Welcome home Abby!!

I can't believe that it has been two years since I last went to Oregon!  Being there, I couldn't see how I was able to stay away for so long. It was a quick trip- we couldn't leave on Saturday until after music festival and Madeline's soccer game, and we left for home again on Monday morning. We can't wait until we get to return in August (hopefully for a longer visit) when my parents and brother Eli return from their missions!

This trip was to go listen to my niece Abby's missionary report!  We love her!  She has been such an amazing missionary and is a great example to all of us.

l-r: Ila, Abby and Kamille

While six of the ten parent-siblings and their spouses talked, their kids visited all the old stomping grounds. The "yellow shed" that is now ready to fall over:

l-r: Isaiah, Caleb, Emmie, David Farber, Ila, Kamille, Isaac, Madeline, Gracie, Micah, Abby, Nolan, Benjamin, Ammon and David Kerns:

I grew up in the most beautiful place on Earth.

The old barn, which it's a little scary that they were in the loft, because it looks like it is a hazard and everyone is talking about how it needs to be knocked down:

It will be a sad day when it is knocked down because there are many memories of working and playing in that barn. Dad used to store wheat in it, and we used to jump from the loft into the wheat, and play in the barn by the hour. I could most years find kittens in the loft, and we often followed my dad there to watch as he milked cows, and later to milk them ourselves.  We worked and branded cows in the chutes next to this barn. My brother Matt raised pigs that he kept in this barn. We would have the sheep shearer meet us here to shear my sheep. As with all the other farm work that we did, we worked in assembly lines; someone tying the fleeces into bundles...passing the bundles from person to person until the final person threw it over the side of the long, deep, sack...right on top of the person that was inside the sack stomping the wool to make more fleeces fit into the sack. I can still feel the stick and smell the stink of Lanolin.  It's amazing that it's an ingredient in so many lotions and that they can make it into something that people WANT to put onto their skin:)

Anyways, I digress...I just can't believe how the old barn has caved in in the last 20 years:(

Willow Creek:

The Mountain Place:

l-r: Abby, Emmie, Isaiah, Hyrum, Caden, Micah, Ila, Kamille, Isaac, Gracie, Madeline:

Leap frog:

Crack the whip:

Two of the six grand babies that my parents have never seen in anything but pictures - they left with 42 grandchildren, and now have 48!
Spencer and Thomas:

Gracie and Maddie walking up the hill.  To the left is the driveway to my parents; to the right is the driveway to my brother Adam's house, and my sister Katie lives at the top of the hill:

Thanks to Caden for taking all of these pictures!  I wish that I had taken a few moments to take pictures of all the smaller kids and their parents.  I can't wait to go back!!!