So here I am, sitting on the front patio of the house we rented for the week in Bend, Ore., for our son?s wedding, and contemplating all of the neat things that transpired during the week.
First and foremost, we have a new daughter, Katie, with whom we are absolutely in love. We also shared the week with daughter Amy and husband George, along with our grandsons, Alex and Louis, Nancy?s mom, her brother David and wife Penny and daughter Whitney, my brother Mark, sister Elaine, sister Janet and her husband Orvin and their boys Jon and Ian. Plus a host of close friends along with their children and grandchildren. It was a great time with multiple trips to and from the airport to pick up and drop off members of our entourage.
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The wedding was perfect, as was the weather. The food was out of sight because Katie took off a week from work and made all of it. When it comes to food she is very particular?and it showed. What she put together would make the finest restaurants in the world want to know how she made it.
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Katie?s aunt, who is a circuit court of appeals judge in the state of Washington, performed the ceremony, and it was perfect.
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With digital cameras there is no limit on the number of photos and videos that can be recorded. Counting the ones that just two of us took, we have more than 300 on my computer. With Dropbox, we can all share our photos very easily, so the count could easily surpass 500.
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We took photos afterward, and Candice Ranney had the idea of taking a photo with all of the Hillsboro High School graduates in it. There were a total of 14, including all family and friends in attendance.
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Reviewing the photos that have me in them, I noticed how old I am beginning to look. Or it could be that most everyone in those photos was much younger than me.
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We had lunch one day with a cousin and her husband who live in Portland. I had not seen them since a 1989 family gathering in Minnesota.
Her husband used to referee basketball games in the Pac 10 and once called a game between KU and Oregon, which KU won by some 40 points about 25 years ago in Eugene.
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One thing I am hoping to do before we leave is to float down the Deschutes River on an air mattress. They tell me the water temperature never gets above about 48 degrees in the summer. I am going to try very hard not to get wet.
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Grandsons Alex and Louie and their parents are leaving for Sedona, Ariz., to meet friends and their families this week, then will fly to Wichita the following week. We will pick up the boys there for their annual trek to Hillsboro for the Marion County Fair.
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The weather in this area is almost too ideal to be real: 80s during the day, 40s at night, no wind and low humidity. The sky is pure blue for most of the day, with clouds rolling through at times, but no rain. It is the high desert on the eastern side of the Cascades which makes the weather this way. We are now spoiled.
If you wish to share your comments or ideas, my e-mail address is joel@hillsborofreepress.com.
