OR/WA 2013 Trip ~ Day 4

Time is flying on our vacation ~ Day 4 finds us heading up to Blaine, WA

On this leg of our trip we are taking Christopher & Treyson with us.  Their Daddy, Brandon, and brother, Max will join us later in the evening.

Treyson & Christopher taking up more of the bed than Grandpa & Grammy.  Thanks Brandon & Danalyn for letting us have your bed for a great night's rest before heading up to Blaine!

Traveling with little ones takes some planning and never had a dull moment.  

We learned two new things in that first day of travel with the boys:

1.  When you go through a tunnel you are supposed to hold your breath.  Christopher shared this rule with us and did you know that when an almost 5 year old holds his breath for a tunnel it gets pretty quiet in the van!

2.  Did you know the van can travel way faster if Christopher sleeps while Grandpa or Grammy is driving?  Such great news!!!  And it works - just check it out with him.

And little boys love to run around when you stop at rest areas!!

Christopher & Treyson - can you see the family resemblance?

Thank you Treyson and Christopher for a fun day!!!

Our day of travel found us leaving Clackamas about 7:30 a.m. and included stops for gas, groceries - needed some coffee, breakfast at Burger King (even though the little boys ate breakfast at home before we left home), a stop to have Grandpa's tux sized  Good thing too - look at those high waters :)

Christopher checking out Grandpa's white socks and high water pants!  Can't wait to see him at the wedding :)

Treyson admiring the girls and their pretty dresses!

Christopher finding a place to hide at the Tux Shoppe!

The boys checking out all the mirrors and the brides' stand!

 and then a surprise visit to our friends Jerry & Lynda. So good to see Jerry home from the hospital and hearing that his knee infection is clearing up. 

And then on to Jamie & Suzanne's home for the Wedding Rehearsal and Potluck dinner.  

Ron, father of the groom, Jamie, groom, and Christopher getting ready to start the wedding rehearsal.

Ron standing in for the pastor with Jamie

Marquez Ruiz (best man & best friend of Jamie's) & Steven (maid on honor & best friend of Suzanne)  Also pictured Austin & Ethan, nephews of Suzanne

James Chrysler (grooms man  & high school friend of Jamie's) & Nancy Trulock (attendant & sister of the bride)

Opal (flower girl and daughter of Jamie & Suzanne) and Oliver (ring bearer & nephew of Suzanne)

Wedding Party: Nancy Trulock (sister of the bride), Wendy Caron (mother of the bride), Opal (daughter of the bride & groom), Steven Wright (best friend of the bride), Suzanne Trulock (bride), Oliver Trulock (nephew of the bride), Ron Workentin (father of the groom), James Chrysler (friend of the groom), Marquez Ruiz (best friend of the groom), Jamie Workentin (groom) and Bryce Caron (step-father of the bride).

The groom and grooms men

Bryce & Wendy escorting Suzanne

Bryce and Wendy Caron

Grammy & Grandpa with Treyson & Christopher

John (Nancy's boyfriend handling the music) and Treyson just thinking of what he could get into next.

Ron and Jamie - love these guys!!!

Mary (Dennis's wife) & Treyson

Marquez trying to get the groom to come out of the bathroom!

Jamie coming back out (sorry for the blurriness)

Rehearsal #3 - Dennis (father of the bride) & Wendy (mother of the bride) walking Suzanne down the aisle.  Also shown: Mary, Treyson, Nicole (Marquez's wife) holding Imre (nephew of Suzanne).

Ron & Marquez watching Jamie & Suzanne kissing!

Marquez, Nicole, Julian & Emelio Ruiz!!  In the oven is Mateo!!

John w/Imre

Nancy w/mom Wendy

3 Generations: Wendy, Nancy & Oliver

Wendy and her girls: Nancy & Suzanne

Wendy & her girls and her grandchildren.

Dennis & Mary w/Nancy, John, Oliver, Austin, Ethan & Imre and Jamie, Suzanne & Opal

Dennis Trulock with his girls: Nancy & Suzanne

Wendy, Nancy & Suzanne with their families

Sisters: Wendy & Yvette

Opal and Steven

Opal and Steven

Emelio sneaking the lat of the fruit!!!

What fun to see family and friends!!

After a full, fun and long day it was time to head to Jim & Mary's for the night.  So thankful for gracious friends who are more like family for letting us hang out at their place for 3 nights, have a party (more on that on Day 5!), enjoying snippets of conversations and relaxing in the quiet moments.

