Oregon is full of so much beauty!
It has gotten such a bad rap because of all the rain, especially this year, but even with the rain, and most likely, because of the rain, it has some of the most beautiful sights that I have seen, including the places I have traveled to outside the state and country. A while back I told myself that I need to start going to the places that are right here at my own doorstep. I need to take more pictures of where I live. Not that I plan on giving up traveling away from here, I'm just gong to make sure and use my 'Oregon time' more wisely.

Bonnie and I went on two hikes in the last two weeks, both less than an hour from my place. The top photos are of

our hike to Mirror Lake on Mt. Hood.

This is Little Zigzag Falls.

This was on the way up to Little Zigzag Falls.

It was so amazing to see the places that I have only seen in photos. Now I have MY OWN photos of these places.

This was the end of the trail for us.

I bet you didn't know the had gators in our lakes!!! : )

Mt. Hood was not the only thing Mirror Lake mirrors. It was so beautiful from all directions.

These flowers were growing in ROCKS!

Why did it take me so long to see these places for myself!???!!!

I KNEW it was going to be fantastic to have all the kids home, but I didn’t know how fantastic it was all going to be. We didn’t do anything really, mostly just stayed here at our house and enjoyed our time together. It is such an indescribable thing to see your children as adults, with their families all together talking and laughing and having fun. I didn't once have to tell the boys to leave their sister alone, everybody ate what was on their plate and they all went to bed on their own. After all the years of raising them, it is unbelievable to see them now raising their own families.
One of the things that was really fun for me, was a couple of weeks ago, I asked each couple to take one of the nights and cook dinner for everyone. I love to cook, especially for my kids, but they are always telling me to sit down and be with them, but HOW can I do that when everyone is going to need to eat? Plus, they are all good cooks and I thought it would be fun for them to have a chance to cook something they like to make for everyone. That was such a HUGE success that I plan on repeating every time we get together. Dennis and Abby were the first to cook. They made a Greek recipe called ‘Chicken Souvlaki’ with ‘Tzatziki sauce’ and Pita bread with a Greek Salad. Jessi and Ariel roasted 3 whole chickens over an open fire with two kinds of rice and fried plantains and yucca, all Dominican dishes. John and Rachel barbequed steak and also barbequed romaine…I have never heard of barbequing romaine, but it was really really good. On the 4^th of July, I made ribs. My parents and John’s parents and my sisters came over too. We ended the night with some really awesome fireworks. My pictures of the fireworks didn’t turn out as good as I hoped, mostly because I was not sure WHERE they were going to be in the sky, by the time I figured it out, it was too late to shoot.