Summer Singing/Visiting brethren

This has been a fun week/weekend. Some brethren from California visited Oregon, and came to the Summer Singing.

On Thursday night, the 22nd, the Salgado's came in to the Pelkey's and we went to see them that night. There was a visit going on, and also me, Kayley, Kara, Bryan, Stephanie, and Cheree made a movie in the backyard. I would post it but I don't have the movie, but I'll tell you what we did.

Stephanie was either named Kelly, or Kallie, I forget but anyways she was like, "do you know what my favorite game is?" then me, Kara, and Cheree were like, "what.." and she was like, "playing!" then we said, "playing what..?" and she was like, "playing teacher!" So then it switches scenes where Stephanie is the teacher and we're the students, and while the teacher is talking you hear the same kind of voices the teachers have like on Charlie Brown. You know how you can't understand what they're saying, it just sounds like "wah wah wah wah" well that's what we did when the teacher was talking.

The students were "taking notes" (drawing) and then the teacher was like, "wah wah wah wah.......and that's why you should always keep your ears clean!" then Cheree looked up and she was like, "wait...what did you say?" then Stephanie said, "and that's why you should always keep your ears clean!" and Cheree was like, "no,

before that" then Stephanie was like, "I give up! Teacher's are overrated!" and she threw down her pencil. Then Bryan jumped up and took her place and was like, "pie equals yumminess!" then all the students clapped, and then suddenly you see Stephanie (former teacher) sitting by me and clapping very excitedly and she was like, "I love pie!!" So then the new teacher (Bryan) gave us a pop quiz with the question: "Is pie yumminess?" and we had to answer "yes" or "no" and Kara was looking over Cheree's shoulder and was like, "what's the answer?" For Cheree's answer she put "yes", for my answer I wrote, " no....??" then for Stephanie's she wrote "yes!" with a ton of hearts and smiley faces around it, since she loves pie so much. Then Bryan randomly had his shirt off and he was like, "A's for everyone!" and tossed his shirt up in the air. Then Stephanie asked when we were getting pie. And that's the end of our movie. I didn't even get to see it, but it's probably pretty funny.

So after our movie we went inside to eat some ice cream. We all ate at the small-ish medium table and we were all talking at the same time, then someone told us to be more quiet cause we were getting a little too loud, and it was funny because right after that all at the same time we all started whispering, lol. Kara and I were laughing cause it sounded funny because we all did it at the exact same time.

After that it was pretty much time to go home. So we said goodbye for the night and went home.

Friday the 23rd I didn't get to see the Salgado's because I was doing chores, but Matt and Ben drove to the Pelkey's to see them and had an active day. But that night Matt, Ben, and I went over to Andrea's apartment to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and before we started the movie Lukas called Matt and asked if he could spend the night at our house. So Matt left to pick him up and he watched the movie with us. We got home kinda late (like 2:30 am lol) and I went to bed right away because I wanted to get up early enough since the singing was the next day. I didn't really do anything with the boys that night, but the boys learned how to play Munchkins from Lukas.

Saturday the 24th was the singing. The boys left early to help set up everything, and I was at home helping my mom get ready with the food and stuff. Andrea was over helping us too, and she was like, "guess what?....Bro. Craig and Sis.

Mendi are here" I was like, "what???" and like really excited to go see them since it's been years. The kids weren't able to come, I was like, "aww, bummer" but I was really glad to see their parents. So that was a splendid surprise =)

Ok so we left for the singing and helped set up some stuff. I also saw Bro. Steve and Sis. Candy, and Sis. Michele Curran was here too and I did not expect to see her. It was really cool to see them all.

I didn't get a lot of the songs that were performed, but that's because both cameras I had with me died, and I was also holding my niece for some of the time. But here are a few I got.

Umm...the first video was filmed annoyingly. I don't know why I kept moving. Please try to ignore the annoyingness and enjoy the song, lol.

I think I kept moving throughout these videos because my feet hurt so I was repositioning.

