September 25 through 27, 2011

Sunday 25~~~~It rained last night and again this morning while I cleaned sites. Kent and spent the rest of the day watching movies and doing nothing. I picked up some pretty maple leaves and I traced them on some rocks and I painted some real pretty leaf rocks. I made one for my friend Pat because she made me real cute "Lil Black Sambo " rock. I told her that was one of my very favorite story books to read when I was little. She borrowed my book and painted me the cutest rock ever. Monday 26~~~~Today Kent had no office, so he was up at 7 AM buzzing around in the golf cart picking up the iron rangers for the office and checking on people in the sites. I slept in and it was sooooooooooooo nice! When I finally got up, I drank coffee and watched a movie, what a lazy day!!!! Tuesday 27~~~~The weather was pretty nice today with sunshine. Pepsi loves to lay in front of the open door in the sunshine and sleep. I baked 2 loaves of Zucchini bread and 6 large muffins. I also baked some cheese puffs for the margarita party today at 4:30 PM at Floyd and Opal's place. The cheese puffs didn't do very well, they kept collapsing on me. I finally decided to make them real tiny and then it worked but by then I was about our of dough! LOL Today's party was our last hurrah, as Pat & Jerry, Lou & Kathy and Kent and I are leaving on Saturday. That leaves Floyd & Opal and Bill & Rose to run the park and close it up on October 31. There were 10 of us at the party and we had so much food to eat, we didn't have to cook dinner. I went over to Kathy's for another computer class afterwards. She was concerned I might not be able to remember what she taught me because of all the tequila I drank, I told her I was an experienced tequila drinker ever since my 50th birthday party when I drank several juice glasses full!!! LOL Sure glad I don't do those crazy things any more. ha We had a great time visiting and telling camp stories of some of the crazy things that has happened to us over the years and what we are all doing when we leave the park.

September 21 through 24, 2011

Wednesday 21~~~~Kathy one of the hosts in the park is helping me learn how to post pictures with out using so many Mega bytes. I am running out of computer space, so every night for eight days, I will go to her place and learn how to post pictures using Picasa. Thursday 22~~~~Kent worked in the office today and I cleaned sites and took some pictures of the park with the pretty fall leaves that are all over and I have to rake up!! Friday 23~~~~This afternoon, it is kind of dark and rainy, Host Pat and I decided to each paint a pretty rock to put in the area up by the office area. We called the other host ladies and Opal and Kathy joined us, we all painted a rock and had fun doing it. Kathy brought quite a large rock and we gave her a bad time about how much paint she was going to use!! She said she didn't want to paint a pretty rock, just one with her name and the year on it and that is what she did! LOL This evening all of us hosts had a tequila margarita party over at Pat and Jerry's place. They have a nice covered area with a wood stove to warm it up. We all go to Mexico in the winter, so we had LOTS of Tequila for drinks and hordevors to eat. They make their margaritas with a blender of ice, tequila, beer and frozen lime juice. They were sure yummy and I drank my share of them!!
Saturday 24~~~~Our new host, Bill and Rose are Catholic, we told them Mass time and where we go on Saturday night. After Mass the four of us went to the Pizza Parlor we like to go to and we had pizza and beer together, it was nice having new friends join us.

September 18, 19, 2011

Sunday 18~~~~After we finished the work in the park, I drove into Salem. Kent likes to be here on Sunday night, so he will come into town in the morning. I stopped at Tress and Cory's house where they were canning tomatoes. I had some peppers I had bought and wasn't going to use them, so I dropped them off for them to use. Tomatoes are one of the things that I really love to can, and I haven't done it for years, so I pitched in and canned with them. Cory always helps Tress with the canning and jelly making, I wasn't sure if I was stepping on his toes, so I asked and Tress said she thought he was glad I was there, so the 3 of us canned them. After we finished the canning, I helped clean up the kitchen and I headed for home. I ate some dinner and went to bed early to read my book and relax. It always feels good to come to town and stay in our house here and in my bed I like so much. Monday 19~~~~Tress called and asked if I wanted to ride over to the kids new school with her and pick up the kids. Their new school is very close to where I live, so if they ever need us to pick up the kids, it will be real easy for us. They were really excited to see Nonnie in the car when they got in. They stayed at my house for awhile when they dropped me off, I fixed them a snack and off to the basement they went to play while Tress and I visited.

