THREE PIECES OF JULY: FIRST PIECE 7/1-24/13

July has come and gone!  What a busy month this has been!  We began the month so full of vim and vigor! This was the month of our five sons and their families to come stay a week with us at the end of the month for a big family reunion!  We were completely excited!!  But first there was work to be done to get ready and our regular lives to live!

We began the month with relaxing Fourth of July breakfast with some friends at the Chowder House here in Gold Beach.  After that we spent several days baking and cooking meals we could freeze for the reunion; spaghetti sauce, cowboy beans, fried chicken, chili, home made bread, etc..  Also, we began shopping in Brookings and Gold Beach for all the food we would need to feed the 22 people added to our little household of 2.

  Then one of our friends moved back from Utah and got married on Ophir Beach.

It was a beautiful location, but oh so windy!!!

At the reception held later in a very large pasture in the woods, we were well fed and then entertained by a friend that plays the saw.  Beautiful music!!

 Some of the groom's family was from Canada and Wayne was shocked that one of the groom's brothers was an almost identical twin to Wayne's Uncle Frank!

Then came a few more days of cooking and arranging of rooms and putting away stuff that had not been put away from our move in 7 months ago.  We took a break one day and went to a car show that one of our neighbors had his car entered in.  This is his.

Ann and Wayne looked at all the cars and each decided on our favorite.  This little GTO was Ann's.

 And this little completely original restoration was Wayne's.  These cars were so valuable that They had police there to keep people from touching them.

 There was a Malt Shop nearby called Happy Days.  We decided to have a milkshake and to our surprise found another car show inside and a Surf Music Band playing a lot of good music.  Plus, they had, along with many other cars on permanent display one of the cars used in the movie, American Graffiti.

 

Do you remember the car race scene?

This was one of the cars from that scene and many other cruising shots in the movie.

It was thrilling to see that car that played such a big part in the film.  Apparently it belongs to one of the locals here in Gold Beach.  Mark Gosson, if you want to see it, you must come before the end of the summer as the Malt Shop is only open in the summer tourist season.

This is the interior of the malt shop and if you look closely you can see the band in the background.

Then a few more days of reunion preparation was interrupted by a church project  dreamed up by our missionaries, Elder and Sister Kieffer.  All the local members baked cookies.  We ended up with over 5,000 cookies.  Then we bagged them individually and froze them in many freezers located in members' homes.  Then we gathered one day at the church and taped invitations to come to church on the bags.

 It was a several hour process to tape them all.  But many hands and lots of talk made the task lighter.

Elder and Sister Kieffer, our task master!

The work crew for the day!

A few more days of preparation and then our garden began to produce.  Carrots, cabbage, grapes, blue berries, raspberries, radishes,peas, beans, turnips, tomatoes, etc.  We spent several days beginning the harvest and processing it all.  Didn't get much in the way of pictures, but here are a few of the berries we had with a breakfast one morning.

Then some more preparations and it was time to set up our church booth at the local county fair.  From this booth our missionaries and many local members gave away the cookies to passers by and answered many questions about our church.  They ended up giving away 3,500 cookies and 65 Books of Mormon and answered lots of questions.  But first we had to set up the booth!

Busy Bees!

This is how you do it....shake it and growl at it!!

Okay, maybe all you have to do is work together?

We did it!!!

A few more days of preparation and we were ready for our first guests, our youngest son, Kevin, and his two wonderful children to show up!  Then the work really began!