Going Rogue

Warning: This entry is long and wordy and some details may seem to be pointless...However this is my memory...so enjoy!

This last week we were able to go on our annual family rafting trip. Max has had this tradition as long as he can remember. As for me, my first Olson Family Rafting Trip was several months after I graduated high school. I couldn't ask for a better vacation. The preparation that goes into these trips is very thorough and detailed. All the work and preparation is worth it to spend a week in Paradise. This year we rafted down the rogue river. This was my favorite river so far because of the beautiful landscape. I love the green everywhere! It all began on Friday the 18th when Max got off work early and we drove to Antioch to our friend Kelly's house. We spent the night there so her mom could take us to the airport. We got about 2 hours of sleep and left for the airport about 5am To make a long story short we missed our flight by a couple of seconds due to the busyness of the airport on a Saturday morning. We literally watched them close the gate and not let us get on the plane. It was incredibly lame and frustrating and we were extra grumpy due to the lack of sleep. We were lucky and able to get on the next flight a couple hours later. My dad picked us up with my little brother and we went out to Breakfast. Max's day consisted of loading up the cars and getting the camping gear ready while I got our camping meals ready then visited a bunch of family members. It was a great day.

Vacation Day 2: We woke up got our bags all packed and worked on loading the rest of the trucks. We hoped to leave at nine but pulled out at noon. Not too bad for this family!

It took about 5-6 hours to get there. The Rogue river is in Southern Oregon. Upon arrival we partly prepared the boats, ate dinner, then camped under the stars on the riverbank.

Day 3: Woke up early, packed up our stuff, ate breakfast, and loaded the boats. This is where the hard work is...Loading the boats can take several hours.

The gear being strapped down to the boats

After everything was secure on the boats, we rafted down the river for the next couple of hours. Max did the rowing so I just enjoyed the beauty and got pretty wet.

Day 3-6 We camped at Whiskey Creek. Our tent was beneath some trees near the bank of the creek. Beautiful!! While at this campsite...

~Max got creative with my hair
~We played games

Max would gather flowers daily and add them to my hair...

~Caught and released wildlife

~Max showed the younger boys how to make wood rafts out of branches

Then they raced their rafts down the creek, They were occupied for hours and only stopped when it got dark and their boats were lost.

Then, Uncle Jay said he would pay us 10 dollars if we carried him around the campsite. We totally agreed. It started out easy until we got to the sand...then we had to take him uphill. It was harder than we thought.

Up past the outhouse...

This was the hardest part...down a steep hill with blackberry bushes but we were almost to the finish line.

In the end he paid us 20 bucks, he said we earned 10 bucks each but I think he only had 20 dollar bills in his wallet.

Then Uncle jay made the same offer to Spencer but spencer (Who's 13 years old) carried him alone.

He just barely made it and earned 20 bucks!

We hiked up to an 100 year old cabin from the gold rush days...pretty impressive.

Jenna and I signed the visitor guest book

This out house had two seats...pretty classy...and romantic

Welcome to my kitchen!

Dinner time was fun...that's when everyone came together.

Delicious Chili-dogs!

Day 6-8 We loaded up the boats and rafted to our next campsite. This campsite was the coveted site of the Rogue River. There was a creek with a swimming hole, a huge grassy field with sprinklers and a huge ranch house with a museum and some other old buldings to exlpore. Our tent was far from any others in a huge beautifuil meadow.

This is the beauty we saw for miles as we traveled down river.

When we were in still water (not intense rapids) we would jump out of the boat and float down in our life jackets.

Exploring the old buildings on the ranch.

This was a bar.

Then we went to the old Tabernacle where Jay gave us an important sermon. Notice the confused looks on everyone's face.

In a room to the side of the Tabernacle there was a coffin up against the wall...I don't really know why but we enjoyed taking pictures in it!

After exploring the ranch we treded down the creek to our campsite.

I love my Max!

We danced on a Log...Just like in Dirty Dancing!!
So talented!

Later...we went on a hike to see the next rapid...It was a class IV so we needed to scout it out...For some reason we didn't take a picture of the rapid but we did see this neat waterfall on our hike.

That evening we tried to take a couple group pictures.

Then we just took some pictures with Jenna and Justin (this is a common pass-time for us)

Ugly faces...

Laughing...

Group shot #2 on the dinosaur/giraffe tree.

Picture time with Mum-Z

Grumpy faces

Lisa taught us how to make funny faces...

Max enjoyed this new opportunity to make an ugly face!

Day 8 we had to leave the river :( it was somewhat sad but the knowledge of a shower in the near future gave me great satisfaction!

On our drive home we stopped at a restaurant called Heaven on Earth!. Delicious!

Max was really good at keeping Jordan entertained while they waited for their food.

Day 9: Our last day in Oregon we had a family BBQ with my mom's side of the family. I was finally able to meet my cousin Stephanie's new baby Lexi

Ok...well that's our travel log. The family rafting trip is the highlight of our year and we are so appreciative of the many people that make it happen. we look forward to many more rafting trips.