Ok, so the next video is Bryan, Stephanie, and Cheree. Cheree has a really good voice =)

So this was really nice and cool of Bro. Craig. He motioned for me to come over to talk to him, and he asked me if I was coming to California with my brother's, but I said no cause I don't have the money. Then I think he said something like he'd pay for me to go or something? I couldn't hear him all the way, but he said I could work for him if I did, like to pay it off. That would have been soooooooo awesome if I could, but the problem is, that is the week that I am going to Kumoricon with Andrea and Jeff, and they already bought the tickets, and the hotel room so I can't just change my mind. I really want to go to Kumoricon anyways though, so I'll try to go to California a different way. I just thought it was really sweet of him to do that for me =)

This next video is of Kayley singing. I think it was my first time hearing just her, so basically my first time hearing her voice, which by the way, is really pretty. ^_^

I'm sorry it's a little hard to understand Sis. Rechelle in the beginning of the video. I guess I was too far back to really catch what she was saying. But just in case anyone can hear what she says I'm going to leave that part in.

The memory card was full after Kayley's song, so I used my backup camera, but the sound is off and the videos are just kind of messed up, but I'll still post a few of the ones I got in case someone wants to see them. But to see a good version just ask the Salgado's because they filmed the whole thing.

I was filming a lot of the songs and Bro. Steve Samoska kept getting in view without knowing, but he realized after a little while he was in the way so he would move, and then one time he got up to get something to drink, and as he was passing by he told me that if he gets in the way just tell him and push him out of the way. He said he was used to it, and he was laughing. I thought it was funny, push him out of the way lol.

Bro. Steve Pelkey was doing the same thing too. Both Bro. Steve's felt bad, but it was no big deal to me, lol.

Kara and I have a new inside joke. I won't say what it is only because it's our joke, but it has something to do with rainbows.
Hey Kara...RAINBOW!

Time for some pictures =D I don't have many of the singing, but what I do have is cool.

I think this was unintentional. Kacia just happened to get Kayley making that face, which was funny =D

Steph is doing something that the Salgado girls taught her. I still don't know how to do it, but I took a video of some of them doing this, so by watching it I can learn it.

I was showing Matt that I can take pictures and film at the same time.

During intermission some of the kids and some of the brethren (Bro. Aaron, Lukas, Matt, and Ben) went outside to play frisbee. I only got one picture .

Kayley, Cheree, and Levi were posing for the picture, but my camera was being bad and took forever to take it so they just gave up. Bad camera!

Fuh-low-ers. I thought they looked kinda pretty.

Does this look familiar? That is our old handshake. It was created at our last Summer Singing in that same spot. We were like, "we have to take a picture!"

Bro. Craig and Sis. Mendi took me, Kacia, and Ben over to the Pelkey's house after the singing, and we hung out while waiting for Matt to pick us up. Kacia and Lukas spent the night, so Matt picked us 4 up and we went to Safeway to buy sweets. We bought cookies, a lot of candy, frappuccinos, and a Red Bull. We came back to our house and they taught me how to play Munchkins.

It's a pretty fun game. I still am a little confused by some of the rules because we didn't exactly play that much because after a while we started goofing around because we were tired. We were like, smacking everyone with low fat twizzlers. Everyone got smacked but me. They didn't have the heart to smack little innocent me =) even though I asked Kacia to do it to me, she was like, "no, I felt bad for hitting Ben" lol.

Ben's mouth is really red from the candy. Lukas was going to throw a piece of candy in Ben's mouth, that's why Ben had it opened.

Look, that's a low fat twizzler in her hair.

A glimpse of us while playing Munchkins.

I was wearing my Kingdom Hearts shirt that day, and at one point of this video Lukas saw my shirt and said Kingdom Hearts was bad for your brain, and then he said I had no life, he was referring to Matt's shirt that said something like, "I c you have no life because you took the time to read this shirt" or something like that, and then we just stayed on the subject of shirts. Just in case anyone was confused.

This wasn't really explained good enough so I'll explain it here. So Matt and Lukas were trying to get us to eat the low fat twizzlers because they tasted so bad, and they were laughing a lot, and Matt was laughing so hard that he flung his head forward and hit this juicer that was on the table, and it sounded really loud! We were laughing so hard!

Yep...we're nice, haha.

Yeah, so we kind of got tired of playing the game cause it was going nowhere, so we just went to bed.

Sunday the 25th Lukas and Kacia came back over to our house after church and ate lunch here. Then we basically just hung out there and got ready for the whole Salgado family, and the Mayfield's to come over for dinner.

River being fed by her new friend.

