Christmas came and went in what seems like the blink of an eye. Andy's parents and his little brother came out to Oregon this year to spend the holiday with us.
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| Our Christmas Tree. |
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| Andy's Mom (Nerissa) & Andy. |
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| Me & Shaun (Andy's little brother). I got Andy's Dad to eat veggies too bad we didn't get a photo of that. |
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| Nerissa is super excited to have a new game to play. |
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| Keith (Andy's Dad) finds joy in bubble wrap. It's all about the simple things. |
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| Nerissa & Shaun. |
On Christmas Day we volunteered at the Eugene Mission. We had previously signed up to serve Christmas dinner to the women and children. We soon learned that they did not have enough volunteers to serve the men, so we stayed and served them too. I enjoyed serving those in my community, it was fun to hear them share their musical talents and watch there faces light up when we brought them food. I truly believe if Christ were on the Earth today that he would be found spending Christmas serving others-- I think that is the essence of the Spirit of Christmas.
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| Jester Santas. |
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| Some of the crew. |
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| Waiting to clear some tables. |
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| In the middle of the action. |
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| The crew. |
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| Me & Andy. |
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| Waiting to plate up some more food. |
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| Shaun caught in the act of serving. |
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| A full house. |
We thought it would be fun to take his family to see the Oregon Coast-- this was a first for Andy's little brother. It was cold and wet but definitely worth the trip.
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| Me, Nerissa, & Shaun. |
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| The ocean. |
Our first stop was the Sea Lion Caves, everyone really enjoyed listening to the sea lions and watching them move around.
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| Shaun & Nerissa - they were really cold. |
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| Taking a photo of the photographer. |
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| Shaun. |
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| Nerissa. |
We had a blast swimming in the hotel pool, I think if time permitted we could have spent the entire day in there.
We tried to go whale watching, but there weren't many whales to be seen that day. We did manage to see the Heceta Head & Yaquina Head Lighthouses though.
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| Me, Andy, & Shaun. |
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| Andy, Me, Nerissa, & Shaun. |
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| Most of the crew. |
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| Watching the waves crash. |
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| Yaquina Head Lighthouse. |
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| Freezing. |
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| Keith & Nerissa. |
We spent almost an entire day at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum-- the boys especially loved this! We were able to go inside a WWII plane and the Spruce Goose (the world's largest wooden plane to ever take flight). The Spruce Goose was pretty impressive! Looking at it you wouldn't guess it was made of wood.
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| Shaun & Keith. |
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| Shaun & Nerissa. |
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| The race for the moon. |
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| Trying to land a space shuttle. |
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| Nerding out. |
We hope to be able to get back to the museum sometime to check out the water park -- I can't get enough swimming in.
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| Beatles style farewell. |
Before we knew it it was time to say good bye and head back to work. We are grateful Andy's family was able to come and visit us. We really enjoyed our time with them!
