Millar Moments: August 2019

The month of July usually brings our Millar family reunion and this July was no exception. Our reunion, this year, was held in Redmond, Oregon and we stayed at the Eagle Crest World Mark Resort. It is a wonderful facility in beautifully, green central Oregon. This resort sported four pools and hots tubs, three golf courses, bike and hiking trails, tennis and basketball courts, and a putt putt course that was amazing. We never lacked for things to do, that was for sure.

Nathan and Grace a top a
giant chair in Bend's
Old Mill district

Paul and I arrived on Sunday afternoon, July 7, and Ryan and his family pulled in later that night. As we we waited for the rest of the families to arrive the next day, we shopped at Costco and a local grocery store for the food needed for the week. We also explored the Old Mill district in Bend, Oregon.

I was in charge of dinner for Monday night and decided to barbecue tri tip steaks and chicken breasts. It was devoured quickly along with baked potatoes, broccoli and a strawberry salad. Before everyone turned in for the night, we had our nightly devotional. The theme of the week was 'Choose Your Own Adventure,' so our devotionals were to comply with that theme. Dad and I did the first night's devotional and focused on the recent conference talk entitled 'Where Will This Lead' by Dallin H. Oaks. Our message was that we must consider the consequences of our actions before we start down a certain path. We each gave examples of choices we made as teenagers that showed the importance of looking ahead and asking 'where will this lead,' We challenged them to always stay on the path that leads us to our Heavenly Father. The devotionals for the week came to be a highlight of each day.

Aria enjoying the play ground while
waiting for Todd to check in.

Avery not as adventurous as Aria,
but glad to be out of the car, for sure.

Our reunion activities were planned by Katie and Ryan. They had been to this area several times before and knew all the fun things to do. The activities planned for the next three days didn't disappoint. On Tuesday, we all sported our reunion t-shirts and traveled 45 minutes to Pauline Falls.

Pauline Falls

Upon arriving, we walked down to the base of the beautiful falls where the more adventurous ones began to climb the rocks around the falls to get as close to the top as possible. Katie and Jon led the way while the rest of the adults stayed at the base of the waterfall watching the younger ones maneuver the boulders.

Enjoying the view from below

Getting ready to begin the climb

Avery wanted to join the older ones........

......But had to stay behind with her mom and dad and Aria

The view from the top of the falls

When everyone had tired from climbing the rocks we hiked back up to the parking lot to go on a short walk to view the falls from top. It was then onto the Obsidian Rock Flow where we again embarked on a walk/hike to the top. This was an amazing area of black glass like rock. The walk was tricky because of the gravel trail but most everyone made it to the top, including Aria.

A view along the way

All together at the base of Obsidian Rock Flow

After our adventure in this part of central Oregon, we stopped at a local pizza parlor for lunch. It was then home to our condos to swim, ride bikes, or just relax until dinner.

Wednesday found the men (Dad, Jon, Ryan, and Todd) at the Pronghorn Golf course for a round of early morning golf. Katie and Andrea took their girls to an escape room adventure in Bend while the rest of us remained at the condo for the morning. When the men returned from golf and had their breakfast of sourdough waffles, we all jumped in our cars to meet the girls at the Old Mill Shopping Mall. There we rented kayaks to paddle up and down the river in Bend. Ryan had brought three blow up kayaks so Dad rented another five kayaks so everyone could have this experience.

The blow up kayaks almost ready

Aria ready to go.....not. After being put in the boat with
her Mom and Dad she wanted out so she ended up walking along
the trail with Avery and me.

And they are off.....

I walked the trail alongside the river with Aria and Avery while the others kayaked. Everyone was successful in paddling up the river and then turning around at a specified point and coming back down to the starting area....except Todd and Kailee. They were in one of Ryan's blow up kayaks and had a terrible time getting it to go up stream for them. It kept turning around on them to head down stream. Each time it did that, Aria would shout, 'You're going the wrong way!' After a while, they gave up, brought the kayak back to shore, and found Aria, Avery and me on the trail, calling it quits for the day. We found out later that the problem was Ryan hadn't put the rudder on the back of the blow up kayaks, making it much more difficult to maneuver.

You're going the wrong way!!!

Aria getting side tracked on our walk by the flowers along the way.

It took the better part of two hours for everyone to make it up and down the river. Of course they were very tired of rowing by the end, but excited to have been successful in this adventure.

After kayaking, we all met at Ben and Jerry's for a delicious ice cream treat. A very fun day for sure.

