July--Oregon visit part 1

After leaving Minnesota we traveled to Laramie to meet with the sellers (Jerry & Olive) of our house--it was fun to show the boys around, and they felt at home right away! From Laramie we went to Meridian and spent the night with Stephen's parents, then on to Corvallis to see my little boys! 

I was so excited and anxious to be with Lincoln and Trevor that I wasn't thinking about anything else until we were about 10 miles from the farm. Then it hit me: Mom wasn't there. Mom was always there when we came to visit...only now, she's not. Wow. Another first. 

The first few days at the farm I hardly looked up from the floor. Everything there Mom put there. The music on the piano. The quilts on the wall. The pictures on the shelf. The plants and decorations and books and notes and cushions and knick knacks...she was in everything, only she wasn't there anymore. 

Dad noticed my distress and said, taking me in a huge hug, "I know. It's hard without her here." 

And that's the bare naked truth.

***

One thing--the only thing, really--I wanted to do when we were in Corvallis was walk with my Grandpa. His 90th birthday was August 2nd, and to commemorate that he was walking 90 miles in the 10 days beforehand. I walked 13 miles with him the first day (with absolutely NO training on my part--boy was I feeling that big walk!!), but only 6.5 the next--my body said I couldn't keep up with Grandpa! Day three the kids and I walked to the Farmer's Market with him.

The kids enjoyed a famous Nancy cinnamon roll, and Trevor looooooved the local Gumbo band. He was really boogy-ing!

The kids had lots of great bonding time with Dad--I wish I had more pictures of him with them! I got really worried a couple of days before Lincoln and Trevor were going to leave with him--how would he handle Trevor (still) pooping in his underwear? What about making meals and tucking in at night? I told him all of my concerns and he reminded me that he helped raise 5 kids--he'd be just fine. And he was! They had a great time together.

On Sunday we visited my Mom's grave. I was glad to be there--and even gladder (I know that isn't a word) to see that she and Grandma were buried right next to each other. It made her passing even more real. More this-actually-happened. More permanent.

Arm wrestling

Cousins picking peaches--Mom would have loved this!

Whirlwind couple of weeks, part two: Boys' Choir

This past year Mason, Sammy and Lincoln have been singing with the North Star Boys' Choirs, and have grown to absolutely LOVE singing. They also love being part of something bigger than just them, and I love that the choirs reinforce what I teach at home--they train polite young men. As Trevor says, as he runs to open a door for me, "Boys' choir boys are gentlemen."

There are three choirs, beginning with the youngest: Music Magic, Cadet and Viking. Lincoln joined Music Magic in January, as soon as he turned 5. I use the word "joined" as "became the sole member of the choir". He absolutely loved going to choir with Francis every week!

Sammy and Mason joined the Cadet choir in September (as did I--as the accompanist), and at the beginning of the year were both invited to move up to the Viking choir. Knowing of the busy concert schedule and 3-week summer tour, we opted to keep Sammy in with the Cadets. I stopped accompanying except on a substitute basis after Ruth was born.

Mason moved up with the Vikings, and has absolutely LOVED learning all the music and harmonies (he sings Alto 1). They have a repertoire of well over 20 songs that they have memorized, from "The Holy City" to "Dixit Dominus" to "Over the Rainbow". They sing in several languages and truly sound like angels! They sing at church services all over the NW metro area, more Sundays than not. I'm not crazy about all the Sunday concerts, but it has been educational for all of us to attend different church services.

The final concert was May 18th--the day before Stephen's graduation. I'll have a link to the entire concert soon, but here is a sneak peak...

A couple of Cadet boys who sang in Music Magic last year joined Lincoln so he wouldn't be singing alone. When the boys came on from the wings there were lots of "awwwwww"s to see little, tiny Lincoln marching in front, as confident as anything!

Sadly I didn't get any video of the Cadet Choir (poor middle child!), but they sounded beautiful as well!