September 11, 12, 13, 2011

Sunday 11~~~~~~Kent worked in the office this morning and I cleaned the sites, there were several to do, I think about 16. The weather being so nice makes the people really slow about leaving. Check out time is 1:00 PM and some of them wait until after 1:00 before leaving, Check in time is 2:00 PM and they are sitting here at 8:00 AM hoping to get in their site early, but when it is time to leave, they aren't in such a rush. LOL I had most of the sites cleaned by the time I had to pick up Kent at the office, I think I had 5 left, because of them being so slow. I fixed us lunch and after lunch, we finished the sites together. Kent drove to Mill City for a frappacino and I packed a bag to head for Eugene to visit my daughter Kim and Mike. They might be heading to California to work the strike if it happens with Albertson's. I doubt if it will happen, but they have to be ready with a 2 day notice. Kent is going to stay at the park, he doesn't want to go. After I stopped in Salem and picked up some luggage for Kimmy in case she does go to Ca. it was late afternoon by the time I arrived there. Mike cooked a real good steak dinner for us and we spent the evening visiting and watching television. Monday 12~~~~~Kim and Mike have Mondays off, so we enjoyed our morning coffee on their deck. I gave Kimmy a hair cut, she has never had anyone cut her hair but me since I went to beauty college. Sometimes she trims it herself if I am not around, we always manage to get it done. LOL After we ate lunch, Kim fell asleep in her recliner, so I went outside and I picked blackberries. Their bushes are just loaded with them, so I picked till I was tired and my hands started itching from the branches. I washed the berries and while Kim made a meat loaf for dinner I made a blueberry cobbler using Grandma Enright's recipe called "Apple Pan Dowdy", using blue berries instead of apples, it was so good warm with ice cream. After dinner we both went outside to pick more berries, we picked where I picked earlier only on the other side of the fence. All of a sudden Kim was moving away from some hornets that were buzzing around her and she yelled, "HORNETS MOM" RUN!!!!!! There was a very large paper hornets nest in the bush where I picked all those berries earlier. I had noticed some hornets, but I left them alone and they did the same to me, but tonight they weren't very friendly. LOL We went out in their pasture and we picked black berries down by the creek until we had all we wanted, what a fun day. We divided them in half and we froze them to make jam or cobbler later on. Kim and I stayed up real late visiting and watching television, Mike went to bed as he goes to work early in the morning and he had a bad tooth that he was having pulled in the morning.
Wednesday 13 ~~~~~We were going to go shopping this morning, but we drank 2 pots of coffee and visited instead. Kim had to meet Mike at the dentist office to take him home from having the tooth extracted. I dropped her off there and I headed home to Salem. Kent and I were invited to go out to dinner with Bill and Shirley, another couple from the park who are leaving in the morning. We had a great broasted chicken dinner at the Wooden Nickel. That is 4 couples who have left already. Soon it will be our turn. The park closes to the public on October 31.

September 10, 2011

click here for more pictures

Saturday 10~~~~~It is a very warm day in the park today and we had quite a few sites to clean this morning, a few people left and some of them traded their space for a better or bigger one and new people filled the empty ones. Our class for the children in the park today is decorating the trailer Ranger Dan built that holds all of the telescopes we have for our Friday evening star gazing we have for anyone who wants to attend after dark in the ball field after dark. The trailer also holds the costumes for our 7 foot Big Foot and two smaller ones and all the equipment for the sing along and art classes we hold in the Education Center. We have all new benches with long counter tops to work on. The trailer was painted brown, so we had the kids put their painted hand prints on the trailer, we made pictures of all the different things we have taught and studied with them over the years. One family had a new born baby camping with them and I helped the Mommy put the babies foot print on the wall in PINK!!! All the names look so cute and the kids had a ball. We had one of us hosts help the kids pick their choice of color and pour it on a plate, another host put their hand on the paper plate with their choice of paint and made sure it got plenty of paint on it, another host helped place their hand on the wall and the last host worked at the hand washing station. It really went smooth and the kids had a ball. They wrote their names by their hand print and painted a picture if they wanted to. Of course we hosts Pat, Khrystal, Dan, Shirley and myself had to paint a picture and write our names on it too. We will add more names later on when we have another class, it is too late in the summer for the park to have very many children camping here now. We finished up with just enough time to rest a minute before heading to Saturday night Mass, we have a new priest here and we really like him. After Mass, we bought broasted chicken at the market and took it home for dinner. Yum Yum!!!!!