Around 4:00 pm Bro. Craig, Sis. Mendi, Andrea, and Jeff came over just to see us before dinner. Later Aunt Vicki and Uncle Bob came. Then a few minutes later the Mayfield's arrived...then a few minutes later the Salgado family came. So there were a lot of people in our house. But the Winberg's and Peter's left soon after everyone arrived so we could eat dinner. I got a picture with Bro. Craig and Sis. Mendi though =D

We had lasagna, salad, bread, and tea for dinner. Kara, Kayley, and I went outside afterwards to make a movie. We didn't end up making one because none of us could think of anything to do. However, we did eventually come up with the idea of making a blooper movie. The thing is, it was too dark to do it by the time we thought of it, lol. So unfortunately, we don't have a movie. But we did swing, and film some random stuff. We went inside to get some ice cream and then they had to go, except for Kacia and Lukas. They spent the night again.

We played Munchkins again, and this time we got a little further than the night before. Kacia and I were both a little tired, but we decided to play the game with the boys.

Kacia likes the look of my green eyes next to the brown table.

She wanted to do the same thing. Sorry Kacia....it doesn't look as cool as mine. Lol, just kidding buddy =D

Lol, Kacia was trying to put those bead things on her eyes.

I wish I had those...

I thought Kacia was going to take a picture, so I pretended to be sleeping to show her how tired I was, but realized she was recording, lol. Oh, and sorry to all my viewers for having to see the ending of this video.

We got ready for bed after the game. (You lost the game!) Kacia and I slept on the couch cause it was kind of warm in my room, and it was faster. It was like really dark downstairs so I couldn't see where all I was going. I was coming out of the bathroom from brushing my teeth, and I saw Kacia on the floor and I thought she was going to attack Momo, but she really attacked me and made me kind of yell/squeal. I was like, "I thought you were going to get Momo, you scared me!" then she was like, "wait...so you freaked out for real?" and I said yes and she started laughing a lot.

Another kind of funny story was that Kacia was looking at my parents' wedding album, and I came over and started looking at them too, and I forget what we were talking about, but I said the word "photography" but I really emphasize the PHOTO-graphy part. Kacia copied how I said it because she found it amusing, and I was like, "what?" and she told me it was funny, and I said, "the reason why I say PHOTO-graphy is because when I say it fast Andrea said it sounds like "fer-tograph."

Monday the 26th was a slower, more relaxed day. Well....except for the boys....they went on a bike ride....with Bro. Ray. It was kinda intense. I'm going to let Matt or Ben tell the story because they know what went on better than me. But first I'll tell what Kacia and I did while the boys were gone.

Her and I kind of took our time getting ready since we weren't really doing anything that day. After our showers and breakfast we straightened my hair because she thought it'd be fun. Then we went outside and took some pictures.

Pretending I was on the phone.

Once again...Kacia liked the look of my green eyes and the brown-ness.

She kept trying to take the eye and tree picture but the camera would focus on the tree instead of me, and she was like, "focus on the girl!"

After we took this picture we looked at it to see if it turned out ok, and I was like, "I look fake!" and she laughed and said, "no, you don't look fake..but you do look young." I still think I look kind of fake.

My mom came home with Andrea and River a minute after we took this picture.

Kacia and I helped my mom to get ready so we could leave to go to the Pelkey's house to see everyone before they left.

Aww, River is sitting up all by herself. She did pretty good. When she started to fall she would kind of catch herself. Kacia was having River practice that while I helped my mom get stuff ready.

Then we left for the Pelkey's house. The Winberg's had already left, so we didn't get to see them. But we got to see the Samoska's and Sis. Michele.

Bro. Steve Pelkey sat down by me and said the kids were going swimming and asked if I brought my bathing suit. I said, "no, I just straightened my hair...I don't want it to get all wavy again. Plus, Kacia wasn't going to swim either." then he laughed and said that Kayley and Kara were saying they just did their hair so they didn't know if they wanted to go swimming, and Bryan was saying, "I don't get it!" cause it's just hair, lol. Bro. Steve told him that when girls get to around Bryan's age and older then they start caring about their hair and makeup and they don't want to just jump in the pool at any time now. He just thought it was funny I said that because it reminded him of his talk with Bryan.

We didn't stay for too long because it was around 4:00 pm and we had to start dinner soon since Matt, Kacia, Lukas, and I were going to the Mayfield's for dessert and a visit. Ben didn't get to go because he had to work. Poor Ben.

