The Visit in July...(two months later)

Finally we are updating our blog...apologies for the late entry!

•••

In July our dear SLO, CA friends, the Carters, came to see our new digs up here in Eugene. It was crunch time for Corey, as he was nearing the end of his quarter (which meant many close to all-nighters building models). Donna was able to entertain when Corey had to slip away to do work. We were able to go to something that we really enjoyed the entire summer up here in Eugene, Friday movies in the park. This one was the movie, Big... so much fun, love the chopsticks part! They play the movies on a big inflatable screen, bring your own chairs, they provide the popcorn—perfect!

Donna made sure that the Carters got to go to one of Donna’s favorite clothing stores, Buffalo Exchange. All left happy with “new” old clothes.

•••

So after an almost all night of building a model, we took Joel and Sarah to Eugene’s Saturday market—because everyone here in Eugene knows that the best way to understand Eugene to its fullest is to witness this event! Below is one of the performers at the market. (we have seen unique performers bang on the neck of a guitar—or what was left of a guitar—with a spoon, so this performer was impressive in comparison).

After we had our fill of the market, we headed on up to Portland for a day trip. Especially for Sarah, we went to the Rose Gardens as the first stop. Founded in 1917, Portland’s International Rose Test Garden is the oldest official, continuously operated public rose test garden in the United States...and Portland is called the “Rose city”, so it was fitting to visit! We got quite carried away with all of the photo ops. Here Joel, Sarah, and Donna all take time smelling the roses (while Corey plays paparazzi as he does so well). There were different sections of the garden, and many interesting rose-names, we just could not help but take pictures at many of them. Below Donna is doing her best attempt at a dainty royal wave, if she had tripped over the roses in front of her I think it would have become a royal flush! (waah wahh) The romantic rosey atmosphere brought out the best in the couples.

For all of the shots in this rose garden, you can thank Corey and Sarah, caught in the act. Awww, here is more of the romance that we were looking for in this beautiful garden. These roses were called “Dream Come True”. And not to be outdone, Corey and Donna show their take at romance... well the roses were called “Passionate Kisses”. Do not worry, this is an exaggeration of their kisses... or so you hope! Donna showing the excitement of golden petals at the flowers named “Strike it Rich”. Sarah and Donna were attempting at...“Voluptuous” as these roses were named. Sarah is doing well with her hand on the hip but Donna... not so sure about that pose. Yay, frolicking in the roses. (it is fun aside from the things called thorns reaching out for us) Sarah is in her element here among the beautiful roses. Around the rose garden and Washington park, the guys just happened to find prime examples of Dr. Evil, with the help of their pinkie. None of us could remember the last time we were on seesaws! Corey and Joel’s goal was to balance on the seesaw. Ahhh, very calming guys. Sarah and Donna’s goal was to fly as high as possible. So fun! Each one of us had different ways of expressing how we liked the garden.

An amazing event happened while at the garden... and it was caught on film...

(So what did you think of the video? Pretty amazing huh? Well, we thought it was.) • Sarah was excited about going to the Shakespeare section of the rose garden. In this portion they have all of the herbs, trees, foliage that are mentioned in his plays. She is teaching Hamlet and was looking forward to finding some Hemlock to take a picture for her students. We searched and searched and could not find any. Donna even tried to ask the trumpet flowers... they hadn’t a clue. Little did Sarah know that she had seen hemlock the ENTIRE visit with us. Right before they arrived Donna went and picked some beautiful wildflowers to have on display in the house for the guests. She even went so far as to say that if she could do it again, she would just pick wildflowers like these for wedding flowers! Well, no one knew that it was the poisonous HEMLOCK that Donna picked! So here is the beautiful deadly bouquet that was used to welcome guests:

Most evenings we got to have dinner together and make homemade ravioli, yummy salads, and—as shown below—a new pesto pizza...YUM! Sunday afternoon while the boys went to play golf, the girls went to get manicures. Sarah, Teagan (friend from Ekklesia), and Donna had to do a little hunting to find a place open on a Sunday but were successful! At the end of the manicure, Sarah convinced Donna to “brave” a little design on her toes. Sarah was getting flowers... one of the workers decided to join in the discussion (of course they get paid more if you get a design) and he said that he can do wild flames on the toes. So as a dare, and just for Sarah, Donna went for the flames. The little nail shop had never seen flames done so crowded around Donna were all the workers looking on as she had flames added to her big toes! It was quite an event. The guy who did the flames wanted Donna to come back in and next time get zebra stripes or leopard print. (not a chance) When Donna got home she felt inspired by the flames and grabbed an outfit that was more “Harley”. That night was a crazy event that only Joel got to witness (as Corey was busy working away), poor guy. Sarah and Donna picked out a movie that was supposed to be a nice Christian movie that was like The Notebook but it turned out FAR from that. Horrible acting and cliche lines lead to insanity between Donna and Sarah. Seeing a side that Donna has never seen, Sarah busted out her “sassy” comebacks that left Donna’s jaw dropping to the ground. Unfortunately no photos were taken during this crazy time (Joel was probably too scared to do so, can't blame him) we do have the image of the movie. DON’T RENT THIS BELOW. The quote on the box says “If you liked The Notebook, this film will hold you in its emotional grip...” Yeah—if you consider an emotional grip being delusional laughter and tears because of the poor acting, then yes. Joel and Sarah got a brief tour of the campus and were able to see the actual model that Corey (and Donna at times) spent hours creating. As well as seeing other drawings and projects he had done throughout the quarter. Reenacting the “support” role that Donna played throughout the quarter, we posed for a photo-op.

