Christmas at the Kammeyer House-2008

After a big meal on Christmas Eve, we coast through Christmas Day. We got up early, picked up Grandpa and brought him back to the house where we ate Cinnamon rolls that Matt and Katherine had made. Then we opened presents and the rest of the day we spent visiting and eating left overs. Grandpa stayed until after lunch when James took him home.





Here is the family room with the stockings ready.












Grandpa, Aaron and Lauren, Matt and Katherine on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve with Friends-2008

We always have such a great time hosting a dinner with all our friends on Christmas Eve. People come and bring food and we spend time visiting and eating. It is a time we treasure and look forward too every Christmas season. This year we had 21 people join us for dinner. Dick and Nellie Akerson, Jane Dover and George Dover, Ray and Renae Summers, Rosemary and Angel, Scott, Dulsanna, Eric (who had just returned from Hmong speaking mission to Fresno California), Kyle and Ian, the Elders, and all of us. We lined the tables up all the way down the living room and dining room and there was just enough room. After dinner we put away some of the tables and put everyone in a big circle to read the Christmas story out of Luke and sing carols.

These are pictures of Rosemary and Angel, (Katherine's mother and sister), and Renae and Dulsanna.

































James and Grandpa, Little Ian and Scott.

December was an interesting month. We had more snow than anyone can remember, with wind and temperatures dipping into the teens. Church was canceled two weeks in a row, Matt works for the state and offices were closed. James and I had the week off and the Kammeyer's found themselves homebound. We occupied ourselves with napping, eating, playing games, watching TV and reading. It was great to have all our appointments canceled and not have any pressure to go anywhere or do anything. We did venture out periodically to check on other people and make sure they were ok. Blink was not happy at all with the turn of events. She drove us crazy, especially when the wind blew. She wanted to go outside, but didn't like the snow or the wind. Matt had to let her in and out during the night.






















It was really kind of fun to have the whole family together while the elements raged outside.





















These are looking out into our backyard and the park.




















Here is looking out our front door, and our cars in the driveway. Drifts were up to 6 feet deep. If you look close at the picture of our front lawn, you will see the foundation of Matt and Katherine's first home they were building. Unfortnately, things got busy with Christmas and they never got past the foundation.

November's Friday Night Movie with the Laurels...and their friends.

I have really enjoyed teaching the Laurels and one of the fun things that we do is get together for a movie and pizza at the house. This month we watched the movie, "Walle" abut a cute little robot.

Sitting on the sofa are Megan, Dar, Heather, and Stacy with Kyle, Patrick, Anna and Lindsey in front.

Christmas Tree Expedition 2008

One of the fun traditions our family has is we get up early the Saturday after Thanksgiving and head for the hills of Estacada. On the way, we pass through Sandy and stop at Joe's Donuts for...well, the biggest and best donuts you have ever tasted. Krispie Kreme doesn't stand a chance next to Joe's Everyone that tries them agrees. We used to save the donuts until after we had tree and everyone was tired from sledding. Over the past 18 years we have become smarter; now we buy enough donuts to eat on the way up the mountain and then later we enjoy another with our hot chocolate!








Some years we trudge through thigh high snow to locate the right Noble fir tree. This year there was no snow and we all got sopping wet going through the brush.
Here are Ian Scott and Dulanna We see some pretty interesting things while searching for the 'perfect' tree.


After searching and searching....and searching some more, James was wanting hot chocolate and donuts....and dry clothes.

"No James! Not that tree!"












Here are Matt and Katherine, Josh and Kaija.





After putting the tree on the Rodeo we all were able to enjoy our hot chocolate and donuts.

Thanksgiving Day--2008

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Matt and Katherine were with us as was Josh and Kaija. We missed Aaron and Lauren but knew they were having a great time in North Carolina with the Lewis's. The morning started off with James and making Swedish Pancakes for the family. Grandpa and Aunt Mary joined us and we had a wonderful time together. The rest of the day was spent preparing the meal for that evening. I commented to James how as a young girl I would run around with cousins, enjoying all the sweet smells coming from the kitchen, I didn't fully comprehend the work that Mom and Dad put into the meal. It is a lot of work, but I am so apprciative that my family helps. Katherine's mother Rosemary and sister Angel came to dinner too and we are always so happy when they join us. (Rosemary makes wonderful Peacan Pie!) For some reason, I did not get a picture of the 10 of us, but I did get a picture of the food!