Well we got back home from the Pelkey's and just sat around, then finally the boys came home after their looooong bike ride. It was just Matt and Ben who came home; Lukas and Bro. Ray got to our house later. My brother's were very tired, they're not used to those kinds of bike rides. They were telling us about their adventure and Kacia and I were laughing so much! My mom had this worried look on her face.

I'll let Ben tell the story.

Hey this is Ben. On Monday, July 26th, Brother Ray, Lukas, Matt and I went on a bike ride. Matt and I haven't used a bike in about 3-4 years, and besides that we had never gone on a bike trail before. Luckily on Friday we were able to get some practice on the bikes, just to get used to them again. While practicing we played a game that required you to have a decent amount of skill on the bike, something I didn't have. I couldn't even jump onto the sidewalk while on the bike.

Early Monday morning we left for our bike ride, we were going to a trail next to the McKenzie River. Anyone who has ever been to this river knows how rough the ground is there, Matt and I had no idea until we got there. The trail is 28 miles one way, and 28 miles back, and from the direction we were driving from we would get to the part of the trail that is up hill most of the way. Instead of riding the whole 56 miles, Brother Ray decided that we would only ride the 28 miles down hill. He chose down hill because that would be tiring enough, especially because Matt and I were new to this. Matt drove his car while Brother Ray drove Brother Jim's truck. When we got to the trail, we parked Matt's car and all piled in the truck and drove to the other end of the trail, that way when we finished the trail, we would finish where Matt's car was.

A map of the trail, the red indicates what part of the trail we (*cough* Brother Ray, Matt and Lukas) finished.

After we got to our destination with the help of Brother Ray's GPS (yes, a GPS that is actually accurate!), and after we got all geared up, we headed across a bridge to begin our trail. My steering is mediocre at best, but from the get go, my steering is especially bad. I swerve left to right quite a bit making it very difficult to go straight from the start, I need about 5 seconds to straighten out. While crossing the bridge I kept hitting the left railing, then I would swerve right into the other side, and many times after hitting the side it would cause me to stop. I soon gave up and just decided to walk across the rest of the bridge.

The first bridge, see how narrow that is?

So after crossing that impossible obstacle, we began the actual trail. Brother Ray said the beginning of the trail was very technical, and believe me, it was! I had a very slow and bad start to this bike ride, even on easy parts of the trail. I had this fear of falling off the bike, yet when I actually did, it wasn't that bad. It's one of those things where the thought of it happening is way worse than when it actually happens, but you can't shake the feeling. This hindered me the most, but over all it really was a hard bike ride. This trail was mostly steep down hill, not too steep to ride down, but you had to be careful or you would go pretty fast, to unsafe speeds. There was also plenty of rocks and roots in the middle of the path, if you weren't careful, they might push you off of the path, or if you were going fast enough, give you a pretty big jump.

During the ride I had to stop frequently due to several reasons, such as if the path ahead was up hill, normally I didn't have enough speed to go up it, or in most cases, I just didn't feel comfortable riding through a certain area of the trail, which happened way too often. During the first 15 minutes of the ride was one of those times. After I had stopped, as I got back on the bike I noticed that I was going to start right off riding down hill. Down hill plus my lack of steering and speed control meant trouble, but thought I would risk it anyway. So as I started down, I went straight, surprisingly . . . but not straight down the trail, that's for sure, but instead went straight toward an object on the side of the trail . . . a log. I hadn't seen the log until it was too late, but even before I had seen it, I locked up and wasn't able to change my steering at all. Brother Ray started shouting for me to use my brakes, so I did, but not hard enough, I usually think if I squeeze too hard I'll flip over. After the collision, I flew face first into the dirt, got a mouth full of it, literally. I was glad I did it, it was funny and in a way, fun, even if I did get a few scratches, Brother Ray got a picture of my first crash. I got this huge scrape on my right knee along with many more friendly cuts.

After my first (and only) crash. The area circled with red is what I hit, it looked farther off the path when I was riding. As Brother Ray says, I did a Superman here.