September 5, 6 and 7, 2011

Monday 5~~~~~Today is our day off, Kent drove to Portland to have lunch with his daughter Dee Dee and I took my daughter Lisa out for a very late birthday lunch. We have both been so busy and today we finally got together, I did some fast gift shopping on the way to lunch, Lisa and Gene have finally moved into the new addition they built onto their house and we had a great time together catching up on all that is new. After lunch, Tress dropped off Bodie and Blaize at my house because she had to go over to a girl friends house and teach her how to can tomatoes. We played in the back yard with water guns that they brought over. I got 2 guns and they each had one, as I knew they would both get me real good and I needed more water to protect my self. Next we went in the house and had ice cream and we watched a movie before heading over to Grandma Jean Marie's house to use her beauty salon to give Bodie his back to school hair cut he needed so badly. My hair clippers and tools are up at the park in the trailer, so I used her salon. After we did this, I took the kids home and I met Kent at the restaurant where we went for fish and chips for dinner. It was a busy day and I did no cooking, we ate out for lunch and dinner. Tuesday 6~~~~After our morning coffee and a good movie, Kent and I drove to Costco and picked up a few groceries and had lunch. Kent's daughter Cindy and his grandson Brandon called about 4 PM, they were on their way home to Portland after spending 2 days in Eugene getting Brandon enrolled in college and set up in his apartment. We met them at Applebees where they ate dinner and we heard all about what they did in Eugene. I didn't eat because I was having dinner with Tress and the kids before we go to the open house at the new school that Bodie and Blaize will be attending this year. I was so excited that I could go see the school and help Tress with the kids while she talked to some of the teachers. It is a new Charter school close to my house that just opened this year. The school Bodie has been going to has not passed the state requirements the five years that Blodie has gone there. We are really excited for them to be in this new school, everything is all new and and it is not run by the state. The open house was real nice and both kids are real excited about going there, all the kids who are going there are in the same boat, they too have left their friends to go to a new and better school. Tomorrow is the first day of school and I am so anxious to hear how both of them did their first day. Wednesday 7~~~~~Tress called me this morning after they took the kids to school, she said Bodie didn't want them to walk in the school with him and Blaize, was so excited to be there she didn't need them either, she was a big girl. Cory had never seen the new school, so they of course went to both of their class rooms to check it out. We called them about 4 PM today to talk to both of them about their first day at school and they both had a great day with no problems. We are back at the park and it is pretty quiet here. Three of the host couples have already left to go back home, we will be staying until the end of the month it looks like as we still haven't heard about our tickets to the hot air balloon in New Mexico. The same little girl that got lost on Sunday with the polka dot shirt and pink helmet was lost again on Monday while we were off work. I think her parents need a class in watching their children.

September 2, 3, & 4th, 2011

Friday 2~~~~~The park is full of campers every day all week. Only a couple of campers leave each day and the spot is filled right away, with a lot of people turned away because of no room. We don't have many days to work here, the time sure went fast. We still don't have confirmation on our camp ground reservations in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the annual hot air balloon festival we want to go to. We are number 5 on the list for a campsite and it is not looking good. So maybe we won't be going south after we get done here. I myself would like to stay in Oregon and go to the beach house for a couple of weeks and then stay in Salem for a couple and then back to the beach house until we leave in December. Just about dinner time, over the park radio we heard a call for all hosts and Rangers to look for a missing 5 Year old boy. The Park does a very good job teaching all of us all what to do and where to do it as quick as we can. We each call out what section of the park we are covering and who is to go to the front gate to check all cars that might be leaving the park and we call out what area we have cleared. The host couple over by the river found the little boy down by the river playing in the water. They called it in on their radio and we were all happy we had another happy ending. We usually have about six of these missing kids each summer and this was our second one this week. Saturday 3~~~~Another slow day for work, which makes me happy!! The mornings are very cool and it feels like fall is around the corner, it gets quite warm in the afternoon and then cool when the sun goes down. Kent and I watched some movies we had recorded today and the Oregon Ducks football game. After Mass tonight, we picked up some broasted chicken and joes and ate dinner at home. There is a lot of activities in the park with it being a holiday week end. They had a couple of Pirate scavenger hunts today for the children, two different age groups and music with a band playing all afternoon and then tonight a sing a long and the skit with Big Foot making an appearance, the kids love big foot.
Tomorrow there will be more music and a big water fight in the ball field for all the guests and hosts and rangers and a class on Geo-caching. A lot of people will leave tomorrow, so we will have a lot of sites to clean and get ready for the last hurrah before school. Sunday 4~~~~Not all the sites today filled, so it was a quiet day for us hosts. Kent and I watched several movies we had and I did some organizing in my special box that I keep all my Christian books about the Saints and other material I have gathered over the years and did some reading. Again we had just finished dinner when another call for a missing 7 year old little girl came over the radio, she was riding a scooter, had a pink helmet and a polka dotted shirt. Kent and I called in we would cover the play ground;we were just about there when we saw a little blond haired girl with a scooter, pink helmet and a polka dot shirt about to cross the road from the play ground onto the camp loop road . We stopped and asked her what her name was and we called it in to all the hosts that we found her and she was OK. The host with the family gave us their location and we drove the little girl to them. On the way there we came across all the kids in her family who were out looking for her and hadn't heard that we found her. They were so excited and they all ran behind our golf cart back to their parents, yelling at her that she was in BIG trouble with mom and daddy. LOL We again were happy we found her so fast and this made three missing kids in less that a week. Kent and I went home and finished the dishes, filled 2 wood carts with wood and then we went to the amplitheatre where a three man band was playing the best OLD country music from the fifties and sixties I have heard in years. It was all the old songs that Jan and I used to sing when we were in high school on the school bus going to the ball games. Of course I sang right along with the band and had a great time. Tomorrow is our day off, so we are going into Salem and I am taking Lisa out for her late June birthday dinner. I don't know what else we are going to do, but we will be busy I know that.