Thursday was another fun day. We traveled for about an hour to a reservoir/lake. We spent the first part of the time there swimming and sunning. Ryan and Nathan braved the kayaks again and found a beautiful cove along the way. Of course, Jon had to go see it in a kayak, too. He was gone a long time and admitted, when he got back, that he might have fallen asleep in the quietness of the cove. He also discovered that these were two man kayaks and really needed two people paddling or at least balancing out the boat. It was tough paddling back to our beach area by himself.

Ryan and Nathan off to explore

Jon out on his own adventure.

After a picnic lunch, Katie's parents and her uncle and aunt arrived with a ski boat and two jet skis. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the dock, taking turns riding in the boat, tubing, or jetting around the lake on the jet skis. So much fun!!! We were all tired and sunburned when we got back to the condo late that afternoon. Maggie was sore, too, having been thrown off the jet ski and the tube. Her back gave her fits until she could get home to a chiropractor to put her hips back in alignment.

Dad and I just enjoying the lake while sitting in the shade

Todd and Kailee never did make it on to the boat, having
to leave early to get Avery home to nap.

Each evening, we would eat a delicious dinner followed by our devotionals and a snack. The devotionals were amazingly spiritual as each sibling took a turn presenting. Andrea's girls sang at hers to leave us with an incredible message. Todd shared some personal examples of choosing the right path in his life. Ryan and Katie shared how they had observed Jon leading Nathan up the rocks at the waterfall, much as Jesus would lead us in our life. Jon presented on Friday morning and blew us all out of the water with his 3 chapter power point presentation. When he found the time to put it together is still a mystery to all of us but we were grateful for his effort as his message of choosing your own path wisely was very touching.

All settled in for our nightly devotional

Maggie and Charlotte singing a song composed by their aunt
and written by a family friend.

Each devotional was ended with a family prayer and then treats were eaten. Often the older girls would stay and play some pretty competitive card games. One the night, the game of spoons ended up with everyone flipping spoons all over the room. Fun times!!!

Allison enjoyed playing solitaire every chance she could get.

Friday, after breakfast, most everyone started leaving for home. It's always hard when the reunion comes to an end. It never seems long enough. Ryan and Katie and family did stay one more day along with ourselves and Lydia. (We were taking both Lydia and Aubrey home with us.)

With only a few of us left, we decided to do some sight seeing. We went to see Smith Rock, a magnificent rock formation around which many hiking trails have been carved out. Ryan is determined to return to hike the many trails there. We went to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, rented movies to relax for the afternoon, then golfed the amazing Putt Putt golf course.

Smith Rock

The amazing Putt Putt course at the resort.....

This looks like a regular golf course fairway but it's
actually a putting fairway complete with sand and water traps.

One fairway consisted of this deep hole.
We had to hit down and then up to the hole at the top.

Such a fun outing......

.......And look who won. Me!!!!!

The make up of our reunion was a little different this year due to who could come and who could not. Of Andre's family, Casey had to work and Jillian was away at school. Mindi had to stay home with Clark who had summer school, so it was only Jon and his girls. Jon's boys were off to the Bahamas with their mother. This meant that Nathan was the only boy among all his girl cousins

A side notes about our reunion. The treat at the end of each day is an important tradition in our family. The usual treats consist of rice krispie treats, cookie pizza, dilly bars, and Oreo brownies. When it came time to make the Oreo brownies, I realized I had forgotten to bring something with which to crush the Oreos. I put the Oreos into a zip lock bag and gave Carly and Olivia the challenge to figure a way to crush them. With Aria's help, they completed the task.

What better way than stomping them their feet.

Saturday morning, the rest of us packed up and left for home. We had Aubrey and Lydia with us. The next week would be Lydia's time with grandma and grandpa to make a quilt and hang out together. We took Aubrey with us so we could drop her off at EFY at BYU on Monday. We traveled to Boise on Saturday and the rest of the way on Sunday. We dropped off at Todd and Kailee's home for dinner before making it to Heber. They had cooked a yummy pot roast dinner for us which was very much appreciated after our long drive.

Lydia trying a chicken enchilada at Cafe Rio in Boise.
She was game to try new things while with us.

Aubrey and Lydia playing with Aria while waiting for dinner to be ready

Monday, late morning, we dropped Aubrey off at the Marriott center on BYU campus to begin her week at Especially For Youth. She met a friend from Medford with whom she was going to room for the week. I was glad that she had someone to show her the ropes of registration, making it an easy drop off for me.

Lydia and I, then, went to JoAnn Fabrics to pick out material for Lydia's quilt. She wanted the quilt to match her room so we decided grey, white, black and red would be good colors. She found one red piece with cats on it but luckily changed her mind to a Mickey Mouse print with all the right colors in it. We sided it with a two other fabrics. I was going to take her to lunch after buying the material but drove straight home because Lydia was having one of her headaches which she has been troubled with since she was 18 months old.