Matt, surprisingly was doing really good (it appeared that way, until I heard otherwise while on the trip back home), both him and Lukas kept leaving me in the dust, they had to stop and wait for me to catch up quite a bit. Later on about an hour or so into the trail, when we caught up to Matt and Lukas, we saw that they were talking to this couple who were riding as well, they shuttled with some other people, but I won't bother to describe them as only the couple plays an important part later on. Afterwards we rode our separate ways and went on the left side of the lake into magma rock, everyone had to stop numerous times because it was so rigid, to the point to where it wasn't fun. Instead we turned around and took the trail on the right side of the lake where it was easier.

The dreaded magma trail . . . well, not so much, it gave me a legitimate excuse to walk, so I didn't feel too bad. However, once we did take the trail on the opposite end of the lake, I was glad we were on a trail I could ride on, it was much more fun than walking.

Now let's take a short break, time for some pics.

Just look at that walking action, that's some good technique I got there.

A view of the lake. This is from the magma trail, across the lake is the route we took later on.

After a short break for a couple pictures, we began riding again.

I'm shiny!

While riding on the other side of the lake, Brother Ray gave me some tips on how to properly balance while standing up on the bike, steering, and to not be afraid to squeeze the brakes. Thanks to his tips, I was able to do a lot better and was actually able to keep Matt and Lukas in view most of the time. I did get a little cocky though, I thought I had mastered this trail, that is, until we crossed a bridge later on ( but I did cross without hitting the sides). After the bridge the trail got hard again, the previous area was just really easy. After going through this hard area I decided to do what was suggested earlier, I was given the option to pull out if it were too hard and just ride down the road to the car, I didn't want to slow down everyone else so I told them I would pull out when we came to the road. Instead they told me to just ride until I saw a sign that said "Sahalie Falls", then there would be a picnic area, that is where they would meet back up with me.

The road I was going down was slanted down hill only slightly, but going down I was getting pretty high speeds, probably in the mid 20s, at most, but could have gone faster if I wanted to. I got to the Sahalie Falls, and the place was exactly as described, so I knew I had gotten to the right place. When I first got there I saw the couple that we had seen earlier, we talked a little before they took off again. At this point I was pretty tired so it was nice to sit and take a break, I even went down to the water fall. I waited around for about a half hour before I decided to back track and look for the others. Instead of going back up the road I planned on going through the trail that the others were taking to get to me. About this time I saw the couple ride up again, I asked them what path they had taken to get to the falls, they told me they weren't able to find it. I asked them if they had seen Brother Ray, Matt and Lukas, and they told me they did, that they were on the other side of the river. They showed me their map and said we had to travel back up the road to get to a bridge that led to the other side, they said Brother Ray, Matt and Lukas weren't at the Sahalie Falls at all, but actually a little further at the Koosah Falls.

All three of us then rode back up the road to where I had originally came from, the ride up was exhausting, my legs were burning. After we got back on the trail I was lacking in energy, so I wasn't even able to ride through the trail, but instead walked most of the way. They kept stopping for me as well, so after we got to the bridge I told them I was going to stop to eat something. They told me to head left after the bridge, but while I ate they would ride ahead to everyone and tell them I was alright and would meet up with them shortly. Eating didn't help too much, especially because I had lost confidence in riding through the trail, so I walked through most of it.

After walking for awhile I passed by the Koosah Falls, but was way up high and didn't see them, I figured they were down below, so I kept walking to see if I could get down below. I passed a group of hikers who were all sitting down talking, I figured I didn't need to ask for help. Further along I came to a steep path, it didn't seem too steep for bikes considering what we had gone on before, but I misjudged it, it was even too steep to walk down. I had to hold the brakes on the bike and even had to lay it down while I sat down and scooted down. It was steep enough that my feet kept almost sliding to where I couldn't stop, and the weight of the bike behind me didn't help my situation. After this steep area, the path took a turn to the left, so if I had slipped I could have easily tumbled off the path and went deep into the brush, luckily I didn't. The next part was a little flatter, but not much better, I didn't have to sit down, but still could have easily slipped. The path curved and led towards the direction from where I had came from, but because this area was lower than where I was before I thought it should take me down to the water fall. Instead, after going down, it went up a bit and led me in a circle straight back to the group of hikers. I looked back and saw I took a very tough and unneeded path, that gave me a good laugh. The hikers had seen me before and so they asked me what I was doing, I told them who I was looking for and they told me they had seen them on the other side of the river a long time ago. They told me I had to go back across the bridge where I had came from and go to the right to get to them, I had already walked for quite a bit, and knew I had a lot more walking to do. When I took off the hikers took off for the bridge as well. This specific area I was at was very weird, it seemed as if paths appeared that weren't there before, I would see one and think I had came from there, but it would be a dead end or lead elsewhere. When I would realize it was the wrong way I would turn back and run into the hikers away, they would always laugh and ask me if I were lost and ask me where I was going, they would then tell me where to go. At points too they would even catch me before I took a wrong path, eventually I got it right though.

