Grandma Mayo’s 80th Birthday Party

Josh’s Grandma on his mom’s side turned 80 last week, and to celebrate she had a big fun birthday party.  We weren’t sure we were going to be able to go, but given the circumstances we got to!  We were glad to make it, and share this special birthday with her.

The day started with pictures and brownies at Grandma and Grandpa Mayo’s house in Midway.  Then we had dinner and a special program at the Homestead (hotel in Midway), followed by Mama Mia sing-a-long movie.

Dinner was somewhat of an adventure with Payson as it always is if we are not at home, but he had fun playing with his 1st cousins once removed that are 7 years older than him.  They were like little babysitters, and I sure didn’t mind them entertaining him!

The program was well done.  Besides stepping through Grandma’s life described with movies for each decade, we enjoyed special musical numbers from a couple of Josh’s aunts, cousins, Spencer, and I also had the opportunity to sing, as well. 

Grandpa Mayo got up and told us the story of how he rode on a train with Spencer W. Kimball to California so he could propose to Grandma.

The movie was fun because we sang along. Payson danced in the back, and for one of the songs, he ventured to the front to dance.  He noticed that people were cheering him on, so he danced even more in front.  That’s my boy!!

By the end of the movie both Payson and Avenly were tuckered out. 

I think Grandma and everyone who came to the party would agree that it was a very fun night.  Thanks again, Grandma, for inviting us, and letting us be apart of your big birthday celebration!

17 Days and 55 Hours of Driving Later…

For the past 17 days we have only had 2 days that we weren’t in the car for more than an hour.  Today makes the 3rd day of not being in the car that long. Over the course of the last two weeks we have driven approximately 55 hours – give or take an hour!  Needless, to say- we are sick of the car.  However, we are not complaining too much because we have had opportunities to stay with Josh’s cousins while their dad had surgery in Salt Lake, see my sister and her family, see my cousin (and get our hair done), got to Northern California and Oregon for job interviews for Josh, go to Grandma Mayo’s birthday party, and back to Jackson for another round of watching younger cousins for another surgery and seeing my sister.

Although, it has been fun seeing family-this post is about our trip to Northern California and Oregon.  We also crossed the river into Washington, thus adding 2 and 3 more states to the states that my children have been to.  That means that Payson has been to 44 states. He was in my tummy when we went to South Dakota, Nebraska, and New Mexico.  He is also missing Montana. Avenly has been to 12 states.

During Josh’s interview, the kids and I played at the park.  Avenly enjoyed sitting in the swing, and Payson loved having her ride the train/tractor thing with him.

The town Josh interviewed in has a big beautiful lake, so we couldn’t miss the opportunity to get a picture in front of it.

On our way to Oregon we stopped at the Redwoods.  I have Never seen such HUGE trees in my life.  There are some big trees in Muir Woods by San Francisco, but these were bigger.  Redwood National Park is very green because there is tons of rain.  Many of the non-Redwood trees had moss stuff growing on them. 

The biggest tree in the forest is called Big Tree.  It is 304 feet tall, 21.6 feet in diameter, and about 1500 years old.  It has a circumference of 68 feet.

I was amazed at every huge tree I saw.  It wasn’t like- “Oh, yea, I already saw a big one.” It was more like, “Wow!!”  every time I saw one.

Of course Payson and I had to hug a tree!!

We took a scenic drive by the California coast before jumping on the freeway to finish our drive to Oregon.

We had a few days before Josh’s Oregon interview, so we took advantage of the days and saw some cool places.  The first was Fort Vancouver in Washington.  It was basically just a British Hudson Bay company trading post.  It wasn’t really much of a defense fort, despite the fact that the fort had display canons.

The other fort we saw was Fort Clatsop in Oregon.  It was where Lewis and Clark stayed for a Winter. 

While there we saw a giant slug.  Josh thought it was moving poop! lol He realized that it was a slug, and Pay thought it was pretty neat.

Another cute story from this location is when Payson was hanging behind us just a couple feet.  We were walking slow, but didn’t have his hand in ours.  When we got to parking lot, we told Payson to hold Josh’s hand to cross it to get to our car.  Payson said, “I can’t because my hands are full!”  He had collected pine cones he found on the ground. 

We couldn’t go all the way to Oregon without visiting the Oregon coast.  Our first stop was Astoria, where we stayed the night.  Right outside of our hotel, there were tons and tons of seals (or sea lions).  They were barking all night- ha ha!  (It really wasn’t too bad after we turned the fan on in our room).  They were kind of fun to watch because they barked and fought and fell off the dock.  They captured our kids’ attention pretty good.

Next stop was the famous Haystack Rock near Seaside.  It was windy, and rainy, and cold, but Payson loved it.  He really is a beach baby!  He ran around the beach saying, “I love the beach.”  He didn’t want to go back to the car.

Our hotel near Portland was by a Firehouse Subs, where we ate dinner one night.  Payson loved the free hats! When he got his, he ran around making fire engien sounds. He got one for each of us by leaving the table and telling the worker that his dad needed a hat, too.

The drive back to Ogden was long, but we were able to drive my some pretty waterfalls, called Multnomah Falls.

We made it back just in time to do laundry, and get ready for Grandma Mayo’s birthday party!