The week after the concert (Memorial Day weekend), the Cadet Choir did a mini-tour up to Duluth. They ate at restaurants (of course treating everyone there to a concert!), sang at a church service, visited Lake Superior, stayed in a hotel (with a pool!) and got to ride the big tour bus. I was a little nervous to send Sammy away for 3 days, but he had a fantastic time! Every boy is assigned a "tour buddy". Sadly, Sammy's tour buddy got pneumonia, so he joined another buddy group for a three-some. :) They had lots of fun playing games on the bus and seeing the sights. Don't they look sharp in their travel uniforms?

Lincoln was finished after the concert and Sammy after his tour. Mason is still rehearsing with the choir, only he's in Arizona at the moment! Once he gets home (July 1), I'll help him tell his stories here!

Oregon trip part 3, the Coast 11/2014

My one request concerning our beach house was that each family would have their own bathroom...well, at least that mine would. :) Our house, The Castle, did not disappoint! We spent most of our time inside, just hanging out, though Kaelah, Elise and I did slip away to do some shopping, and most of us went down to the beach at some point. Unfortunately Missy and Marni got super sick, so spent some quality time taking care of each other. And fortunately nobody else caught whatever they had!

Elise and Sammy thought it would be fun to play in the water...water temp 55, air temp 38, wind speed ~15 mph. It was fun...until Sammy did a face plant in the water while running from a wave. Brr! Luckily Uncle Brett can run fast - he ran his little guy up to the Castle and came back for Sammy, who was only halfway of the half mile up the hill to the house.

That wind was cold!!

The tide pools were lots of fun!

Mom was able to come out to the coast for a few minutes before she got too tired. Dad drove right onto the beach, so she was still able to enjoy watching the kids play from the car. Aunt Lori and Grandpa came to hang out for a few days, which was lots of fun!

I think Sammy will always treasure this picture of him and Grammy.

Couple of goofballs...

Ballet on the beach

On our last night all together at the Castle my brothers, some of their wives and some of my kids gathered in Mom's room to pray with her. We knelt around the bed (well, except for me and Mom), and Mom held my and Trevor's hands and Trevor prayed. There was a pretty amazing feeling in the room. Mom told us how much she loved us, and we all gave her long hugs before we left. What an amazing woman! Oh, how we miss her!

Mom did really well in spite of all the chaos. She napped a lot and went to bed early, but she loved that all of us were having so much fun together. She has always loved being in the middle of everything! 

Over the previous months Mom had written down a bunch of memories as well as looking through journal entries and pulling out stories she thought we would enjoy. She made new copies of "famous Cochran quotes" for everyone, and gave everyone a packet to have. [side note: I actually couldn't even bring myself to read through it until the night before her funeral. It was in my nightstand the entire time...I just couldn't bring myself to open it.]

On the last morning there she was even more tired than usual. I can still see Dad not leaving her side and shielding her from the chaos all around her. She slept all the way home and well into the late afternoon, when she got up and went to the couch until bedtime. 

Scott & Marni and Trevor & Kaelah had gone home, but the rest of us had a simple dinner and hung out talking until bedtime. In the morning Brett and Dad brought Jeff, Missy and my family to the airport. Saying goodbye to Mom was so hard. We all knew these were our last moments together in this life. 

Our last week together was quite representative of our lives together: Wonderful. I wouldn't change a thing. We left each other with no regrets. 

Oregon! Part 1, the drive

Being in Oregon in the summer is pretty much awesome. I keep wondering why we didn't come home for the previous summers. What were we thinking? No humidity, very few (and very polite) mosquitoes, lots of family and berries and the mountains and the Coast...it is wonderful.

We took the drive here in 2 days. Phew! 1,800 miles is a lot of driving for two days! Stephen was amazing and did almost all of the driving (I only drove for a couple of hours, and less because he was tired--it was more that I was tired of being the flight crew...).

