July 29th 2007

July 29th

...one week later
I can’t believe it’s almost been a week!!
On Monday, most of the family stayed at the camp to help with clean-up…Then on Tuesday, we joined the extended Johnson family for their annual blueberry picking escapade! Ah, the taste of fresh blueberries right off the bush (or do you say, ‘tree’…maybe it’s ‘vine’?). Whatever it’s called, it sure was a fun experience! All said and done, we brought home over 180 lbs. of blueberries!

Big 'n ripe

Tons of Bluberries

No update is complete without a picture of Heidi!

Once the picking was done (in other words, we had more blueberries than we could use) the next item on the agenda was the annual river freeze…I mean, swim.
Wednesday was spent sorting, packaging and freezing blueberries (and peaches that had been picked previously).

Assembly line

Then we took a break and went shooting! I mean, how can you go to Oregon and not go shooting! Seems to be a tradition now.

Firing line

Get that bird!

Thursday: The K family was very gracious to invite us over to spend the afternoon/evening with them. After serving us lunch, we all piled into the bus and headed to the S’s ranch for a swim in their swimming hole…what we didn’t know at the time is that it would take 15 min. on 4-wheelers over rough trails to get there! That was a blast!

The 'swimming hole'

We all (ok, not ALL of us but most of us) enjoyed jumping off of the 25’ high rocks into the water.

Tiffany, taking the plunge!

Merrie!

Will, diving off the falls

Dad shows us how to do a 'Swan Dive'

After we had all sufficiently cooled off, we rode back to the ranch for a tour.

Becky drove the bus from the ranch house to the Elk ranch...and we all survived!

Hunters paradise

Face off!

Charity!

Smile!

Look at those racks!

Super Chick!

Friends

Alyssa!

That's my gorgeous mom!

Photographer

Friday found us helping with set-up for the Annual Booher Family Reunion Concert which was on Saturday. All in all, we’ve had a ton fun!
And that’s all you get for now…stay tuned for more adventures…
Blesssings!

The Dortignac Family

July 23rd 2007

July 23rd

On the road again!
I can’t believe it’s been one month since the wedding! Life in the D family settled back to ‘normal’ relatively quickly. With lots of help from our out-of-town labor force, ;-) clean-up was a cinch! Gabe and Mandy came back from the honeymoon in time to spend a nice relaxing 4th with us before they headed out to start their new home.
A week later, we packed up the bus and followed them. We left home Thursday night (9PM) and drove through the night. Praise the Lord for causing the bus to run perfectly! The only excitement on the way up happened around 3am when we were involved in a head-on collision at 70 MPH! Don’t worry, we won…
We arrived at Gabe and Mandy’s house right after lunchtime and enjoyed hanging out for a few hours and then we headed to Bend, Oregon for Camp Dwight!

The house is behind the trees

Charity on the bridge in the yard

The girls, making a peach cobbler!

For those of you who don’t know…Camp Dwight is a family camp for ALL ages (and there really are ALL ages in attendance). Once a year, for a weekend, people come from all over the states to enjoy a time of sweet fellowship with other believers! Starting Friday afternoon, the weekend is loaded with activities form good old fashioned camp meetings to volleyball…and everything in between! The best part about the camp is it’s completely free. If you want more information, send us an email.
…ok, I’m done with my commercial… Here are some pictures…

Looking down the hill toward the RV area

Back toward the hill the last shot was taken from...with the Slip-n-slide!

Trevor on the zip-line

Standing in line for the zip-line

Yep! That's mom!

Meeting time

Barn dancing

Lots of good food!

Serving line

Sunset

So that's the beginning of our vacation...we'll be here for two more weeks...one week of 'free time' and one week of music camp! Stay tuned for more...

Blesssings!

The Dortignac Family

July 16th 2007

July 16th

And we have...an update
We are currently~ doing the dishes. (Well, for the most part. ;) )
"We should've sang this song at Mandy's wedding! 'Well I'm gonna miss her, when I get home! Right now, I'm out on this lake shore...' ""Guys! I'm sweeping the floor!""This is how Jack shoots...""That's what I call bad reception.!""...This is how Justin shoots..."" 'There's a hole in my bucket Dear Lizza, Dear Lizza, There's a hole...' ""Is that the Jazz station?""Alyssa, get the dust pan!"" 'Well than fix it dear Willie, You silly, Dear Willie...' ""...This is how Jon does a lay up...""Is that the radio?""Yep.""...This is how Willie shoots..."hmmm.... :,

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The dishes are done now. Someone successfully found the radio station they were looking for. The little kids have migerated to the front porch where they're having jumping contests. Mom and Dad are listening to music in their room. The sprinklers are running. The screen door just slammed. A cell phone is ringing. People are chillaxin'.(?) Mandy's married. Life has, for a couple of weeks -you might say- gotten back into the normal swing of -life. And tomorrow we're gonna start getting ready to spend a few weeks with Mandy and Gabe up in Oregon! Yahoo! ~Back to normal. I don't know why I said "normal" 'cause it's more like new -this swing of life- now that Mandy lives in Oregon. I'd say we'd probably die with out her if it weren't for free mobile to mobile, emails, and a supply of postage stamps! ;) Okay, we'd be sorely depressed. No, God is good and full of grace for us all! I shouldn't talk like that! ~We're very much looking forward to visiting her soon!
Well, that's what I've got guys. So, have a nice evening everyone! And don't forget to enjoy it! :)

~The Dortignacs