Oregon

Well, we have had a full week of vacation in Oregon which was wonderful.  We left last Tuesday bright and early in the morning.  Despite having only about 7 hours of sleep versus her usual 10, Evie was chipper as anything when we got her up at 5:30 am and she entertained us in the car by saying we were going to the "hairport" to ride the "hairplane".  Grannadaddy picked us up and drove us to the hairport, and along the way he asked Evie how old she was.  She responded, "Evie two!"  Seth said, "How old is Daddy?"  Evie said, "Three!"  Seth asked, "How old is Grannadaddy," and Evie said, "Five!"

She hit us with another zinger when we asked her if she was going to sing "Let It Go" (which she does almost every time we get in the car) and she replied, "No.  Evie too busy."

We had an uneventful trip on two planes and a long enough layover in LAX to get lunch.  Evie was as good as you could expect a toddler to be on the flight, with no fussing except when it came to being buckled.  But once the buckle was on and she calmed down, she was a delight.  She entertained herself with the iPad and I brought along a few novel items that filled in the gaps in her iPad usage.  At LAX we found time to use some of the penguin window clings I'd brought along for entertainment.  Evie loved sticking them on and pulling them off.

We stopped in to visit our friends Mia and Dave and their little girl Amelia who is 6 weeks younger than Evie.  We see them once a year and I think it's fun to look back at how much the girls have changed each year.

Dec 2012

Dec 2013

Dec 2014

Evie hadn't had a nap, so unfortunately, our visit was short and a little less fun than we were hoping it would be, since Evie was a little bit crabby.  So we soon headed down to Sutherlin, stopping along the way for dinner.  Evie caught a bit of a nap, but not much.  We offered to play her Frozen soundtrack, and she enjoyed that, but she said, "Not Elsa sing.  Evie sing."  Apparently Elsa shouldn't have been singing along either (she likes to sing solo most of the time).

We got to Gram's house pretty late, but it was an exciting moment and Evie was very sweet and said hi to both Gram and Parry.  We took just a little while to visit and then went to bed since we had been up for almost 20 hours at that point.  Seth and I slept in the guest bed and Evie slept in the pack-n-play across the room.   I was afraid she was going to have a difficult time with that set up and want to be in bed with us, but she had no problems with it all week and never asked to get into our bed.

Wednesday we headed down to Roseburg and saw Seth's Dad who we refer to as Grampa.  We had a Christmas dinner with him and Evie did so great, sitting at the table, talking to Grampa and Mr. Joe, another resident who sat at our table.  Toward the end of the meal, a group of carolers came in and sang from the front of the dining hall, and we were invited to sing along.  I held Evie on my lap and we sang along to some carols, including "Silent Night" which I have been singing to her for the last month or so before bed.  After the carolers left, Evie went up to the front of the dining hall and asked me to join her.  I went up there and she said, "Turn 'round, Mama" and then took my hand and started singing "Silent Night".  It was such a sweet moment.  

Then another group came to entertain with a piano, songs, and a tambourine and Evie got up and danced while they sang.  I am not sure if the picture will be big enough, but maybe you can see her little frame next to the entertainer wearing the Santa hat.  She has a little performance streak in her.  Wonder where she gets that from....

The next day we went to Wildlife Safari where we had told her she would get to see giraffes.  First we went to the walk-around part of the zoo and she told every single animal that she was going to go see giraffes.  Here's video of her telling the flamingos about it.

Then we went through the driveable part of the zoo.  We let her sit in my lap while we drove around, and Evie told all of the animals along the way that she was going to the zoo.  More video proof:

That was our only big adventure in terms of sight seeing.  The rest of the week we spent enjoying time with Gram and Grampa and Parry.  Evie took a particular fondness to Parry and at one point told Gram, "Evie likes Parry.  A lot."  It was sweet.  Seth's uncle Ira and aunt Brenda came in for the weekend so we got to visit with them and go to church as a family as well.  Evie and Brenda made fast friends and Evie loved being read to and going on a long walk with Brenda on Sunday morning.

Gram was a wonderful hostess and made breakfast every morning.  I hated for her to go to that trouble, but she and Evie shared some special times over breakfast.  One morning, Evie was eating a small clementine and Gram was having a large navel orange and they talked about how they had big and little oranges.  Another morning, Gram made Evie a special smoothie and Evie really enjoyed it.

The trip went by quickly, as always, and soon it was our last full day in town.  We took Grampa out to a Mexican restaurant and Evie was very talkative with Grampa.

That night we stopped by the rest home to visit Grampa for another hour or so and tell him goodbye.  Evie was perfectly happy and willing to get into Grampa's lap to give him a hug.

I was so impressed all week at Evie's bravery in being around the people at the rest home.  I remember being about 5 or 6 and going to visit people in a home with our church group and feeling afraid of them because of their wheelchairs or different states of cognitive awareness.  Evie is probably not old enough to sense those kinds of things yet, but even so, I don't think most 2 year-olds would be willing to talk to everyone they pass in the halls or see in the dining hall.  Evie said hi to everyone, would answer their questions when asked, and seemed perfectly at ease there.  She said of the resident's wheelchairs, "People riding bicycles!"  I am often in wonder at her good nature and cheerfulness, and I think her happy spirit and smiling face was probably quite a blessing to the residents.