Separate Vacations

The end of August was the famous family rafting trip that Max and I look forward to each year. Max made sure he had this week off back in March when he decided to take his summer sales job. I spoke with my Sister-in-Law months earlier to see if she would be willing to have Charlie stay with them for a whole week. She of course said yes. As the time got closer, Max and I both felt that Charlie wasn't old enough to spend a week without us. Especially a week where James and Elizabeth would have no way to contact us. We have never left Charlie overnight and it would have been very difficult for both me and Charlie to be separated from each other for that long. I would have an anxiety attack not being able to get updates throughout the week. I know that he would have been well cared for at his cousins' house but I felt strongly that I needed to stay home with him. Max needed to go on the rafting trip as he is a vital oarsman and much needed man-power. He has also been working so hard this summer and so I completely support him taking a vacation.

So, anyway, what it came down to is that I had to spend a whole week with no contact with my husband. That hasn't happened since our missions and it was definitely much harder now seeing as we are married and have a baby. But it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been...we actually both had a lot of fun and made the most of our time apart.     

We arrived in Oregon on August 18th. Our best friends Richard and Marissa picked us up from the airport and we went out to breakfast at the Original Pancake House. YUM. It was so fun seeing them and it probably is the last time we will see them until little Lacy makes her grand appearance into the Patterson family. It was fun seeing Marissa all pregnant and Charlie is always a hoot at restaurants. He somehow always thinks tables are drums and definitely made his presence known in that restaurant. We then headed to the rafting headquarters (our house...AKA Jay's house) so Max could help load up the trucks while I went shopping to get the food Max needed to prepare his meals. and that's most of what I remember that day.

Next day Max helps finish up the packing and they leave just as I leave for church with Charlie. I only got a little emotional with no tears. I was borrowing Uncle Jay's SUV while they were gone. Turns out church is very stressfull by myself. I got to the point where Charlie was just so wiggly that I took him out to cruise down the halls. He met another baby, older but much smaller and got so excited that he flapped his arms like crazy and scared the poor little kid away. Anyway, we get to the second hour of church. Our old home teacher comes up to me during class (note that we haven't been in this ward all summer) and says, "Max is on the phone, it's an emergency." ( I had somehow forgotten to bring my phone with me and this was the only way he could think of to contact me.) I run out of the class a little flustered, thinking in my head..."He was able to call so I know he's alive" It turns out that it wasn't much of an emergency but that one of the cars had broken down and they needed the SUV that I was borrowing. I was very relieved but then I started to worry about how I would get up to Tacoma the next day. If I had to sit in Portland alone and stuck I really would be miserable, it would have been better for me to stay in California. But then enters another character in the story, our river grandma Annette. One of the most loving and Christlike people I know. I could write volumes on this wonderful lady but just know that she is our acting Grandma, nearly 80 years old and goes white water rafting several times a year. She had left her car at the house while she was rafting and happened to leave the keys. She was 100% okay with me borrowing the car for a week and even driving it up to Tacoma to visit my family. I seriously started crying because I was so happy and grateful. What an angel!

Anyway, I had to go home from church a little early so one of Jay's friends could pick up the SUV and take it out to where the group was stranded. This is where contact ended with my husband for the week. I luckily sneaked one of the best packages in Max's luggage and he had no idea. (this is pretty good for me because I am awful when it comes to surprises and being sneaky.)

This is getting pretty wordy...I think pictures should come soon.

Next day...Monday The morning was just spent packing and getting ready to spend most of the week in Tacoma with my Brother's family. We were really looking forward to this. Charlie hasn't been around Grace and Gwenevere in awhile so I was looking forward to seeing them play.
Charlie slept the first half of the drive and then cried for the last 30 minutes. As soon as we got inside and Charlie saw his cousins and their toys he was a happy boy again. In attempt to cut off my wordiness...here are some pictures from the week.

My Grandpa Roemhildt made this rocking horse for my brother James many years ago. Now I am on the search for someone that wants to make one for Charlie.

These kids are so much fun!

Grace's two teeth. Charlie and Grace on racing for the third tooth...I think Grace will win!

We kept ourselves so busy so I didn't notice how much I was missing Max. We went to the Zoo twice. And to the Children's museum, and a toy store, and Costco, and had a picnic at the bay. I even got to watch 2 chick flicks with Elizabeth. I really had a blast and love this family so much. I couldn't have imagined a better week without Max. (That sounds bad, but I think you know what I mean.:) Here are some more pictures of the week. They are way out of order but I'm just going to leave it at that and let you sort them out.

 But the fun didn't end there. Elizabeth, Grace and Gwenevere came back to Oregon with me to go to a wedding of a friend we grew up with. I was happy to have them with me on my drive back and to stay with me so I didn't have to stay alone in this big house.
When we got to Oregon we went to Charlie's 9 month appointment. We all rode the sky tram up to the Dr office. Gwenevere said it was a little bit scary. The girls played while Charlie was in his appointment, we then ran some errands and got Pizza and took it to my dad's house to eat and go swimming. Oregon weather isn't as good for swimming as Sacramento weather so we weren't in the pool for long. Charlie loved it though! We got home late and called it a night. The next day we went to Danny and Laura's wedding. We came a little late but it was fun to see some old friends. Afterward, we were getting hungry and Elizabeth and I decided to be spontaneous and go to Olive Garden. We had our hands full with 3 little kids but it was still a fun time. After that I had to take them to the train station to go home. It was sad to see them go but it was exciting to know that my week had passed by much faster than expected and my husband was going to be home in a few hours.