Apartment

Several of our family members have requested pictures of our apartment. This seems to be a great thing to document anyway so in 50 years we can show our children what houses looked like in the olden days. As you see these pictures know that our company completely hooked us up. They find the apartments for us and furnish them. This year they even set us up with towels sheets, blankets, dishes and kitchen utensils. We didn't know much was going to be here so we ended up bringing way too much stuff...anyway..we don't even have to pay rent because our company is that wonderful! We feel like we are completely spoiled because we live in a very small basement apartment in Provo (Which we are very happy with because we pay about half the rent of most married BYU students) alright..point being that we are happy here in our summer home. I probably should have straightened those pillows before taking this picture... This closet is probably about 100x bigger then our closet space in Provo.
So...that's our cute home here in Sunny California

Yosemite

Last week our Pest control team went together to Yosemite National Park. We live about two hours away and we've heard so much about it we figured it needed to be a place we visited sometime in our lives. The boys took a Saturday off and we all headed out for a day trip in Yosemite. We started our day with a little stroll around lower Yosemite falls then took a lunch break.

Our Clark Team Merced 2010

After Lunch some of us hiked to the top of Vernal falls. It wasn't too long of a hike but the last half mile was basically climbing up endless stairs/rocks while being soaked from the waterfalls sprayback. It actually felt kind of nice on the way up because the sun was still shining and we were working hard climbing.

Being Soaked under the rainbow!

This is us at the top of the falls. That is literally the dropoff about a foot behind us.

Max and Richard...they're cute best friends.

Part of our group on the way back down.

After we were worn out we, went to eat dinner at an overpriced and over greased pizza place in the park. (I'm still a little bitter about it)

We kept ourselves happy and entertained by making ugly face pictures in the restaurant. (A usual pass-time for Max and me.)

Yosemite was a beautiful park and we were only able to explore a tiny portion. We hope to go back soon and do some more of the hikes!

Memorial Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend because Max was able to have some time off and we could play and explore. On Saturday, most of the pest control boys ended work a little early and we headed down to Fresno to attend the temple. Fresno is the closest temple which is about an hour drive away. The temple is pretty small so there are fewer sessions than the bigger temples and and it turned out that the only session we coul attend was the Spanish session. That was great for Max and his amazing fluency but I however needed a headset. I was hoping to ask for an Armenian translation but we got there a little late and I didn't want to be a hastle so I took English. It was a wonderful session and we checked another temple off our list.
Afterward, we stayed in Fresno with Richard and Marissa for dinner at Chili's and some shopping! There really isn't much to do in Merced so it was fun being out in the big city...Long story short...we ended up bra shopping together (all four of us) It would have been awkward if we weren't all best friends.

On Sunday we had the elders over for Dinner and I fixed Lahma jo (Armenian food). It didn't taste like the ones in Armenia but I tried, those poor elders needed a cultural experience seeing as they had to stay in America...
Then came our Memorial Day...Max decided to take the whole day off and explained to me that his ideal day off would be to do homework and deep clean the cars. What a man! Seeing as I clean everyday...my ideal day would be to not clean and have fun with my husband! We were able to do both. We started the day early at the gym. We both ran 4 miles because we were trying to impress each other! It worked! We then headed home, cleaned up and took Olga and Ruby (our car and the company car) to do some cleaning and vacuuming. Then we met up with the team and played some dirt volleyball at a local park. It was fun despite my lack of depth perception. It was a good time!
It got really hot so afterward we all jumped in the pool in our apartment courtyard. Seeing 8 adults cannonballing into the pool quickly scared the young neighborhood children away so we could have the pool to ourselves. We invented a game that was a mix between ultimate and water polo. I thought it was so fun because i felt like I was helping my team when I'm usually the weak link on team sports. This ended up being the most athletic day of my life but I loved it! when we finally got worn out by water polo we BBQ'ed some burgers with the team and had a little Party! We were worn out by the end of the day but felt so good! I wish we took more pictures but we didn't, oh well...

Childhood Summer

We have been here in California for a month now and I feel so much like i'm enjoying a childhood summer. The orginal plan was for Max to work for the Pest control company while I find some side summer job. My first week or so here I did quite a bit of job hunting. After a month of only hearing back from one person who was interested until I mentioned I was only living here in the summer we decided I would just fill my time with other productive activities! So far i have spent a lot of time with the other wives of pest control boys. We have all become great friends Marissa (Richard's wife) and I have already known eachother for years. I just met Krystal Wood and Britney Lewis this summer and they are great, they both have young children. I have been learning to be somewhat crafty. Marissa and I workout nearly everyday which feels great. I have become the perfect wife by making sure the house is clean and dinner is on the table when Max comes home from work. ;) I have been catching up on journal writing and researching a lot about babies and insurance because that may be coming up soon. I have whole heartily taken on the goal of finishing the Harry Potter books. When it get's warmer (next week hopefully) we look forward to taking advantage of the pool in our courtyard! Needless to say i'm going to take advantage of this last summer I will not have to worry about being a grown up. Just playing, swimming and some wifely duties (which i absolutely love anyway). My husband is so amazing for allowing me to do this. He is having a lot of success with his job which is great news!!