Hope you enjoyed Day 4 ~ Stay tuned for Days 5 through 12!

OR/WA Trip 2013 - Day 3

Sunday, March 10 ~ Day 3 of Our Trip

Jerome, ID to Clackamas, OR

After a much needed nights rest we were up about 6:45, got ready for the day, packed up all our stuff and then headed over to breakfast at the hotel.  We like to stay at Best Western's because most of them include breakfast in their rates which helps to offset our costs.

Breakfast included an omelet, mini-Belgium waffles, sausage, biscuits & gravy, orange & apple juice and coffee.  It was pretty good though the gravy could have been a little hotter.

We got on the road about 8:30 a.m. and made our way from one side of the state to the other.  The weather was overcast for most of the day but the sun did peak out at times.  Here are a few things we saw along the way.

Coming into Pendleton, OR.

Driving along Highway 84 heading to Clackamas.

An interesting camper we saw on the road.

One of the first glimpses of the Snake River.

Blue skies and another view of the Snake River.

My handsome chauffeur!!!

Love God's handiwork: the mountains, the river, blue skies, beautiful clouds.

Dark clouds rolling in.

The sun peaking out through the clouds.

Different cloud formations.

Dark clouds, blue skies, Snake River.

 And arrived in Clackamas, OR at the home of our son, Brandon, his wife, Danalyn and our four grandsons: Max, Christopher, Treyson and Alexander!! about 5:30 p.m.

Alexander - 2 months 11 days!

Treyson ~ 21 months 13 days!

Christopher ~ self portrait ~ 14 days shy of his 5th birthday!

Max ~ 14 years and almost 6 months!

Grammy taken by Christopher our budding photographer.

Grandpa holding Alexander & Christopher

Christopher holding his new bear and Lynda, Danalyn's mom

Grandpa bouncing Alexander (the reason for the blurry picture)

Treyson playing with the Leapster.

Sweet Daughter-in-Love Danalyn and Alexander

Christopher playing with the Leapster.

Brandon holding Alexander

Treyson showing us how he licks his lips.

After a dinner of Chinese food and lots of visiting it was time to head to bed as we had an early morning call for Monday ~ we wanted to be on the road by 7:30 a.m.

And we were ~ check back later for the next installment of our trip!

OR/WA Trip 2013 Day's 1 & 2

Our vacation this year was a 12 day road trip from Branson, MO to Blaine, WA and points in between.  Hope you enjoy our trip as much as we did :)

Day 1 actually was Day 1 & 2

We left Branson View Campground at 11:56 a.m. on Friday, March 8th.  Our destination was somewhere in Nebraska.  First stop was Star Pantry to top off the gas tank and say good-bye to Renee & TJ.

Then Krispy Kreme for some donuts for the trip.

We were disappointed they didn't have both kinds of the Oreo donuts but with a $2 off coupon we still found plenty to buy and enjoy on our trip.

We decided it would be a good idea to eat lunch before actually getting on the road so our next stop was at Golden Corral on Shepherd of the Hills.  They always have good food and a coupon for a $6.99 lunch helped us decide where to eat lunch.

We ate well, had full tummy's and so finally got on the road at 1:50 p.m.

And so we began driving through Missouri

Driving through Missouri we saw this beautiful court house.

And chuckled over the name of "Humansville" - and tried to figure out how they came up with this name for a town.

We crossed into Iowa in the dark and began to discuss where to stop for the night.  As it was raining when we were headed through Nebraska Ron suggested checking weather conditions and found that a blizzard was due to hit in Laramie, Cheyenne & Rawlins, Wyoming and we decided to try to beat the blizzard before stopping.  And so we continued to drive in the rain and then it turned to sleet, snow and ice.  I, (Alice) tried to sleep a little so I could have my turn at driving and was dozing off when the Jeep started sliding, Ron was saying "whoa, whoa, whoa" and I began saying "Thank You Jesus"  over and over again as we were slipping, sliding and swerving.  God was with us as there were no other cars on the road and the ditches stayed on the side of the road.  Ron is a great driver and got us out of the spin and we continued on our trip.  This is what the roads looked like at the time of our spinning, slipping and sliding!

