Mmmmmmm, cheese! (And ice cream)

On Tuesday of our week in OR/WA we stopped in Tillamook, OR on our way to the coast. We had to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory and visitor center. We love cheese, and Tillamook is some great tasting cheese! This town is in a beautiful little valley with lush green grass and happy cows. They have been making cheese here from the happy cows' milk for years. It was fun to go up in the viewing area and watch the cheese being made, cut and packaged. They had a nice gift store there with lots of "schtuff". We really enjoyed the cheese tasting counter. Lots of yummy flavors. Good thing Tillamook is not close to home. I'd probably go eat my fill of cheese there often!

It's a very nice, clean facility. 

Someone is anxious for some cheese!

Happy riders in the Loaf love mobile. (most of them anyway)

Aunt M and Uncle E sprang for ice cream for everyone! There were lots of flavors to choose from.

Cake batter flavor I believe. Now she's smiling!

Yummy. I keep it, Dad?

The ice cream was smooth and creamy and delicious. Best of all, they had my favorite all time flavor, Chocolate ice cream with Peanut Butter swirled through it. MMMmmmmmm!! It's been years since I've had this.

De-lish!

Oh, look! a happy cow and her farmer! (Soren-L and Charles-R)

More happy cows and farmers! (Charles-L, Ford-R)

(Charles-L, Soren-middle, Mom-R)

Wait! Where did my happy cow go? (Hannah)

2600 miles in a car....

We had the opportunity to travel to the Seattle WA area in April to be present for Jordan and Lindsey's wedding. It's been 7 months in the planning.
We left on Sunday April 15 and drove to Orem. There we crashed on Uncle K and Aunt N's floor. We got up on Monday, grabbed a bite to eat and hit the road again. 12ish hours later we made it to Uncle E and Aunt M's house in Vancouver WA where we again crashed for a night.
We got in the car again on Tuesday and drove to Pacific City, OR and spent 24 hours at the beach, where a very cool beach house(separate post) had been rented for the night. On Wednesday we sadly left the beach behind and drove 5 hours up to Bellevue, WA. There were a couple of stops on the way to collect the goods for the wedding luncheon we were hosting after the sealing and before the reception, before we got to our hotel. Thanks to Uncle E we were about 1/4-1/2 mile from the temple!
Thursday we only drove as far as the temple, the church for the dinner and the yacht club for the reception, which were pretty close, relatively speaking. 15 min max! Almost a day of rest. Our goal was to get up early on Friday the 19th and drive like mad to get home that night since Curtis and Nina had a track meet on Saturday in Blanding. Unfortunately we didn't get up and going when we would have liked and the weather was not cooperative. I think we hit snow 3 times and got rained on most of the way, most heavily in Boise. We got to Orem about 2 am after 17 hours on the road and dropped Ford off. Curtis and I looked at each other and said, 'That's it. We're done.' It just didn't seem wise to try to get home when we were so tired and the road over the summit was likely to be bad. So we found a hotel and crashed for 8 hours. Saturday we leisurely drove the remaining 4 hours home. We had a wonderful time but spending almost a week straight sitting in a car is a bit crazy. The kids were mostly awesome. It could have been a nightmare but it was not, thanks to them being patient and getting along.
Here are some pictures I took from my seat in the car:

Look! We haven't even left town yet and they're miserable.

This is the weather that greeted us Monday morning when we left Orem for WA. Fun!

And even more FUN! (Near Willard Bay)

Ipods and Ipads for music, games and audio books. Sure helped us pass the time.

The big kids were pretty helpful (and entertaining) with the little kids. We have some awesome kids.

It was tight quarters in the Suburban. We are thankful to have a 9 seater!

Probably one of our first sightings of the Snake River. It seems big til you see the Columbia!

The Snake River gorge near Twin Falls. You have no idea that this big crack in the earth is there until you come up to the edge of it. Wow! (Sorry for the finger in the way. Maybe I'll edit it out, maybe not.)

More snow falling as we drove through the mountains from LeGrande to Pendleton OR

There are lots of bridges between Portland OR and Vancouver WA....this is one of them.

Heading south through Portland to the beach.

Lots of overpasses in Portland. The blue van in front of us is Uncle Erin!

Heading into a tunnel. We thought it was interesting that there were buildings and houses above the tunnel. 

Inside the tunnel. Interestingly, on the other side of it there wasn't as much 'civilization', just lots of green.

Just out of the canyons into the valley where Tillamook is. Wondered why Grandpa couldn't have inherited fertile land like this to raise his cows on. Those looked like some happy cows! The green was intoxicating.

More happy cows.

The private community where the beach house was located. All the landscaping was natural. No mowed grass etc. Just a very windswept look, including the sand all over the roads.

Just crossing a portion of the Columbia River on our way back to WA. Lots of yachts and sailboats here.

Leaving Seattle and heading home this is what we encountered almost the entire way. Rain. In WA? haha

Thankfully we had replaced our windshield before our trip. It has had a leak and it would rain in the car when it rained outside. No inside rainstorms on our trip!~

This was near Snoqualmie Pass. Still quite a bit of snow up there. Wishing I could load some up and bring it home for our mt.