In case you're wondering why I never rode my bike much more at this point, I did ride at times when it was easier, but I was pretty tired and had a hard enough time riding when I really needed to. Also, at one point during our separation, I had gained some confidence again and decided to try it again. However, the same minute I decided to try it again, I hit a root, the bump changed my direction to where I was heading straight for the edge. I stopped myself just before a big drop, which was more than 70 feet into the water, that basically sealed the deal for me, at least for the trail, I did ride on easier parts such as the road though.

After I crossed the bridge I took a turn to the right. A ways down I crossed a group of different hikers who when I asked told me they had gone in the direction I came from quite some time ago, so now I was to go back up to the bridge, then past it, to where the road was again. On my way back up I saw 3 people, I asked them if they had seen them, I described them, such as their age and what they were wearing, the 3 people talked among themselves and agreed they were probably the same 3 bike rides who passed them before. They thought they were down below, but said if they saw them they would tell them where I was, I said I would be past the bridge on the road again. From this point on I knew that asking directions was only making matters worse. In fact, I would have probably still been at Sahalie Falls if I hadn't followed that couple, I like to keep the "If you are lost, stay put" rule. I decided not to ask for directions anymore.

I rode down the road to the Sahalie Falls to see if maybe they had gone there looking for me, no luck here. I went back up the road to the bridge once more, seeing as the Sahalie Falls picnic area seemed to be a separate area from the rest of the trail, so I thought I would have better luck at the bridge as they might ride by again. I was glad to be at the bridge anyway, I was able to get in the water a bit at some shallow places.

On a side note, all this walking did have one negative affect on me, when I was walking at times I would stumble or the bike would push forward a bit, the pedal kept jabbing me in the back of the leg. Now it has several scrapes, and it was getting rather irritating, it happened throughout the whole time I was alone.

Later it dawned on me about the car, if they couldn't find me they would eventually have to go to the car to look for me. They would probably finish the trail since it led to the car anyway, so I took my bike and decided I would make one last run down the road. I wasn't planning on stopping at the Sahalie Falls again, but as I saw it I figured it was worth a shot just incase they were there. As I pulled in I saw from the other end Brother Ray pulling in with the truck. After I got in we drove down the road to where Matt and Lukas were, picked them up, and then drove down to the car.

While in the truck I heard about some of their adventures, so here's a *quick* summary.

It turns out that while I thought Matt was doing great, he actually came close to falling several times, as Lukas says, "50 times". He also fell about 5 times, one time was actually within a minute of the bike ride, before I even took my Superman crash. Lukas also said he fell a couple times, probably trying some crazy jump or something. One time Matt apparently lost control of the bike and nearly went off the edge, he says he grabbed onto a nearby tree while holding onto the bike with his legs, he was almost completely off the trail to where he was hanging. The drop was pretty big, so Brother Ray had to get off the bike and help Matt get back on the trail. All three of them traveled over half of the trail before Matt got burnt out, so they planned on riding to the car to finish the trail short, but Matt had left his keys in the truck . . . which was at the top of the trail. Luckily Brother Ray was able to get a ride in a truck with some other people back up to our truck, which is shortly before Brother Ray found me.

Here's the funny thing, the whole time I thought I was lost, while in a way I was, but as I was told I was actually at the right place, the trail just didn't take them to Sahalie Falls, but about 5 miles past. They had spent some of the time looking for how to get to where I was, but then decided to get the car to drive to me, so we were all lost in a way. But remember this, at least I had it right.

As it turns out, I actually passed over a lot of the same areas they did, such as this set of stairs, I just did it a couple hours after they did. To sum it up, the whole bike trip was 6 hours long, I rode with them for about 2 hours and was separated for the other 4 hours.

I'm just sad I didn't get far enough to see this cool bridge.

Or this awesome pool, it's called the Blue Pool on the map. No worries though! We plan on taking a hike on this very trail sometime soon, but this time it'll be a piece of cake.