Notice that Mason is missing from the driving pictures. He flew to Oregon with my mom after her visit. And yes, he was chosen intentionally.

LOOK!!! Tree covered hills!!

We stopped at the Spokane, WA temple on day 2.

 And almost home!

Cochran family pictures

While in Oregon we had some family pictures done by my SIL's sister, Mel. Hopefully I'll have a Jones family picture up soon, too! I don't have a single shot of Sammy--in fact, the only reason he is in any pictures at all is because Stephen bribed him with chocolate. :o)

P.S.

I found a couple more pictures...including some of the elusive Cameron!

How do 3 babies look on me? Cameron loved his Auntie.

Isn't Cameron's wink adorable?

On our way out of town we stopped by Grandma's grave. Being home for canning was a little bit empty without her there.

The rest of the story: Blueberries and Rafting

When I think of Oregon, there are certain things that I always think of. The Coast, my family, mild weather, crazy Corvallis people, farmer's markets, berries, peaches and rafting, to name a few. This trip, I experienced everything I love about Oregon.

I got to visit with all my family, went to the market, picked (and ate and ate!) blueberries (even though we didn't bring any home), had fresh peaches (and cobbler!) and sent my family down the river. I was just too tired and grumpy to go...even thought I felt slightly guilty about it.

Did you know that when my mom was 7 months pregnant (which is what I am) with Scotty, she went on the John Day River with my grandpa, dad, and 4 of us kids? Trevor was 8, I was 7, Jeff was 5 and Brett was 2. In case you didn't know, the John Day is a week-long float trip, not an afternoon trip down the river.

Lincoln loved the water...or not

And about that mild weather. Every evening I would go and sit on the swing on my parents porch. There was a cool breeze and NO bugs. It was heavenly. I'm not a swearing person, but, I tell you what! These mosquitoes in MN have nearly brought me to it a time or two!

I can sum up our trip home in just 3 words: We made it.

29 hours of drive-time in 3 days. For as long and uncomfortable as that is for anyone, with my 32-week pregnant self and 4 small-ish kids we're just glad we made it. And that we still love each other! Going home for a couple of weeks was worth everything! Will we do it next year? We shall see...

Day 13: Marimbas!

My grandpa clued us in to a Marimba festival being held near OSU, so on Sunday after church we headed over for some great music. 

The kids listened for awhile, then broke off into their true interests...

...Mason found the electrical box...

...Elise danced around, in true Corvallis-ite fashion...

...and Sammy played with sticks and found a very cool yellow spider.

It was a relaxing afternoon!

Day 12: Oregon Coast

On day 11 (Friday, in case you care), I took Stephen up to the airport so that he could attend the AOM (Academy of Management) Conference in San Antonio. He was going to present one of the papers he's been working on, and with 15,000 attendees, it was a good way to network. Mind you, only 30 attended his presentation, but still, it's a pretty big deal!

That evening I had some long-time friends over. The idea was that we'd be in the middle of peach harvest and have fresh peaches and ice cream. Um, no. There was not a ripe peach in the orchard! On August 12th! All my plans of being part of the harvest and canning were pretty much smashed--finally on the 18th Mom was able to find 10# of ripe peaches. Peaches have never been so late! Needless to say, I didn't can any peaches while in Oregon. Fortunately Mom had a stash of peaches and pears from previous years, and between that and the 10 batches of applesauce, we loaded down the car!

Anyhow, I'm getting ahead of myself...what would a trip home be like without a visit to the Oregon Coast?!

We went to Devil's Punchbowl, just North of Newport. It was a beautiful day! Mostly sunny and just a touch of wind. The kids had so much fun running away from the waves and playing in the sand. And all my brothers except Trevor were there. It was a little stressful not having Stephen there to help, but everyone survived and had a good time, even if I never relaxed for a second. :o)

Running from the waves

Scotty, Marni & Lincoln

He really does smile...just not for the camera