A Saturday with Miki-san

Miki-san flew from Japan to America for a week of business and shared a Saturday with us. James and Miki worked together for six years at Toyo Tanso USA and during that time they developed a friendship that spanned more than just work. We were able to get together with Miki, Mitsue, Sotoro and George many times to go boating, or have dinner and always had lots of fun and enjoyed our visits. We were sad when they moved back to Japan.

James, Matt, Katherine and myself met Miki-san and his friend Kiku-san at 'Salty's' a restuarant on the Columbia River for a magnificient all-you-can-eat buffet of seafood, beef and anything good you can imagine. It was fun to sit and talk about families, work and past memories. Miki-san said that everyone in Japan remembers James-san and what a wonderful engineer he is and misses him. Miki-san brought us beautiful gifts, Japanese table runners, purses and mirrors.

After lunch we drove to Multnomah Falls and hiked up the trail as far as the bridge.

We then drove back to our home for a short time where we sat and talked and looked at pictures.









Our day ended with a trip to Niketown in downtown Portland so that Miki-san might purchase some Nike shoes to take back to his sons in Japan. We have many friends in Japan; people James worked with and then moved back and people that James has met on his four trips he made to Japan while working at TTU. Miki-san and his family are such good friends and we hope to someday visit with his family in Japan as well as our other friends from that wonderful country.

Oregon Coast with the Bryan and Toni Norton

James and I left on Friday afternoon to drive out to the beach and spend the weekend in the Norton's beach house with Toni and Bryan. We met the Nortons in Tillamook, and after having Chinese food for dinner we headed north to Rockaway. Friday night was spent in their home playing dice games, laughing, talking and watching 1/2 of the Marx Brother's movie, "Night at the Opera". There were no Trick-or-Treaters and so we had to eat the candy.

The next day the weather was cloudy, but still very beautiful. After breakfast, Toni and I worked on our EKG certification so that Adventist can become a known Chest Pain center while James and Bryan, with the help of Zeke, finished watching the Marx Brother's movie. Later, James and Bryan rode the scooters for over an hour. James was brave enough to wear Toni's helmet even though it was pink. He said, "I can't see what color it is, it doesn't bother me!" Toni and I walked (with Zeke the dog) down to the beach and watched the waves, then into St. Mary's chapel by the sea. On the way back we met up with James and Bryan and they gave us a ride back to the house.
















We drove down Highway 101, along the beach and then towards Cloverdale. We had to stop for an hour at a roadside farmers market because of an accident and then continued on to Cloverdale where we stopped at a pharmacy there that had a real soda fountain and we all had chocolate malts. Then we headed back to their beach house and from there home. It was a short visit to the beach, but a wonderful get-away with our friends the Nortons.

3rd Annual Tuna Day with Laura and Maggie

This was our 3rd annual tuna cook-off and like the others, this day did not go by without a hitch. Everytime we have canned tuna, something interesting has happened. Such as almost burning the kitchen down, and having to ask the neighbors for help in opening a pressure cooker--in the bathtub! (It remained unopened until 6 hours later when James was able to spend some time with it.) This year after doing 200 jars of tuna, we couldn't figure out why I didn't have more tuna jars because mine were smaller. We figured it out two days later when Maggie went home and found 10 additional pounds of tuna still frozen in her fridge. Laura and Maggie canned the tuna for me the next day.

Tuna day is a lot of work. Laura and Maggie drive out to the coast to pick it up; (This year it was only 100 pounds.) then we spend the whole day at my house cutting, stuffing jars with tuna and pressure cooking the jars out on the deck. My whole house smells like tuna for days and we end up throwing some towels away. This year we did 50 pounds for me and my whole family love it. Once you have tasted this tuna, you never want to have anything else. We have decided that we need to can tuna every year now because the kids love it so much it is going faster and faster as they have their own families.

Matt's 24th Birthday

Happy Birthday to Matt! We celebrated with a trip to Todai in downtown Portland. We ate sushi until we couldn't eat any more...then we started on the desserts. We visited Grandpa on our way home and once home we ate cake and watched Matt open his presents.

