Here are a few things about the wedding that were fun. For the rehearsal dinner/picnic, the ladies from Lubbock made 11 pies. ELEVEN. Fresh berries and all! Not only were these pies scrumptious, but they sported dinosaur cutouts as decorations since the bride is particularly fond of dinosaurs.
My dear husband found a free app for his phone showing various ways to tie a tie. Not only are there different ways, but you can chose a certain way depending upon your height, face shape, etc. He chose the Kelvin knot which is slightly asymmetrical.
We had lots of fun shopping not only at Trader Joe's for the wine, but also at Costco. Note the Dr. Pepper - a real must for Texans.
This might be my favorite tidbit story. Kat, the bridesmaid, made the bride and groom cards which said "bride" and "groom". This way they could play the "bride card" if they didn't want to do something, or if there was something they particularly wanted to do. I'm not sure if they actually did use their cards, but I played my hypothetical "Mother of the Bride Card" when we went to
Dutch Bros. for coffee on the morning of the wedding. (Notice that it was cool enough to wear a sweater in the morning.) After we hemmed and hawed about what kind of coffee to get, the nice guy in the booth told me that it would come to $7. I looked at him and said, "What kind of discount can I get since my daughter is getting married today?" He thought a moment, and without missing a beat, he said, "That will be $3.50." Needless to say, he got a tip, and then we went back the next morning, too.
Every once in awhile I get a hankering to get out of town, and although the CUSD does not have a fall break, the Claremont Colleges do. We took advantage of the weekend to take a very quick trip up to Oregon to visit our daughter and son-in-law. She has a one-year position teaching biology at Pacific University in Forest Grove, and we didn't know if we would have a chance to see them in their new surroundings. So we made the opportunity happen. 
Today's adventure included a hike up Spencer Butte just south of Eugene. We took up lunch and sat on the rocks at the top for a good while enjoying the view, although it was a foggy one.
Before the morning winds picked up, the view of Diamond Peak over the lake was clear. After sleeping in and breakfast, we broke camp and hiked the 5 miles back to the car, through the rest of the mosquitoes. We had thought we might camp at the Trapper Creek Campground, but decided that showers sounded more enticing, so we returned to Eugene.
Day One of backpacking. We drove south of Eugene to the Deschutes National Forest and hiked five miles up to Diamond View Lake. We saw not one single person along the trail, nor anyone at the lake. However, we were greeted by billions of mosquitoes, so we made camp quickly and spent our after-dinner time playing hearts in the larger of the two tents.
Here are Hal and Chris starting to pack our gear for backpacking tomorrow. We've planned our route, packed our bags, and tomorrow we need to pick up a few supplies. We'll be without internet, electricity, etc. for three days, so I'll check in later!