Just a lake we passed on our way home. I thought the low lying clouds, tree-covered mountains and lake were pretty. Probably out to edit out the road, but since most of my pictures were taken from the car, it accurately records our trip.

Eastern WA?? Seriously I wondered if we had already gotten to San Juan County. Just sage brush and rock and bits of grass. Soil is a different color, but the vegetation is pretty much the same.

apparently, that dry landscape can be transformed into productive farmland. Amazing what a good source of water can do. I kept thinking of the phrase, "the desert shall blossom as the rose."  Grape vines in front and fruit trees in the rear. Near Richland and Yakima WA

Just showing the contrast of the natural vegetation and the irrigated crops. 

Jordan and Lindsey's Wedding

Jordan and Lindsey were married on Thursday, April 18, 2013 in the Seattle Temple. It was such an amazing thing to be in the House of The Lord to witness the sealing of my son to his chosen wife. It was even better than I had imagined over the years. It makes me a bit glad that I have so many children. I will get to witness many more sealings!

We had a wedding luncheon (0 pictures) following the sealing and pictures. We held it at Lindsey's home ward building which was only a few minutes distance from the temple. My favorite part was watching two of Jordan's buddies help a couple of guys with a car issue who had pulled into the parking lot. They were in luck, because Tyler happened to have his tool chest in the back of his car and was able to help them. We tried to get them to come in out of the rain and have some food, but they weren't comfortable with that. We did take some food out to them. Jordan has some great friends, I was very impressed with all of them.  

Later that evening we attended the reception which was held at a yacht club. It had begun raining/drizzling while we took pictures at the temple and by the time of the reception it was quite rainy. Which was too bad because it would have been nice to use the outside areas for the reception. The reception was so nice and I feel bad that I didn't get to do much more than chase my little boys around. They were the entertainment of the day and night. Sigh. Oh, well. Lindsey's mom and family did a great job with the reception and it was very lovely. There were a lot of people there to support them and celebrate with them. I was thankful to have Grandma and Grandpa Welch and Aunt Nicole, Aunt Michele and Uncle Erin there to celebrate with us! 

We are so happy to have another daughter and so happy that they have found each other and made eternal covenants with each other and with Heavenly Father. Another 'forever family' has begun!

Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Welch

Three handsome, little men waiting to head to the temple.

Soren enjoying the 'candy bar' at the reception.
It was a hit with the kids! (and most of the adults too!)

Gearing up for that sugar high!!

A view of the reception. In the corner of the room to the left
of the open door you see was the Italian soda bar.

In the corner by the windows was the ice cream sundae bar.
They had lots of yummy options.
Her brothers and brother in law were the Ice cream and soda server guys!

The cake. The table had white lights under it and they surely intrigued James all night.
The whole set up was lovely.
Love the baby pictures of Jordan and Lindsey on the tables in the back.

The happy couple cutting the cake. 

First dance as a married couple. They are both stick people!

The sendoff! We all had little streamer rings to throw as they ran to their car.
Not exactly riding into the sunset but away they went.

life now

So that's how it ended and where we are today. When I got home I continued the Lovenox until I had enough Coumadin in me to stop the Lovenox. Thankfully, the Coumadin is about $8 for a month's worth of meds. It is not something I wanted to be on forever, it is not a thing you want in your body, they use it for rat poison! But it is effective and so I took it until the six month mark from my PE. It made my hair brittle, but I didn't notice any really bad effects from it. I am thankful that it kept me from forming any new clots while the old ones aged and hardened and didn't launch any more emboli.

Last week I went to see Dr. Black and look at the results of the blood tests I had done in Sept. He said that he could not see any reason to keep taking the Coumadin.  My test results all indicated normal blood clotting. He did ask me to take a baby aspirin daily for now. I am happy to do that. 

After getting the okay to be done with Coumadin, I had a ceremonial smashing of the remaining pills. I hope I never need them again. I hope this was an isolated incident and that there will not be a repeat of it.

Its an interesting place that Curtis and I find ourselves now.  We have been having children for so long, that's really all we know. I don't think  either of us had any idea we'd have so many, but we are thankful for the wonderful family we have. As we look to the future, we are excited to be moving to the grandparent stage, where the new people entering our family are coming by marriage and someone's womb besides mine. It is a bittersweet thing to come to the end of the childbearing era, and we mourn the child that could have been. I know that Heavenly Father knows the end from the beginning and will make all things right for that child as well as for me and that he knows that in a different situation I would have been willing to try again to give that spirit a mortal body. As it was, it just couldn't be. I have felt His comfort as I have pondered and mourned this event. I am thankful for the knowledge of the plan of salvation and happiness that gives us understanding of this mortal journey. It surely brings peace to know that someone is in charge and all will be made right. And that someday we will understand why things had to be as they are.  

In a couple of weeks, Jordan will be married. He met his fiancé, Lindsey, in ID and it has been such a good thing for him. He has direction in his life now. He is registered to start school and knows what he wants to study. We are so thrilled to see so much good in his life. The gospel is such a blessing. The sealing of two people to each other is such a blessing.  We cannot wait to be part of the beginning of yet one more eternal family in the Seattle Temple. (pictures will be forthcoming)