Fear not... another new blog header!

It was time. For a new blog header. And there's always a reason for the Header's I create:) This one is no different. While were were on the Oregon Coast last month, I knew one of these pictures would end up here. Unfortunately, when we got home, NOTHING was coming to me as far as what I wanted to write on it. I'm much too much a Creature of Habit to NOT incorporate something meaningful-to-me. Several songs ALMOST did it, but well, nothing brought complete satisfaction... that's what I was looking for.

Until last night.

In a VERY round-about-way (you know, RANDOM! Ha!) I ended up on KATE's Dad's blog to read about bracelets someone had made for their girl. On the outside they say "Pray for Kate", on the inside is the reference for Isaiah 43:1-2. So, you know, I read it... it was conveniently written out for me, which I will do for you, too!

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name;

you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze."

... read that again. And if you felt like me, SPEACHLESS after reading that, you would have grabbed your Bible and read on... at least through verse 3:

For I am the Lord, Your God,

the Holy One of Israel,

Your Savior

THEN I thought about it for a really long time. God has redeemed me. God, summons ME by name... does that not give you a picture of how very personal He feels about us? He knows us, He wants us?! You. Are. Mine. Seriously, could not stop thinking about how incredible that is.

... and how many times have I passed through "the waters"? Worse, "the rivers"... and worse yet, "the fire"? He protects me. He doesn't always take it away, but He is always there protecting. Your Savior.

Here's why I write this all down... not to be all preachy and spiritual, you know I'm just not. When these things are "revealed" to me, I don't want to forget it... you know, tomorrow, when I'm once again the Raving Lunatic losing my temper with say, Ben. Oh wait. That was today.

I need all these reminders that My Savior, (the same One who created that vast, vast Pacific Ocean, the rocks in the midst of it, the waves that crash all around, and knows exactly how many grains of sand are on that beach... Him) thinks I'm worthy to REDEEM. He thinks it's worth it enough to KNOW MY NAME, takes the time to call me to Himself. He calls me His. I love that. And I'm going to need to see it spelled out over the next couple of months...

Finally the recipe!

Remember when my sister-in-law, Rochel, made us Chicken Pot Pie before we went on vacation? Mmmmmm. Well, she FINALLY posted the RECIPE, complete with photos! I'm pretty certain we will still be calling it Baked Alaska at our home. Brings back some GREAT memories! Apparently, she is going to be making it for us once in a while in a trade off for watching Eli. I'm thinking we made out pretty good in the deal. Click that recipe, and check out that cutie!

Animal House

As promised... one LAST POST regarding our vacation. Our Room Steward, Alex (of "Here's Alex" fame) had a good time with the kids stuffed animals whenever we were out of our room! We would come back to find a VERY CLEAN room, and a Take Over by the Webkinz and Beanie Babies. Of course, Ben and Carly (and well, us, too!) found this completely hilarious.

Playing Nintendo DS (above)

Reading, OF COURSE!!

Having a little snack (above)... Carly was also pretty excited about the cookies that were left behind!

(above) Watching TV... the Cartoon Network was on when we came in!

and this one (above) was our favorite! Lined up outside the bathroom door!

Having a nap with Blankie, while the Huskies stood guard!

Off again!

So, my parents are off to Jerusalem again! Please pray for them as they work and minister in the Garden Tomb... and for us as we will be missing them! We are pretty thankful for Skype! They will be back October 30th.

While I have you praying... Kate. Don't forget about this precious Random Girl who is battling cancer. Stop and think for a minute if she were YOUR little girl... wouldn't you want as many people as possible, even STRANGERS!, praying for her? And take a moment to be thankful for your healthy little ones and for what we HAVE NOT, as yet, been asked to endure. Kate's link is to the left... as is a link for my parent's blog.

Swim Banquet

Ben and Carly's Swim Banquet... every year their swim club has a nice dinner at the end of the summer swim season where they give out the awards for the year.

Ben and Coach Chris

Carly and Coach... well, you know.

Every family was supposed to bring a dessert and I believe we are all well aware that I do not bake... that's why I have Rochel. She was kind enough to make COOKIES for the event... which were a HUGE hit. Carly and her Posse were, of course, the first in line at the dessert table and they each grabbed one, along with many of the other actual swim team members. And of course, everyone at our table. Truth be told, Carly was running around saying to everyone, "Did you get one of these cookies? My aunt made them!" and another very fun note: said cookies completely matched the decor of the event! HA! How Martha-Stewart of you, Rochel! There's a Halloween party coming up... you know, in October.

Carly got a trophy, too...

In other news... there was a swim meet the morning of the banquet and Ben took first in 2 races, tied one race, and 2nd in another race. He was neck-and-neck with another 10 year old boy who was on the summer swim team... hoping he joins the year-round team because that kind of competition really seems to motivate Ben. He IS a McGregor, afterall! We will be participating in "Official Meets" through out the year this year, as Ben moves up the ranks in the swimming world. Carly did really well, placing first once, tied for first once, and second once, and third once... did you get all that??!?!

New season starts Monday... aaahhhhh, our afternoons on the steamy poolside. I mean, working out in the gym. Can't wait!

08.13.09 and 08.14.09

08.13.09

Driving BACK to Seattle

Just a day of driving in the car... back to our "Base Hotel" in Seattle. We drove about 5 1/2 hours to get back. We stopped at Walmart in Portland, looking for a book. They didn't have it, so Ryan said, "Let's just check Target, it's 2 miles away" (we brought our GPS from home, which was INCREDIBLY handy!) So, we are in Target (in Portland) and we saw some of our friends from TAMPA!!! Can you believe that?!?!?! I will reiterate... life is NOT random! We "randomly ran into" Koral and Simone Bowman... Simone just "graduated" from Lee Elementary last year and her mama was the PTA president a couple of years ago and we have been friends ever since! Simone actually won our "McGregor-for-a-Day" auction a couple of years ago and they spent a fun filled evening at the movies with us! Isn't it CRAZY that we saw them?!?! I must say, if I was going to see Koral ANYWHERE, it would be in a Target! Ha!!!

