool!)

 

Sophia doing some modeling while we cool off, too! Oregon was experiencing unusually high temps for the season (mid 90s) and we had no AC.

 

 

 

 

Next stop: Brownsville, OR! We were meeting up with the Baker family, other Bolivia friends currently in the states. Although I've known them for over 10 years, this was the first time we've been together in the US. After a while I realized that I kept wondering why everyone around us was speaking English, ha! With this sort of scenery, should've been hard to forget we weren't in Bolivia... 

 

 

The kids had a blast cooling off in the creek! We only had a half hour - they could've played hours.

I think this creek was part of the Calapooia River, if we remember correctly

 

 

 

At first, Sophia was having fun with the pebbles on the bank, but Jake said to let her test the water.

 

And... She loved it!! She threw a little fit when it was time to leave.

 

 

Sophia loving the water!  

It was so nice to chat with Linda Baker again, this time about our adopted children.


A bit later, we made it to the Booher family's AMAZING home!

Booher family restaurant! As usual, they had a crowd for dinner

 

 Our boys loved the creek and zipline at the Booher kids' grandparent's house!

 

 

We were put up in the Boohers guesthouse and really enjoyed our time at their Sunday morning home fellowship, as well. That's a place where one doesn't feel out of place for having a big family! :)

 

 

 

High on our list was visiting the coffee shop that helps support the Boohers while they're in Bolivia. We filled up the place trooping in with the 10 children amongst us!

 

 

It's a actually a drive-through coffee shop!

 

Rudi loaded us up with goodies and scone samples before we were on our way to...the ocean!

 

See the note at the bottom?

 

 

Stay tuned!