The first day of July escrow closed on our new house and we moved in the same afternoon. What we had forgotten to do was tell the power company to put the bill into our name, so we did not have power over the "long weekend", since the 4th of July was on Monday. Thankfully, our new place has city water, so we had water, but no power for four days! The days are so long in the North during the summer that we went to bed with the sun anyway. We used our camp stove and ate lots of salads and sandwiches and got by just fine!
Our new home is on almost 40 acres and has two big ponds, a seasonal creek, and a swimming pool. Rudi wanted a place with lots of water and he got it! It is also on a dead end road that is super peaceful. We would sit and just soak in the quiet while we were there. We were only there for six short weeks, but they were the best we spent while home in the States this time.
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| A view from our new place. |
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| The backyard, pool, and back part of the house. |
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Our first dinner in our new home.
Notice the flashlights hanging from
the chandelier! |
It was fun to celebrate the 4th of July in the U.S. again. Rudi, Emily, another employee and myself worked the morning shift. It is our busiest day of the year as the parade "turns" on our corner! Our adopted children loved all the candy that happened that day!
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| Happy 4th of July |
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Taking the parade in with friends and family!
That's our coffee shop in the background. |
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| "Dulces anyone?" |
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| Rudi and Emily at their Fourth of July best! |
Later in the month Rudi took the boys up to Diamond Lake for a long promised fishing trip. They each caught their limit and were back home in time for a big fish fry that same night!
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| Clancy at the helm. |
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Fishing Buddies
Myles, Clancy, and Kenneth |
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| Some of the 15 fish caught that day! |
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| At the cleaning station. |
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| Good looking guys and good looking fish!! |
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| Enjoying the catch! |
July was full of concerts, music camps, and events. The first was Camp Dwight. It was fun to be at Camp Dwight this year, a Christian camp that my father and mother put on each year. The speaker this year was from Answers in Genesis. All of our children really enjoyed the messages, as the speaker was very engaging and interesting to listen to. He also shared many thought provoking things. I especially appreciated the way he confirmed the truth of the Bible through science! A timely message in our day and age!
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Kenneth, Rudi, Brendan (Rudi's brother) and Emily
during the Camp Dwight Concert Night |
Our kids, along with Kenneth, worked up a great rendition of the song/skit "Bib-Overalls". I did this with them in the past and I must say my fans missed me, but I just wasn't up for it this time!! I thought the music quality was much better with the kids doing it alone this time!
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L.to R. Paula, Ruth, Clara, Emily, Vienna (cousin in front),
Clancy, Kenneth, and Myles in their bib overalls! |
One of the mornings of Camp Dwight there is a 5k fun run. I was up early with the five oldest to get to the race on time. Emily was a cheerleader and I was a time keeper. Myles, Clancy, Clara, and Ruth all ran. They all did really well. I couldn't believe it when Ruth told me she was going to run in the shoes she has on in the picture below! Thankfully, Uncle Dwight loaned us a pair of his boys tennis shoes that fit her much better!
Side note: The best recipe for losing shoes is: traveling, packing, unpacking, moving to a new house, traveling, repeat. Most who know me well, know that I have a hard time keeping my kids in shoes! It has gotten worse... argh!
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| Ruth ready to run!! |
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| Clancy, Clara, and Myles lined up and ready to go too! |
After Camp Dwight our family took in a "Music On the Half Shell Concert" featuring Riders in the Sky and Asleep at the Wheel. The city of Roseburg, puts on free concerts every Tuesday night at their Half Shell venue. It was a lot of fun to do something our family seldom does. We tend to give concerts, not watch them. I like watching them much more than giving them I must say!
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| Riders in the Sky at the Half Shell, Roseburg, Oregon |
We happened to bump into the Germonds at the concert and ended up sitting with them.
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| Some of the concert goers! |
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| And some more! |
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| Emily with her friends and her cool new autographed poster! |
My parents came over and spent two nights with me and the five youngest children while Rudi took the oldest four to the Northwest Strings Camp! It was great to spend some quality time with my parents and they were a huge help as well.
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| Making breakfast with Grampa! |
The next weekend was the Booher Family Concert 2016 held at at the farm where Rudi and his siblings grew up. Ruth looked so pretty all dressed up that I took some nice pictures of her out in the yard!
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| Pretty Ruth ready for the concert |
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| Booher Family Concert! |
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| "Bib Overalls" again! |
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Ukulele Buddies
Emily and David |
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Love those smiles...
Clara and Peter |
One of the things we determined to do was spend time at the Oregon Coast while we were home. However, we didn't get over the coast nearly as much as we would have liked. One day we threw a sack lunch into the car and headed over to Bandon. We had such a great time!
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| Happy at the Beach |
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| Paula and Clara |
It was cold and windy that day. We felt like we were being sandblasted at times!
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| Love Birds at the Oregon Coast! |
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| So much fun jumping into the sand pit! |
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| ...and getting buried in the sand! |
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| ....and just relaxing! |
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| Never too old to play in the sand... |
Instead of going out for ice cream on the way home, we stopped at a grocery store and bought ice cream and cones. Emily served us up with Myles big knife! With 11 people in the family you have to save somewhere!! We also got bigger portions... yumm!!
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| Ice cream on the go! |
We also didn't get to spend as much time with Mother and Dad (my in-laws) as we would have liked, but we did get to take them out for dinner at Tolly's in Oakland. They arrived at the restaurant before us and Dad was playing the grand piano for the guests when we walked in, it really added to the elegant atmosphere! We had a lovely dinner and visit with just us four. I am so glad we got to do this at least once while we were home!
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| Dad at the Keys. |
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Dinner at Tolly's
Carla and Dolores |
When we bought our new place it came with a garden already planted. We got to enjoy reaping potatoes, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini without having put any effort into the garden. It was a real blessing.
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| Daddy and kiddos enjoying the garden |
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| Mama too! |
I am going to include some random pictures of us enjoying our new place.
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| Making lunch in the kitchen |
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Swimming!
These two were our fish. Adriana and Ruth LOVE to
swim every chance they get. |
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| Paula loves her bicycle... |
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| Cleaning up the place! |
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| Adriana enjoying that good book! |
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| Clara making tie dye shirts... |
While we were home we really missed being involved with Spanish ministry and using our Spanish. Thankfully, we were able to get in touch with a wonderful Spanish speaking church in Eugene. We weren't able to go very frequently, but every chance we got we were there. Most of the folks are from Mexico and we were the only Bolivians, but the Hispanic culture is one that we can really relate to. The are a lovely bunch of believers that we are so thankful to have met! They were so welcoming and loving. We hope to have much more fellowship in the future when we return from Bolivia.
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| Rudi, Myles, and Emily sharing a song at our Spanish church |
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Always a snack and refresco! Rudi brought his Cinnamon
Rolls from the coffee shop a time or two! |
The leading elder, Alejandro Chavez and his wife, Adriana are such a sweet couple. We were thrilled to have been able to be at the wedding for their daughter to a sweet young man, of a family we also met through this fellowship.
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| Rudi and Carla, Adriana and Alejandro Chavez |
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| The wedding of David Norris and Karen Chavez |
Our next to last weekend in the States we spent in Central Oregon saying goodbye to my extended family! It was a full, but very special time.
My mother had made all of our adopted children their own baby blankets with their names on them. My mother has done this for each one of her grandchildren. It was a very special moment for me!
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My Chocolate Babies with Grams and their blankets
with their names on them!! Too sweet!! |
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| Grampa reading to Peter! |
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Out for dinner with my parents this time.
Rudi, Carla, Mama, and Daddy! |
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