Oh yeah, after our ride we went to this food place and got some awesome food, the milk shakes here are better than any others I have ever had.

Thanks for reading this long story, hope I didn't bore you too much.

Oh and one more thing . . .

Looks like Matt got a wedgie!

Ok, it's me Catie again.

Funny stuff huh? Hehehe. So anyways, Bro. Ray and Lukas got to our house soon after my brother's, and they got Lukas's stuff to take back to the Pelkey's since it was their last night in Oregon =(

They left but came back bringing my dad home, then they left again. My dad and Kacia visited for a while, while I helped my mom get dinner ready. Matt took Ben to work then picked up Lukas from the Pelkey's so he could eat dinner with us. Matt, Kacia, Lukas, and I left for the Mayfield's house. We had all the windows rolled down and it was super windy in the car.

This is the best picture of the windy pictures. It may not look super windy in my picture, but it was. My hair was flying everywhere and like all in my face. I couldn't see.

We visited for a little while and then got a brownie and some coffee and milk. We wanted to play a game before we went back home, so we played Taboo. It was my first time playing it. It's almost exactly like Catch Phrase.

Bro. Tony and Sis. Ashley have a candle holder on their wall, and it's like all curvy and kind of resembles a mustache. And Lukas was saying that that is a bad symbol (he was joking of course) and was saying it was a bad word, we were laughing and like, "what?" and he was holding the buzzer for the game Taboo and he was talking about the candle holder again and said, "do you know what that word says?" then he pushed the buzzer and we started cracking up.
Do you guys get it? Like on tv when there is a bad word and you hear the -beeeeeep- that is what Lukas was talking about. Sis. Ashley was laughing so much and she was like, "I'm sorry, it's just that it buzzes when people say a bad word" and we were like, "yeah" lol.

We had a good time at their place...but sadly we had to go drop Lukas and Kacia off at the Pelkey's so they could sleep and go home.
We had all the windows rolled down again and just had fun in the car. It was sad leaving them, we said bye and gave hugs then we saluted to eachother, and they went into the rv. Then Matt and I drove home.


Tuesday the 27th I was in my room listening to music and Cheree knocked on my door, it was cool to see her cause I had been bored and missing the Salgado's. We were going to hang out but Sis. Michele said it was time to go. Ben and I asked if we could go with them and my mom and Sis. Michele said ok =D
We went to see Bro. Don for a little bit before going to their house. Bro. Don thinks I'm funny and he said he's never seen me act funny before. It's probably because I was with Cheree and her mom, haha. About 10 minutes before we were going to leave Bro. Steve came over to see Bro. Don as well. He was telling us that Bro. Ray had told everyone about the bike ride in full detail, and Bro. Steve said it was one of those nights when you're tired and everything is funny to you, so he was laughing at the stories a lot. Then he thanked Ben for providing the funny stuff.

Ben, Cheree, and I walked over to Bro. Steve and Sis. Valerie's house from Cheree's house and went swimming. Bryan and Stephanie weren't there, they were at a friend's house swimming, so it was just us 3.

Remember that game I told you about called Bluff Man's Blind? It's where everyone but one person has their eyes closed and the blind people have to find that one person. Well we played that game. I usually found someone pretty fast cause I would take a noodle and swing it and try to whack someone so I could tell where they were. I ran into Cheree one time with the noodle and she was laughing a lot. Then one time she was under the ladder, and I ran into it and her. Ben liked to tease the blind person, he would call mine or Cheree's name and then move out of the way, or if Cheree was the blind person Ben would stay by me and say, "Catie's over here! Follow my voice!" He also would poke us with the noodles.
After we played that game we wanted to make a little whirl pool. It wasn't much of one though because we didn't work real hard at it. Then we randomly were talking about prank calls, and Cheree said that one time when she was little she was waiting in line for something and she accidentally called 911 and someone answered and she was like, "oops" and hung up.

The shadow of Ben.

I guess we swam for about 2 and a half hours, so we were kind of hungry and got out. I hadn't had lunch and it was around 5:00 pm. We walked back over to Cheree's house, got dressed, then ate some popcorn and watched almost two episodes of Avatar the Last Airbender. Then my mom came and took me and Ben home.

Hope you had fun reading this rather long blog post, hehehe. Bye!