Honeymoon in Oregon (Better late than never)

This is a late blog of our trip to the Oregon Coast in the summer of 2007. We had such a great time! We had originally planned to go with another couple, but they were unable to join us. So Lois and I were able to finally have a honeymoon! There was no way that I was not going to go because I have this thing where I have to go to the Oregon Coast or any ocean beach every year or whenever we can. It seems to call me.

We began our long awaited journey on Saturday July 28, 2007. We stayed at Lois's sister, Cheri's house until Monday morning and made our way to Portland.

We stopped at Multinomah Falls that evening and enjoyed the beauty there before the sun went down. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it is amazing. That was Lois's first time to the Falls by the way. Let's see what she has to say about them. Robert: "Hey Lois." Lois:"Yeah." Robert: " What'd you think about your first time to the falls?" Lois: "Ummm, They were pretty. I think I've been there before." Robert: "What? You told me that was your first time ever there?" Lois: "Umm. Well I've been by them before, but I don't think I've ever stopped."

Well, you get the point, right? We liked it a lot!

OOOOOO!! AAAAAAHHHHH!!

After Multinomah Falls we decided to continue on and find the motel to stay at. We spent the night at a Motel 6 in Troutdale. It was cheap, availble and close enough to Portland that we wouldn't spend forever and a day getting to the Portland Temple. The price we had to pay to stay there was to drive in on the most lame set up of streets. There were stupid one way streets on both sides of the freeway!

It was our second time in the Portland Temple! It is so beautiful on the outside and the inside.

After we went to the temple we continued our trip south on I-5 to Corvallis and then headed west for the coast.

We made good time because we badly wanted to see the coast before the sun went down and we wanted to see about getting a campsite on the beach. Just something we both have always wanted to do and we still didn't get to do it because most of the campsites were booked full and the others we thought were too expensive for our taste. Plus we were getting hungry and didn't have the patience to search for the perfect one.

This is a picture, taken by Lois, of our first stop on the beach in Florence, Oregon. It was really windy there so we drove down a ways and flew kites on some sand dunes that overlooked the beach! That was fun! We didn't stay for more than 20 minutes because we were getting sand blasted. Afterwards we went to a restaurant called Moe's and had some really good seafood!

(Sorry the picture is gone, I think I deleted it.)

Don't mind the naked natives!! The Astoria column displays 14 scenes commemorating important events in the history of Astoria in chronological order. The column is at an elevation of 600 ft high. The mural scrolls around the 125-foot-high structure in an upward spiral direction, with the earliest scene at the base of the column. An interior 164-step spiral staircase leads to the top of a viewing platform with spectacular views and we climbed all of them. Don't believe us? Look at the pictures after this one!

Told you!

Robert and Lois throwing 75 cents off a 125-foot tall building!!

It was worth it!!!
The funny thing about a lot of the tourists there is that many of them had a fear of heights so this was there Mt. Everest! Some people were scared while they were climbing the stairs, which were enclosed without windows. They couldn't even see outside. Some people climbed all the way to the top and would not go outside and enjoy the view. It was pretty funny.

These next few pics are of the amazing view from the column.

Anyone else reminded of the end of the movie Goonies when looking at this picture? Robert is absolutely convinced that this is where One-eyed Willie's ship came from behind at the end of the movie. This shot was taken from the top of the column. Digital zoom is quite amazing!

One evening we decided to watch the sunset together while we sat in our camp chairs. We then watched a movie on a portable dvd player while listening to the ocean. It was so nice and relaxing I can't even begin to describe it.

We took one day and went to Newport. Here we went to the underwater aquarium and Ripley's Believe It Or Not wax museum. This was so much fun! We also got to go to a light house right near Newport. This light house was amazing. As we drove up to it there was this eerie fog that was covering the ground. The fog was so thick that it we could feel the mist as we got out of the car. While we were there we saw whales. At first we were just watching one big one and then we noticed this was a cow with her calf. This was the first time the Lois has remembered seeing a live whale. We got some great video of it. We were so close that we could hear these whales blowing water out of their blow holes. We stuck around and watched the whales for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour. Then we were hungry and so we at a Izzy's pizza. It had an amazing view and we looked at the beach and waves while eating a great pizza buffet.

This trip was amazing and well deserved. It created so many memories for us that will will enjoy to share with our future family! Robert was able to take me to the coast like he had always wanted and Lois is more willing to go every year possible like Robert wants to make tradition in our family.

School Starts

Not much as gone on with us since the new year. Robert has worked every weekday morning and Lois has worked everyday/evening. We have had some fun hanging out with friends and trying to get the most playtime before school starts.


I don't think that I ever mentioned that Robert and I went through the open house for the Rex burg, Idaho temple. We went on the opening day, December 29. Of coarse, that was a wonderful and beautiful experience. In the ordinance rooms there are murals of the Grand Tetons. Amazing! If anyone wants to go, please let us know and we can get tickets for you and you are more than welcome to come stay with us! It will be going on, I think until the 25 or 26th of January and then the dedication will be Feb. 3, 2008.


This semester will be a busy one. I will be working 30 hours a week and have 12 credits at school and Robert will be working and taking 16 credits at school. We hope to be able to see each other at least once a day, sad I know. But it will only be for 15 weeks and then this semester will be over. We are both excited about some of our classes and not so excited about others. I have 2 biology classes for my major and one physics class for my minor and a child's clothing class. Robert is taking geology, a couple classes for his major and then another class for general education and an online class. So, any prayers for help with school so we will be able to work and go to school will be much appreciated.



These are just some cute pictures of This. She had just come in from outside and Roberts slipper was in the middle of the floor in the sunshine. I think she must have know that it would be warm inside the slipper and so she put both of her front pays in there as if to get them warm. She was there for over 15 minutes. It was too cute to not post.



And one last thing. I cut my hair to the shortest it has ever been and here is a photo. (Toni this is for you) I love it! I can style it so many different ways and all of them seem to look good. That is all for now. I hope that we can keep you all updated, but there are no promises until after this semester.

Happy New Year!

New Years turned out better than expected. I, Lois, was scheduled to work from noon til midnight on New Year's eve, however I went into work at 10:30 am in hopes that I could get off at 10:30 pm. My plan worked! I also knew the person who is in charge of sending people home early and that helped. So, I did not tell Robert I was off and I had some friends stop by the house and invite him over and had them tell Robert to come spend time with them until I got off of work. I of course was in the car. So, I went to their club house and waited until Robert showed up to join them. So, it was about 11:15 and Robert came over and I surprise him because he did not think that we would be able to be together at midnight. That was a lot of fun. It was a very small party, but we all had fun. Our friends that hosted the party are Megan and Brandon Hebdon, this is the same couple that we had Christmas dinner with. Anyway, back to the party. We had root beer floats at midnight and played Phase 10 until about 3:30 in the morning. It wasn't much, but a lot more than we expected. Thank you Natalie for letting me off work early. We wish all of you a happy New Year and hope to continue to hear from you!