After campus, Sarah and Donna lured the guys to a wonderful little place they had discovered by chance. It is a cute little patisserie that has delicious chocolaty desserts.

We all indulged.

We LOVED having the Carters stay at our place. It was truly a blast! Now if we could only get them to move up here! • Next blog: camping fun... to come.

Update: Two Plates (one to drive, one to eat)

So in this blog post we have two new plates to show you all in blogland. The first one being our OR driving plates! We decided not to go with the traditional plate shown below. (just too many of them!)

We also decided not to go with this one below. We couldn't tell what it was! The guy at the DMV said he wouldn't be caught with this plate on his car. It is a "cultural" plate, which means no-so-great art, if you ask us. When we saw these around town we thought it might be a picture of a significant fire that happened in Oregon. Ha!

This one hit the spot for us. We have been biking around Eugene (sometimes wishing that we didn't live up a hill), and are glad to "share the road" with fellow bikers when we drive (well, share the road with ones that obey the rules of the road that is)! Donna also thought they were the best-looking in the bunch because they were—well—simple! Here we are showing them off before we placed them on the cars. (the most hilarious thing about this picture, besides the fact that we look pretty ridiculous, is that Feist and Frou-Frou wanted to get in on the action. You can see them at the bottom of the screen door—both of them looking away from the camera!)

So that was the first plate we wanted to show you, the next plate was one that we brought to Corey's architecture potluck. He was assigned the task of creating a dish that described himself—so he chose (with the help of Donna's recipe clippings) an interesting appetizer. We named it Pizza-Peach-Pesto-and-More-Yumminess (well, we couldn't really think of a good name, so this one works). Donna and Corey made their OWN pesto for this (and it actually came out alright). It is an unusual mesh of ingredients but super delicious! More importantly, it looked beautiful (presentation is everything—that is why Donna felt the need to color coordinate with the dish...ok, that was just coincidence). If you come and visit us you just might get to try it out!

The Central Coast Trip

Well the Templetons are finally updating their blog. We left a cliff-hanger... the Central Coast? Some might say, “Did they actually come to the Central Coast in CA without seeing us??!!” The answer is no... but we sure like making people THINK so (we are mean... no, we tease!) We actually headed to the Central Coast of OREGON for a 24 hour fly-by tour before Corey started his architorture (architecture) classes. 

•

Right when we got to the campsite (under two hours of driving) we were given some fun stickers. I think they are reserved for kiddos, but hey, we had to make our first Oregon camping experience fun! Though it was our first stay in an Oregon state park, we were already big supporters, as you can see below. 

We have realized that we should probably get a more weatherproof tent than this little tiny summer guy, but it worked for one night! Donna felt like she should give it a kiss and a hug (because it overheard us talking about new tents). 

Now that we were done putting up the tent, Corey was looking off to the trail that leads to the dunes!

...and Donna was ready to go in her ever-so fashionable duds. (sometimes the comfort of warmth outweighs style). 

So, we took a hike, and were able to catch a beautiful sunset! 

We had to hike up some higher dunes to get to a great view. 

Donna found that taking off her boots made for a better solution for getting up the sandy dunes. Cold toes, but better traction. 

Sunsets can never be fully captured by a camera...It is always more beautiful in person. 

The next day, we wanted to celebrate 150 years of Oregon being a state by going to a chainsaw carving competition! Isn’t that everyone’s dream? We knew we were close to the event when we heard the hum that scores of chainsaws produce. The entire weekend, each of the pro and semi-pro carvers take one large piece of tree and carve away toward their sculptural masterpiece. 

The theme for this year’s chainsaw carving competition was Oregon celebrating 150, so we saw a lot of Lewis and Clark, Indians, and Sacagawea (as seen below). 

In this picture below, you can see the row of contestants that come from around the world (Germany, UK, Japan...etc.) for this event in small Reedsport, OR. 

This one below ended up winning 1st place for the pro division. On one side he has a native american with a spear, on the other side there is a pioneer, very detailed!

The highlight to this event was the “quick-carve” contest. The contestants are given 70 minutes to go from tree to sculpture. 

People LOVE bears, almost every contestant had little carved bears for sale! How can you not love them, they wave and are so cuddly! (only when made out of wood or cotton)

So along the way, we always love people-watching. Here we caught an old-fashioned photo-taking carving enthusiast... who was so into taking the picture, that his nose gets squished (maybe we are seeing what Corey will look like later in life?)

Perhaps the oddest couple was a father and daughter doing... well, we aren’t quite sure. It might be practicing for a father-daughter dance? Either way, we decided that it should probably not be done in public. 

Before we left, Donna had to pose with a chainsaw to show off her mad skills. (that is why the chainsaw had a protective cover on it... to protect all around, including her). If you notice, she does not quite know where to place her left hand (but the fierce look makes up for it!).