At the Chinese Garden

To celebrate Labor Day, we went to the Chinese Garden downtown. Toren’s family has been to many times before, but I never had. It was seriously incredible. Toren and I would like to fashion our house after the garden — and if not our house then our backyard. It was simply beautiful.

The city of Portland partnered with a city in China several years ago to change a parking lot into the garden. It took quite a while and millions of dollars to complete the project, but it was well worth it (in my opinion). They actually brought over many of the plants and rocks from China to use in the garden.

A tour guide led us through the garden and pointed out interesting facts about how the garden was used and why some of the architecture was the way it was. We learned a little bit about the layout of the garden to achieve a tranquil Chi. Even though you could faintly hear the traffic of the city, it was very peaceful and calm in the garden.

The guide did tell us one interesting story the happened during the landscaping of the garden: The plan was to plant white lotus flowers in the pond because white symbolized virtue. One day a Chinese Monk came to visit the garden in progress and mentioned that they should plant pink lotus flowers because pink symbolized happiness and people would rather be happy than virtuous. As a result, the designers decided to plant lotus flowers of many different colors. It’s a pretty funny (and true) story though.

Silvercreek Falls

Last Thursday we spent the day with the family. We went to Silvercreek Falls, just southwest of Oregon City. At Silvercreek there are a series of trails (totaling 13 miles or so), many of which take you near a variety of waterfalls. We took Baxter and Frisbee with us to give them some exercise; however, when we got there we learned that the dogs were only allowed to go on certain trails…and they weren’t even the ones that went by waterfalls. So, we went on a couple dog-friendly trails to tire the puppies out, and then we left them in the van so we could see the cool stuff. The waterfalls were pretty cool, and it was just fun to walk around the forest and enjoy nature for a while.

Elder Gailey Returns

My brother, David, came home from his mission on August 20. He was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At times it felt like the two years was flying by and other times it seemed to drag on. It was so great to have him home. And the best news is that he approved of Toren as my husband (which was a huge relief!). The whole family (except Toren…he was in Oregon interviewing for jobs) gathered at the airport, signs in tow, to welcoming him off the plane.

David had a great mission. He spent much of his time on the Navajo Indian Reservation, which he loved. It was so great to be around him again and listen to his mission stories. He and Laura are off to BYU-Idaho this week.

From Columbus to Oregon City

We finished up our time in Columbus a couple weeks ago and began the journey to Oregon. It was about a 40-hour drive, and I was sick of driving by about hour 7. Luckily, we got some sleeping pills from the vet to knock Bax out for most of the trip. He wasn’t happy…and neither were we through Nebraska, Wyoming, most of Utah, and Idaho…but we made it safe and sound.

Maren and Braden's Visit

Toren’s sister, Maren, also came to visit us. Of course she brought along our nephew, Braden. We were able to spend a whole week with them! This was the first time Toren and I had met little Braden. He was everything we could have hoped for, and more. For a more comprehensive record of what we did this week you’ll want to take a look at Maren or Mallory’s blog. They’ve been much better bloggers than me. But, I’ll give the overview.

One of our first adventures was going to the Olentangy Indian Caverns. This was something I’d been dying to do all summer. The caverns were formed thousands of years ago by flowing lava. The Indians in the area found them and used them for shelter during the winter. We could even see marks from their fires on the cave ceilings. It was very cool. We walked through the caves with a tour guide, winding through tunnels, admiring the stalactites and stalagmites.

We also drove down to Cincinnati, via the Outlet stores along the way, to go to the King’s Island theme park. It was pretty busy and we spent a lot of time waiting in lines, but it was worth every ride we went on! By the end of our time we were all hoping we’d spent a whole day there instead of a half. We were only able to conquer half of the park.

After church on Sunday we drove to Hocking Hills State Park. The whole park is rather large. We visited Old Man’s Cave and Ash Cave, a couple of the more popular areas of the park. It was a beautiful trip. Braden and Baxter even enjoyed it. Overall, it was a wonderful week.

Gailey Family Visit

My family came to visit us in Columbus. It was a great change of pace. They flew in on a Tuesday night and we spent Wednesday just hanging out by the pool.

That afternoon they drove to New York to see the Hill Cumorah pageant, Palmyra, and Niagara Falls. On Sunday, we met them in Kirtland and spent the day there. Toren and I had been to Kirtland a few weeks earlier, but it was still an incredible experience. My favorite sites were the Newell K. Whitney store, School of the Prophets and the John Johnson farm. Being there is definitely a great spiritual atmosphere all around...even with the rain!

The next day my mom went off on her own to do some genealogy research, so Toren and I took the kids to Zoombezi Bay (a water park at the zoo). We had TONS of fun. We of course mastered the big rides first, including the Tahitian Twister (we rode on huge innertubes through a big tunnel that dropped into a cyclone-type things), and then we mastered all the other slides. We also spent a lot of time in the wave pool. Laura, Cristina and I spent most of the time dodging the “sharks” (Toren and John) in the pool.

The last couple days we just spent hanging out. The greatest part about the visit was making room for all 6 of us (and Baxter) in our small apartment. The girls really enjoyed being woken up by an energetic Baxter each morning.

Long Time, No Blog

Well, I’m ashamed to say that it’s been a month since I’ve blogged. We’ve been very busy. I’d like to mention all the exciting things that’ve been happening in our lives. To do this I’m going to post a series of posts (just pretend like each one came at the appropriate time within the last month). Happy reading!