Medford, Oregon

We left for Medford, Oregon at 7:45 Thursday morning and we knew we had a full day of driving ahead of us. It is a six hour drive, but time is always added when you're traveling with two children. I must say that the drive was quite nice and very beautiful! Will did great - he travels very well now that he can read books, look out the window, talk, sing, and watch movies. Lauren did better than expected. She only cried for a little while, and mostly because she was hungry or tired. She slept a lot of the way (which was great) and I just sat in the back between the two car seats for most of the ride and entertained the kids. We arrived in Medford at 5:00 and we went straight to see my Grandma Niedermuller. Grandma is 91 (She and Lauren have the same birthday!) and she looks great! She is so healthy and we think she'll make it to 100!!! She recently moved to Medford because my Aunt Fran (Dad's sister) and Uncle Danny moved there to retire, though Aunt Fran still works in Reno. Aunt Fran and Uncle Danny met us at Grandma's for dinner and we all ate and talked. It was wonderful for Grandma to meet her great-grandchildren. Will loved to play with Cindy - Grandma's poodle. Will has a thing for dogs!

We went back to Uncle Danny and Aunt Fran's house and we stayed there for the rest of the week/weekend. Will loved it there! They live on 20 acres up in the hills outside of Medford. He loved to walk around outside and explore their wildlife. They have turtles, hummingbirds, snakes, bunnies, and cows in a nearby pasture. Will also loved playing with their 5 dogs - and Stanley seemed to be the one he picked on the entire time. The picture above is Will feeding Molly the turtle. He fed her roses, strawberries, and alfalfa. They move pretty fast for turtles!

On Friday we went out to lunch on the river and then the kids got to go down and play in the river. It was a bit cold, so we didn't stay too long. I was surprised how long Will actually stayed in the water! There was a park next to the river and Will enjoyed playing in the tire there. He didn't really venture out to the other parts of the park, he just stayed in the tire. He spent most of his time at the park inside this tire. I don't know what was so fascinating about it, but it was nearly impossible to get him out of it. Lauren loved getting into the tire, too. It was a great little park.

We spent a good deal of our time in Oregon just hanging out at the "farm." Farmer Pickles (Uncle Danny) took Grandma and Lauren for a ride in his tractor. Will decided that he's ride in the tractor when he gets a little bigger. Lauren had a great time riding around the farm with Grandma and Will and I enjoyed watching them. It was a wonderful trip out west, but it was nice to get home and settled. It was a great bonding trip for the two kids, too. They spent a lot of time "playing" together and just hanging out. Lauren really grew up a lot on this trip - she rolls over both directions and she can sit up without assistance for a minute or so. We had a great time with Grandma and it was so wonderful to spend so much time with her. She was a great help and I couldn't have done the trip without her! It's always fun to spend time with Mom - she's a great friend! We want to thank everyone that opened their home to us - we had a great time and we really appreciated you spending time with us! Hopefully we'll do it again soon!