So, now is the time I think I should throw some rafting pictures in here....

Mitch floating around

The women folk that run the show

There is so much I love about this picture

Those are my angels

Max started the first annual rafting Olympics

The stage

The judges and participants

Lisa performing a skill

The "Medals"

The scores

Beauty

       So anyway, Max got home at 4am and I got butterflies seeing him again! I guess the best part of being apart for a week is reuniting again...and I'll just leave it at that!

Checklist

So much has happened in the last little bit and I know I will get distracted before I get it all out here so here is a list of everything for you to mull over in the meantime

• to Oregon
• Rafting-to Idaho
• Tacoma (washington)
• Back to Oregon
• Back to California
• Baseball
• Kelly and Toby
• Back to Oregon
• New home
• Max the Handyman 
• OMSI
• Charlie's 10 month

Yup, I think that's a pretty generic list of everything we've done and the states we've covered over and over again in the last couple of weeks. I know you are now hooked and therefore I will start blogging...

Charlie's Cafe

I'm on a blogging role. I think this is because I've finally baby proofed our house and Charlie has a pretty good attention span so he can play with his Spanish farm toy or stroller or bang on the dryer for large amounts of time, and I'm not about to stunt his creativity. I love watching him explore. Now he is actually in bed and I just finished my chores so here I go again.

Shortly after moving here I found a tiny restaurant near our house called Charlie's Cafe. Ever since then we have desperately wanted to go there. But the problem with small restaurants is they aren't open very long and Max works long hours so it was hard finding a time we could all go together. They are open from 5:30am-2pm and Max usually takes his lunch break around 2:30. We only have less than 2 weeks left working here so we wanted to make sure it happened. Max came home for lunch at 1pm today. This is a major sacrifice too because that means he had to work a long afternoon in 100+ degree weather. (Exhausting, but he does it because he loves his family!)

Anyway, we finally got to go to Charlie's Cafe and it was a hoot! It was a small western themed diner. And Charlie, the owner was our server. This Charlie happened to be a woman (short for Charlene) she explained that she has been called Charlie ever since she was little and she also has a daughter, Charlotte, so the name is a strong family name. I'm not really a restaurant critique so I wont even try but we had fun and Charlie got to try french fries and pickles. His faces were't nearly as shocking as his cantaloupe face. He seemed to like the saltiness.
 It was an enjoyable family date and here are some pictures...

Enjoying the pickle

This guy thinks he's so big!

Since they closed at 2 we just took a bunch of pictures outside on the bench

Tough guy!

 

Seagulls and a picture book.

Some of you may have heard of Max's strong dislike of Seagulls. He even goes as far as calling them Bastards, which if you know my husband, is very strong language for his very cheerful personality. He wasn't born with this hate, it started three years ago the summer after we were married. Max was working for Clark Pest Control just as he is now. I was working there as well but just in the afternoons. We arranged our schedule so I would meet up with him in a park for his lunch break, we would eat, then we would both go out and work. One particular day I made some excellent meal, I can't remember exactly what it was but I'm sure it was good. I also made Snickerdoodles. These are Max's favorite cookies and I don't make them very often because I think they are gross. So this was an exceptional treat for him because it was so rare. We sat at a picnic table and ate our meal, when we were stuffed we went to lie in the grass under a shady tree but left our meal supplies on the picnic table. (All back in the plastic grocery bag) A bunch of seagulls were flying around and we saw one land on the table near our food, we watched nervously. That seagull put his stupid little beak in our lunch sack and pulled out a snickerdoodle from the apparently-not-sealed Ziploc bag.  The seagull started flying away but didn't go too far. He landed near us, looked straight at us and startled gobbling down the cookie. Now if there is anything Max hates more than seagulls (and Max's Hate List is very VERY short) it's wasting delicious food. From that point on Max has felt that he needs to avenge his Snickerdoodle by terrorizing the seagull race. ( I won't go into those details)

Ok, so that being said here is another story. Charlie and I went to the Library. It was just going to be a quick trip to drop off a pile of books and pick up a few things on reserve but of course I have to peruse the children's book section. There on display was this book...

 I will check out any book with "Max" in the title (and we have found quite a few) so we were excited about this story. The story started out pretty dull, not my favorite children's book by far, but then I got to this page.

   The major conflict in this story is that Seagulls steal food from Max's lunch...really?

I later read it out loud to Max and we were laughing so hard and figured someone had written this book about our unfortunate seagull encounter. The publisher date proved that this book was created a year before our incident which shows that seagulls are no good and there are other victims too.

Moral of the story: Seagulls are stupid and this children's book was a weird coincidence.