Just as we came into Seattle, it started raining... the FIRST rain we had seen in nearly 2 weeks! Keep in mind, this area of our country sees more rain than ANYWHERE else! We were really blessed with GREAT weather.

Yet another Drive By Pick for dinner... Italian food at Casa Mia, and completely delicious! One last stop at Safeway to replenish our lunch supplies... Ryan took the kids swimming at the hotel while I repacked our suitcases for what I hoped was the LAST TIME! Off to bed...

08.14.09

Seattle...

Combining Days here, since there isn't NEARLY as much fun to share... Ryan took off for the airport around 10am (returning our rental car on his way)... the kids and I were going home the FOLLOWING day since our tickets were SO MUCH CHEAPER if we stayed another day (even with an extra hotel stay!). Since we had no transportation, we had planned on hanging around the hotel...

There was a VERY nice park across the street that we went to (Angle Lake Park) and the kids played on the monkey bars while I called my friend Ashlie (in the hospital recovering from surgery) and my mom, and my sisters... and texted Ryan. (You know, REALLY watching my kids at the park). Then they went swimming at the hotel... we ate a picnic lunch, then took showers and hung out watching TV, which they hadn't done much of the last 2 weeks!

Walked back to the park and played for a while, then walked down the street and ordered a pizza for dinner and got Slurpee's from 7-11. Nice Healthy Dinner. My favorite part was the slurpee.

Got everyone settled in for bed and we were all whining about Ryan not being there! What babies we all were! We really missed him alot!

Up the next morning at 3:30am to get to the airport (via our hotel transportation shuttle) for our very early morning flight... and caught one last picture of the Elusive Mount Rainier, which was the Perfect End of our VERY FANTASTIC vacation!

Actually, going to Ti'Juana Flats when we got home, THEN Torrey coming over to spend the night was the PERFECT end of our Very Fantastic Vacation...

Actually, seeing Eli the next morning was the perfect... Ok, enough!

08.12.09

08.12.09

The Oregon Coast and The California Redwood Forest

It feels like we went EVERYWHERE on this day... probably because we did! CRAZY! We headed back onto the 101 by 9:30am and headed further south down the Coast. I was pumped up with my coffee from The Human Bean. Mmmmm...

We drove until we got to Bandon, Oregon,

which I had read about extensively in my Oregon Coast research. ADORABLE town!

We found fantastic beaches and amazing rock formations!

We walked on the beach for awhile (and took ridiculous amounts of pictures!)...

the kids did some REAL rock climbing, which they loved!

We moved on to other scenic areas

(Face Rock... which is an Indian legend that an Indian Maiden was cursed and had her face frozen in the ocean...).

We explored the very quaint town with fun shops

(that was a funny tshirt we saw in one of the stores... yes, Ben had "issues" with the tsunami evacuation signs!) and streets, and ate a picnic lunch near the wharf.

The weather was ridiculously gorgeous, about 70 degrees!

We headed back to the 101, and stopped many times along the way to take pictures and enjoy the scenery.

We stopped at Nesika Beach (because there were bathrooms there!) so the kids could go swimming in the Pacific Ocean...

I'm going to have to post a video here because it was just so very funny, and SO FUN for all of us!

(ok, the video isn't working... so I will post it later...)

There were 2 older couples that walked out to the beach ahead of us and sat and watched the kids from their beach chairs... when we were leaving they THANKED us for the entertainment! HA!

Ryan was NOT planning on swimming with them, but those waves are strong, so he didn't have much choice. The water was VERY cold, and the wind coming off the ocean EVEN COLDER, so it was a chilly experience all around. BUT so very fun. Since it was so cold, I neglected to put sunscreen on anyone and we all got FRIED (we were only out for about 30 minutes!)... it reminded me of that day over 20 years ago when Sue and I and Tracy took that girl Liz (who worked with us) to Hampton Beach for the day... it was cold and overcast and I don't recall there being any sunscreen there, either, or VERY LITTLE... we all got sun poisioning and I think VERY PALE Liz nearly had to be hospitalized. Anyways, our sunburns reminded me of that! (Subway, the life of the Party!)

Both kids ended up with about 1/2 the beach in their bathing suits, and were still removing grains from various "spots" later at the hotel that night!

More scenic stops along 101,

then we headed into California!

For about FOREVER I have wanted to see the Redwood Forest and the HUGE trees... Finally I had an opportunity!

We drove down the Redwood Highway and saw some pretty enormous trees.

Again, something one just has to experience as the pictures can't do it justice...

and everything smelled so fantastic, and well, once cars stopped driving by, the silence was deafening.

That was so cool! (above, that's Ben and Carly at the base of a tree...) It sounds wrong to even call these trees "Majestic", it just isn't grand enough. You. Must. Go.

Headed NORTH on the 101 this time and cut over to Route 199 on our trek back towards Seattle. At some point, we had to start heading towards home (so sad!) 199 is VERY scenic as well, but with even more winding, sheer dropoffs than 101! Many places with no siderails... I'm glad Ryan was being so careful! I was a little nervous.

Drive By Dinner Pick again... and once again, GREAT! "Wild River Pizza", and they cut the pizza into about 40 diamond shaped pieces... not sure why, but the kids really loved that. We were able to eat outside, which was very fun for us.

Stopped in Roseburg, Oregon for the night (which is off I-5)... we were so TIRED we didn't care WHERE we were! What a fun, satisfying day (minus the sunburn!)