But not for long! The end of our latest painting adventure is in sight, at which point we will heave great sighs of relief. We owe a huge debt of gratitude (and dinner, too, once we've cleaned up this mess) to the following dearest family and friends, without whom our newly painted house would not be possible:
1. Brent & Danny, who helped clear our living room of cumbersome furniture
2. Gentry & Elaine, who have loaned us the scaffolding you see below, which has kept me from having to scamper up & down, up & down a ladder 500 times
3. Troy & Beth, who graciously delivered the scaffolding to us, and who also stopped at Home Depot on the way to pick up the lumber that is on it
4. Dave & Beth, who have loaned us the very tall ladder that is leaning against the scaffolding, which I have used to reach the many places that are so narrow only a skinny ladder will fit
5. Tonya, who has not only listened to me hem and haw about colors & complain about how long this is taking for the past 2 months, but who came last Thursday & painted along the trim in the living room and did a
perfect job
Already we are able to see such a difference in how clean and bright everything looks, and we love it. Hooray for being able to have our own little house to fix and spruce up and make our own!
If anyone thinks they might like to paint a room in their house brown, we have about 10 different samples you're welcome to try. I am, as it turns out, really lousy at choosing the right color the first time (or the fifth or the ninth...)
Derek rolls the winning die in an action-packed tournament of Austrian Chase....
and jumps for joy at his good fortune! And that's how we felt about being surrounded by the ones we love (and who love us back!) on such a thankful day :)
One immense benefit of our Oregon road trip was the opportunity to meet with our old, sweet friend Amanda. The three of us went to high school together, and she and I were both on the dance team for a year, which means we are bonded for life by embarrasing memories of prancing around in silly outfits. We hadn't seen each other for ages & ages, and though we've been keeping up with one another through our blogs, it was such a TREAT to have real, live time together. AND we were able to meet her three charming kiddos - so fun for us! Thank you again, A! If all goes according to plan, we'll see you next year :)
These moss-covered walls ran all along the highway, and were so NEAT. Interesting that the camera focused on it instead of us - it knew the most important part to capture!
If you're a wimpy, emotional girl, the beauty of it all is enough to make you a little teary :) 
This is the very last picture we took, but the most important, because visiting Jan's cousin & his family was the very reason for our trip south. The last time we stayed with Gary & Merrilee was 1995, I think; Tiffany and Jennifer were just tiny things, and Mikayla hadn't been born yet. (And no Molly the dog, either!) We're thankful they agreed to our invasion, and we'd like to make it an annual event - family is precious! 
We've just returned from a really wonderful trip to Oregon, and have oodles of memories to share. For now, though, we're so tired that we can only muster enough energy to post one picture. And maybe eat a bowl of ice cream. But that's it. More coming soon!
If anyone thinks they might like to paint a room in their house brown, we have about 10 different samples you're welcome to try. I am, as it turns out, really lousy at choosing the right color the first time (or the fifth or the ninth...)
