Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Wallowa Lake- Our Farewell to OREGON

Some may ask, "Was Oregon a success?" Well I think this picture below answers for itself.  Just a side note, the picture below is a replica of a picture taken 7 years early of me and Ross swimming at our swimming hole in Baker City.  It was also the first picture Sarah ever saw of me, and I believe her exact words to my beloved sister Ashley after seeing this picture was; "Maybe I'll just go serve a mission."
The picture above is before jumping into Wallowa Lake at 7 in the morning, temperature 41 degrees, temperature of the lake, cold as a Mt. Dew slushy headache, cold as a witches...T
it was cold.  Here me and my brother Ross regather our manhood.  We felt lucky that our last week, Ross and Rachel were able to come down and visit.  We also feel lucky that Sarah and Rachel are both having little girls, and that Rosalie and Brooklyn are going to be the cutest little things ever, named of course after the Newsies and The Da Vinci Code.  If they were going to have a boy, they would have named him Rolland, so when they came over we could say "Rock and Roll... cominatcha yeahhhaa, paaoaw!"
Rocky of course loved the lake, and I was going to let him join me on our polar bear swim if he was up for the challenge, however Mama was just a little too warm to let go of that morning.  Next time my little man.  Remember a few posts back when I said that Rocky was one of the healthiest eaters I know, well he's not. 
Now he's our little Cookie monster, he is already a veteran at eating oreo's, knowing full well to eat out the cream filling then pass the rest on to Bear dog.  He also enjoys a nice healthy swig of Mt. Dew, a Mexican lollipop, Chesters, Cheetos, KitKats, and Otter Pops.  I will take all the blame for these eating habits, Sarah did not fill herself with the previous mentioned items in her third trimester with Rocky, in fact she ate quite healthily.  Speaking of nice healthy swigs of Mt. Dew, now would be a good time to briefly mention my last rotation at SRCI in Oregon.  It was an enjoyable experience filled with illegible handwriting, fun pharmacists, angry techs, atypical antipsychotics, and best of all three Mt. Dew chugging contests, of the which I was victorious in the last one (the one that counts), and luckily because I won the last one rather than spew Mt. Dew all over the pharmacy, I avoided the nickname Ol'Faithfull.
We spent a good amount of time out by the lake skipping rocks.  Like Jerky is to Kade, skipping rocks is to me and my brother Ross, if I could just skip rocks all day long, then I would be a happy man.
Rocky enjoyed picking up everything he could, then showing us.  This I think was a finger from that nasty witch that was mentioned earlier, obviously the water was too cold for her to bare.
I like this boys style, he likes a challenge.  He doesn't pick the smallest rock to start skipping, he finds the biggest nastiest looking one and then has his way with it.
Rocky and Grandma Weatherspoon were matching today.  Rock grew pretty attached to his grandparents.  His favorite activity everyday was to go downstairs to see what grandma was up to, and sneak into Ed's room to take a gander at his prized Hot Wheels collection.
Like two peas in a pod these two.  They share so many similar facial expressions.  Rocky and grandpa Weatherspoon spent a good amount of time cutting a rug to "She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes."  Also, one of Rocks daily rituals was to run naked as a jay bird out of the bathroom and jump onto grandpa's lap to dry himself on grandpa's shirt.
We also went on a nice little hike.
Rachel was a sport and hiked with her nice and slick boots on, but she still had no problem scaling the beast.  It wasn't until the very last decline that Ross had the privilege of giving his five month old pregnant wife a piggy-back down to safety.
No he didn't.
Rocky loved being just one of the boys.  I love that Rocky is so at one in the mountains. He is such a manly-man boy, I know he is going to be a good, loving, and protective big brother to little Rose. 
We loved our time in Oregon, and feel so blessed to have so many opportunities to travel and visit with family and friends.  My parents are so loving, patient, caring, and thoughtful, it makes me feel honored to have been raised by them.