Crater Lake/ Lake Tahoe/Yosemite/Jackson

Several months ago Kris made reservations for 2 of Mom's Condos in Tahoe Village at Heavenly, Stateline, Nevada. The Tighe's took one Condo and the Kammeyer's occupied the other Condo. We had a wonderful week all of us together. Meals and cooking was shared and we found the week to be very relaxing for all.

James and I left Troutdale on Sunday, September 28th. We drove along the Clackamas River and enjoyed the river and beautiful fall colors. The day was gorgeous! We met up with the Tighe's at Crater Lake in Southern Oregon.



James and I.










Brent, Kristine, Alex and Ryan Tighe.














Kathleen and Kristine.












We brought the tandem with us and went on our first bike ride on one of the many paths around Lake Tahoe. We packed a lunch and ate it down by the lake. The day was sunny, not too warm and beautiful.


















We crawled up into a tree and asked a professional to take a picture. We rode about 18 miles from the Lake to Emerald Bay.





On October 1st we visited Virginia City, Nevada. It lies up in the hills past the capital of Carson City. It is hard to imagine that this city, which now only has about 1000 people used to have over 100 saloons and was busling 24 hours a day. Virginia City lost over 2000 buildings in the fire of 1875. It was interesting to walk along the wooded sidewalks and see a part of what the town looked like back then.










James and I rode the tandem on the west shore, out past Camp Richardson and Emerald Bay. We only rode 10 miles from Sugar Pine State Park to Tahoma.












Emerald Bay.







On October 3rd we drove to Yosemite with the Tighe's. When we lived in Jackson we were only 2 hours from Yosemite. We thought that we were about that distance while in Lake Tahoe. As it turned out, we were 4 hours from the Park. We stopped by a lake to have lunch. We were able to see colorful hills as well as waterfalls that were not as spectacular as they normally are because there has not been a lot of rain.



Lauren and Aaron










Katherine and Matt













Kammeyer Family

Aaron, Lauren, Kathleen, James, Katherine, Matt


We stopped and had a good dinner at "The Big Oak Restaurant". It didn't look promising, however we were adventurous and it was really quite good. We left the restaurant at 8 PM and had a very long ride home on windy roads. We arrived back in Tahoe at 11:30 PM. It was snowing as we pulled in. Shortly thereafter, just as we were getting ready for bed, the power went off and didn't come back on until 6 AM. We realized what 'pitch black' really was; we had no lights--except our cell phone light that we kept pushing to keep on.




On Saturday, October 4th we took the 2 hour ride down the Sierra's to our old stomping grounds. We had breakfast with some dear friends Linda and Larry Critchfield and their son Jared and his wife Sarah and their daughter Jenna. Jared was Aaron's best friend while we lived in Jackson. My good friend Lisa and her son Ethan joined us for a short time as did another good friend Joanne Dutra. It was wonderful to see all our friends and spend some time with them.


After visiting with our friends, we drove around Jackson and reminced about a part of our lives that was only 3 years long and yet made a significant impact on us. We keep in touch with our friends, and although we don't see them as often as we would like, when we do, we seem to pick up where we left off--our friendship is eternal. We drove past the townhouse at 29 Raggio Road where we lived when we first moved down from Seattle. We drove past the house on Buena Vista Drive. Jackson used to be a mining town and one of our favorite places to take people when they visited were the Kennedy and Argonaut tailing wheels. We brought the kids here once again. We also drove through Jackson and visited some of the shops.

















Kammeyer Family at the Kennedy Tailing Wheel.





















Downtown Jackson, California as well as the old Nationa Hotel established in 1852.




























On October 5th Matt, Katherine, James and I drove (once again) to Emerald Bay. The view was spectacular. That night Lauren and I drove Matt and Katherine to Reno where we put them on a plane back to Portland. I was stopped by a Nevada State Patrol on the way home because he didn't like the blue 'lights' that Aaron had on his car. James said that I made him defensive from the start because when he walked up I said, "I am so nervous, I have never gotten a ticket before...why did you pull me over?" He said, "Let me see your license and your registration and then I will tell you why I pulled you over." I thought they had to do this at the first? He turned out to be a nice officer, but imagine my horror when we pulled away and saw there there were 4 cop cars surrounding me as well as several cops standing around and a K9 unit! They must have thought they had someone really dangerous in that white VW Golf they pulled over.