Church camp and Hillsboro Hops...

Rachel, Victor and I took Charlie and Matthew up to Corbett Sunday morning for their three day, two night bible camp!  Both were super excited to be going and couldn't wait to get started.

Victor and I weren't aware of how they were going to divide the kids (girls & boys) up in cabin assignments until it started and it reminded me a bit of picking sports teams...both Charlie and Matthew were solo, most of the kids came with somebody they already knew, so they both ended up being towards the end of how the counselors divided the cabins up.  Charlie was getting a bit upset (mainly because she didn't understand), but once she was in her group and they went off to talk, all was right in the world again.

Tim is going to pick them up today and I have a feeling neither of them will want to come home!  I know I loved church camp when I was in school.  I wasn't this young, but I know they will have a blast!

After we dropped them off (we were there for two plus hours), we realized we would be cutting it close for the baseball game that Victor and I already had tickets for, but wanted to take Rachel too.  So we switched cars and gunned it to our house for the tickets and a long sleeve shirt for sunburned armed me....Managed to get another ticket for Rachel and then proceeded to SWEAT for 4+ innings...after lots of water, we couldn't take it anymore, so we stood up for the rest of the game near section 9 in the SHADE!

Rachel got a foul ball, we chatted with super nice people and bottom line, we are thrilled to have a minor league baseball team 3.8 miles from our home!!!  We will be back for many more games....just not at 1:35pm in the afternoon when it's 95+ degrees outside - who would have known!

Rachel and I with Barley, the Hops mascot!

Could have used a few more of these....drank LOTS of water the entire day!

Rachel got a foul ball!

Enjoying some dogs before the game!

Gold Beach and South Coos County's Relay For Life...

Last September, Victor won a great package at my dad's Rotary Club's golf tournament.  A ride on the Rogue River "Jerry's" Jet Boats, hotel stay, 9 holes of golf and dinner at one of the local Gold Beach restaurants.

I decided to put it all together in one weekend so we could hit up the South Coos Bay (Coquille) Relay For Life and car show.

It's a LONG drive from our place to Gold Beach...311 miles.   We left mid-morning, drove through the town of Drain and had lunch in Coos Bay.  Continuing on, we finally got to Gold Beach, in time for the fog/clouds to roll in...it apparently doesn't normally do that in Gold Beach??  

We had a nice dinner, Charlotte hung out in the hot tubs, walk along the beach and then we crashed.  Up early the next morning and got to the boat check-in 40+ minutes early...they ended up asking and putting us on an earlier boat and it was the entire day trip... yeah us!   Not only that, another boat stopped working, so we went back down river 1/2 to get 14 of their passengers and then continue up the river.  It was a GREAT day....

Victor and I managed to miss a few spots with sunblock, so on Saturday when we arrived in Coquille for the car show and the 80+ sun, it was a little too much for me to take.  We hung out with MJ, Angie, Karen, Grant & Becky for a bit, then ended up heading home around 3pm.  It still took 4.5 hours to get home....no traffic, just a long drive.

GREAT Thursday-Saturday get away!

Grant in the Back to the Future Delorean

MJ, Karen, Angie and I at South Coos Bay pre-Relay

MJ, Charlie and Angie

Natalie and the penguin I made for her.

Becky & MJ

Karen and Charlie

Not THAT is a dessert

Lunch break at Agnus on the Rogue River

Drove in the sunshine the entire way to the coast...get to Cape Blanco and the fog/clouds roll in?? 

Walking on Gold Beach

After the AWESOME day on the jet boat!

Charlie relaxing in the hot tub.

Awesome flat rocks at this beach!

Victor and the Star Wars gang at the South Coos Bay Relay car show!

R.I.P. Tony S.....

I was shocked to learn this afternoon that James Gandolfini had passed away suddenly at the age of 51.

 I didn't get into watching the Sopranos until close to it's sixth and final season.  It was a harsh/gritty/amazing show and James' character of Tony was the center.  Even though he was a horribly person, he did have a heart (to an extent) and it was a wild ride seeing how "the family" worked from their perspective.

Rest in peace Tony....

Charlotte, the budding scientist...

Well, just when you thought it would slow down, the American Cancer Society posted this photo of Dr. Druker and Charlotte on their Facebook page (which has over 800k followers) along with a link to the video....too cool!

Father's Day weekend...

Since Victor works on Sundays (and too many others already had the day scheduled off), we celebrated Father's Day Friday/Saturday. We went to see Man of Steel Friday afternoon - good movie! Saturday we met my folks for lunch and spent a few hours catching up, lots of laughter and love! So thankful we live so close to my folks and so THANKFUL that they are both still here!

Charlotte made Victor this cool mug...

Impromptu date night Saturday night.

Clouds make me happy.

Charlotte had Bella's 8th birthday party last night...this two kiddos love hanging out together.

Last day of school, last day of school....

I'm pretty sure I'm more excited about it than she is!!!

Last full day of school...

Today was her last full day of first grade. She's ready for the summer and then some! Loved having Mrs. O'Brien as her teacher this year and looking forward to having her again in second grade!

Beacon Rock...

Today was nice and sunny on the west side of town, but not so much on the east side of town. I decided to keep driving and figured it was better to be over cast and not raining than HOT or raining in the Gorge. I had been wanting to hike to the top of Beacon Rock since my Relay friend Jim had gone a few weeks back. He said it was a great little hike and Charlie would love it...he was CORRECT! It's a total of 1.8 miles round trip with only 600 feet elevation. Took us about 25 minutes to walk to the top...me stopping to take lots of cellphone photos...Charlie would have gone all the way to the top had I let her.

 I LOVED this hike. The view is spectacular the entire way up. If you are afraid of heights, might be a little too much for you. We will be going back for sure, with Victor next time!

There is no better place to live in the world on a day like today!

Charlie and I on the way down.

History marker at the beginning of the trail head.

Resting before we start.

Here we go...

Hmm....

What's the gate for mom?  To LOCK you in!

You can see it was slightly overcast when we started...

It looks like they used old fences to keep people from going over the edge...

A few of the switch backs.

You get the idea...

Seriously perfect views...

Sun is over taking the clouds...

Charlie went first the entire way up.

Looking east up the Gorge.

Final steps to the top.

There is literally no room at the top....we waited our turn to take a photo, then started back down.

Yes, it really is that cool coming down...

My mom would have been having a heart attack if she saw Charlie that close to the edge.

Bonneville Dam on the way east up the river.

Crossing Bridge of the Gods to get back to Oregon.