The cat fabric

The final choice

Later that day, we cut out the squares for her quilt in preparation for putting it together the next day. Lydia was amazingly adept at sewing the squares together. I put a piece of tape on the machine so she could guide the fabric and she was meticulous in sewing strait seams. That made it so much easier for me to put the lines of squares together for the finished quilt top. By Thursday, we were already tying the quilt which left us Friday to make matching pillows with the left over fabric. Saturday, we had a movie marathon in our theater while waiting for her mother to come.

Sewing it

Loving it

Tying it

The finished products - quilt and pillows

On Tuesday during our week with Lydia, we left Heber in the late afternoon to take Lydia to dinner and then to see Cinderella at the Hale Centre theater in Sandy. We decided to have dinner at the Fuji Steakhouse where dinner is cooked in front of you while you watch. The meal was good and the production of Cinderella was exquisite. We sat in awe of the sets and costumes and were totally entranced with the play itself.

Our chef

The theater

Outside the theater

Inside the theater

Loving being with our granddaughter

On Friday, in the late afternoon, Deon and Gary along with Kim, Eric, Brock, and Jordan, came to spend the night with us.They had just finished a family reunion at Bear Lake and needed a place to stay before driving home to California. We made 'make your own pizzas' for dinner and they were a big hit. For sleeping, we put Kim and family upstairs while Deon and Gary took their usual room in the basement. On Saturday morning, I fixed a wheat pancake breakfast before Kim and her family took off for the first leg of their trip, dropping Brock off in Las Vegas. (Deon and Gary opted to stay the weekend when I told them that there was plenty of room even with Andrea coming late afternoon on Saturday.)

Funny incident - During breakfast, Kim had the courage to tell us about the queen bed upstairs. She said they would roll to the center and had to hang onto the sides to sleep. She concluded that something might be wrong with the bed. After they left, we went upstairs to check it out. Paul took off the mattress and lifted up the box springs. Sure enough, the boards on the bottom of the box springs were busted. Too many big grandchildren jumping on the bed, I suppose. Paul immediately went to a local mattress store and bought new box springs. We felt bad that Kim and Eric didn't have the best night's sleep.

The box springs - no wonder it wouldn't allow a comfortable night's sleep.

That afternoon, Andrea made it safely from Oregon to pick up Lydia and eventually travel on to Rexburg, Idaho to bring Jillian home from college. We were glad when Andrea finally arrived, but Lydia was especially thrilled to see her Mom after being away from her for a week. Andrea and Lydia and Gary and Deon went to church with us on Sunday and stayed for dinner. Andrea then had to load her car with Lydia's things, and Lydia, to begin her trip to Rexburg. They picked up Jillian on Monday morning and drove 11 hours that day to get home to Springfield, Oregon. Lots of driving in a short time. We were so glad when they arrived home without incident. Deon and Gary left the next morning.

The finished sod product.

As Elder's quorum president in our ward, many things fall on Paul's agenda to do. The last week of the month was especially demanding. He got a call from the bishop who asked him to arrange for people to help a family lay sod in their yard. It would be done over a two day period. He then got a call from his counselor who said his brother needed help moving out of his home to a home in Heber that same day. This brother also needed things taken out of a storage unit in Provo and brought up the Heber. Paul made put out the word to the brothers in the ward but, of course, he felt he needed to be involved, too. Friday morning he went to Provo to load a truck with the brother's storage items then came back to Heber to unload them into his home. By 4 that same afternoon, he was up helping lay sod. The group worked til everyone pooped out around 6:30 but the job was not done. Another crew, including Paul, was there by 10:00 in the morning and worked another 3 1/2 hours in the hot sun to get the job done. I was getting concerned for Paul, who at 76, seems to think he's still a young buck. He was quite sore the next day, for sure.

We decided to use the hot tub one afternoon and found that the insides were kind of gritty. It hadn't been drained ever so we decided the next day to drain it, wipe down the insides and add fresh water. It took Paul a few minutes to find the drain spout but once he did it was a relatively easy process. While he was doing that, I was noticing how beautiful our annuals looked this year so I took pictures of them to record what they look like, before the deer start eating them.

And then there's Aria and Avery.........

At the reunion, Carly and Julia wanted to braid some colored ribbons into Aria's hair. She sat patiently while they did that and this was the result.

Also at the reunion, Aria wanted to do something to help with dinner. She so carefully set the table with the paper products. So sweet of her. She did a pretty good job. too.