 

 

 And then Ron decided it was my time to drive.  While Ron slept I sang songs and talked to myself.  About an hour into my driving I said quite loudly "Wow...look at the semi in the ditch!"  It was facing the opposite direction of the way I was going.  Needless to say it was enough to wake up Ron.  

He took some pictures as I drove.

These two semi's jack knifed kissing nose to nose in the East Bound Lanes of I80.

The traffic back up was about 2 miles long.

Here you can see the back up from semi's.  The sun was coming up and the skies were clearing up.

and after about 15 minutes Ron told me to take the next exit so he could drive.  Something about icy roads and me driving made him a bit nervous :)

And the roads were getting clearer.

We stopped at Little America for gas and as we were walking back to the Jeep we saw this Poodle Puppy made of snow.             Can you see him?

Beautiful scenery along the way.

And blue skies were appearing more and more.

 

 

 

And then we left Wyoming for Utah.  Such beautiful blue skies and gorgeous snow!

We both just kept marveling at God's handiwork.

Driving through Utah into Idaho.

We are so amazed at the amount of snow that we have seen along the road.

 After 27 hours of driving it was time to stop for the night.  

We decided to stop in Burley, ID but the hotel we stopped at didn't have a hot tub and it was surely needed.  So we continued to Jerome, ID where we stopped at the 

Our plan was to take an hour nap, go out for dinner, spend some time in the hot tub and then sleep for the night, getting an early start on Sunday morning to head to Clackamas, OR.

But as all RV'rs know, our plans are made in jello.  Once we were settled into the hotel room we decided to order pizza instead of going out.   The pizza was good and then we took a nap - Ron slept for five hours! and me for three!  At 10 p.m. Ron woke me up and we made our way to the hot tub for about 20 minutes. There were so many kids playing in the pool it was not very relaxing so we made our way back to our room and went back to sleep for the night.  

Hope you enjoyed this first leg of our trip.

Got up Sunday morning about 7 a.m. and began day three of our journey.  

Stay tuned for the next update!

Friendship ~ What a Blessing

On one hand can't believe it has been since January that I have written but on the other I know it has been.  I have kind of been in a funk since December YET the Lord is gracious and loving.  

Most recently we have (still are) been on a 12 day road trip from Branson, MO to Blaine, WA with some stops along the way ~ more on the trip later at The Wandering Workentins. 

Today I am jumping to our time in Greeley & Colorado Springs, CO.

It was 34 years and almost two months to the day since we had seen our sweet friends Mike & Conny Jensen.  Our friendship began while we were stationed at Camp New Amsterdam in Soest, Netherlands.  Our 3 year tour was cut to 14 months due to the failing health of Ron's dad.  A lot has gone on with both of our family's over the years: births of babies and even grandbabies, deaths of many of our parents and grandparents, many moves, joys and trials but through it all our friendship remained.

And finally yesterday, 3/18/13 we were able to actually be together again!

Ron and Mike chatting in the hallway of the Jensen home.

Ron & Mike - so fun to spend time laughing and sharing of our lives.

Ron, Conny & Mike

 

 

What a blessing!! to be together after all this time.  

Let's hope it's not another 34 years before we get together again.

From Greeley, CO we drove down to Colorado Springs where Alice had a reunion with high school mate Corrine (Randall) Lanier.  It has been almost 38 years since we had been together.  We had lost touch when we moved to Holland.  But with the help of Facebook, finding Ed Randall (Corrine's brother) and leading to Corrine we have been reunited for the past three years...just not in person.

And here we are today!!

Co

And unbeknown to either of us we both wore black :)

Another blessing for sure!!   We spent 3 hours together, figuring where our lives went after graduation and how parallel they have been.  Sharing how God's love and blessings have brought us through so much and kept us strong and growing in Him.  Too bad her hubby, Bill had an appointment today that could not be changed BUT next time we will all four be together and it sure won't be 38 more years!!!

Colorado Springs is also the home of Ron's cousin Tammy Bach Davis.  After sending a message via Facebook and then a couple of phone calls it worked for Tammy to join us as well.  And she brought her grandson, Dominic along to visit as well.  

Dominic giving Santa Ron a hug good-bye!  Dominic turned two this past January.  Don't you just love all those curls?

Back Row: Alice & Ron, Front Row: Tammy (Ron's cousin on the Thiessen side) and Dominic.

So fun to catch up with family and friends!

So thankful for God's provision and blessings in our life!!!