Greetings family and friends!!! We have been in Oregon for 3 weeks now. I can say I have truly enjoyed it here. The weather has been in the upper 60s and lower 70s most days and the 50s at night. There is always an ocean breeze, and on some days ocean wind, blowing around here.

We are staying in a great RV Park called Darling’s RV Resort. It site right on Siltcoos Lake. The owners Rich and Lori are super awesome people. This is a family run business and they treat everyone like family. They even hired Brad part time in the Pub to clean dishes and stuff. The Pub has a fantastic simple menu. We have been liking the homemade pizza.

This is called the Chicken Sylvia!!! AWESOME!!!!

This is the view from our RV!!! FYI: If anyone is interested….. The island you see out there is for sale. $675,000 dollars gets you the 5 acre island, 3 bedroom house and pool. 🙂

We are surrounded by several state parks and the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. We are right off HWY 101. If you are familiar with the west coast the 101 runs along the coast from northern Washington to Southern California. There are numerous lakes and rivers that come inland from the ocean. This area is a boater and fishermans paradise. The town that Dianne works in is called Florence Oregon. It is a retirement hotspot. Still pretty old school type community. While they do enjoy some modern grocery stores and many mom and pop eateries they do not have a Wal-Mart!!!! The closest Wal-Mart is a boy 55 miles away. Needless to say Dianne is happy because I cannot spend money.

This is a view a few miles from us on the 101. Can you see the Umpqua Lighthouse out there in the trees?

There, I zoomed in, now you can see the top of the lighthouse. We planning on visiting the light house soon.

The hospital Dianne works at is a 21 bed hospital. Very SLOW pace. They averages 3 cases a day in the recovery room. So needless to say it has been a nice break for her. She has made friends with some other travel nurses there.

We have been enjoying inexpensive seafood here. You can literally buy the stuff fresh off the boat. One fisherman sells fresh tuna $3 a pound and $5 dollars to clean it. Crab is also in abundance here. We have several residents that have offered to loan us there crabbing stuff so we can go catch our own. Looking forward to that fun!!

Here is a low country boil Dianne made a week ago.

Crab we had today compliments of Rich here at the RV Park.

In other exciting news, our family has grown by one. We rescued a 5 year old Basset Hound named Flash!! I know, I know…..Roscoe, Dukes of Hazard….. He is a talker. Flash loves to Bay. You start a and he will join you!!!  He is easy going and loves going for walks. He is definitely a snuggler as well. We are looking forward to many years of his Baying and love!!!

Flash being himself!!

Flash after his visit to Petsmart yesterday. He got a bath, nails trimmed and grinded, ears cleaned and a tie die bandanna!!! He loved all the attention he got from the staff as well. Spoiled hound already…and only been here a week!!!

The family is doing well. The kids are all enjoying life!! My daughter and her little family are doing great.

My granddaughter Madelyn Faith “Willow” Smith with here mommy and daddy.

Chris stayed in Ogden. He doing well in his job. He is planning on living and working in Ogden until January. Then he will finally be starting his path toward being an Astrophysicist at BYU-I. 

Steven started a new job in Riverton Utah. He is making better money. Kayla and Steven are hoping to but there own house in a year or so. My granddaughter Macee is growing like a weed.

Macee at 3 months!!!

Brad is enjoying his job at the Pub. He is going to be visiting with a Culinary School in Portland in October as well as the Coast Guard Recruiter. He is looking at one of these two options. He is going to visit a ‘friend’ in Missouri for 3 weeks in Septemeber. His ticket was a birthday present for his friend from her dad!! We tease him that her dad bought her a “Boy Toy” for her Birthday!!! He is really excited about going. And, there are several Waffle Houses where he is going so he gets to partake of the scattered, smothered, covered, topped and chunked hash browns. Dianne and myself are very jealous. Brad went with the youth at church to Youth Conference. He had blast. He is suppose to be doing a blog post about his trip…..

The Ward here is great. The Bishop is pretty awesome. He definitely loves his members.

Well, that is all for now. Until next time……….