mohaus: Voyles Family

Showing posts with label Voyles Family. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Voyles Fam Visits

My family gathered at our home for an extended weekend to celebrate my Mom's 66th Birthday and my parent's 45th Anniversary. My sister and her family missed out since they are currently in the Pacific North West for work, but my brother and on my aunts and her husband were able to join us for the festivities.

Each year we seem to get busier and busier. While we try our best to make family time a top priority, Jack’s Cub Scout troop had a very belated Pinewood Derby (they normally do this in February or March) on the Saturday that our extended family was here. The delay of PWD meant less kids were available to participate, but it also meant that all the kids who were there got to push the release button for the track and that little brothers, like Isaac, got to participate. As a bonus, my parents and aunt and uncle were able to come watch the derby.

The boys don't play formal baseball, but they really enjoy the game and having a baseball diamond across the street from us is one of the perks of our neighborhood. Pick-up practice games with neighboring kids is becoming more of a thing. And the kids loved having their Great Uncle come out and pitch balls to them while he was here.

My family loves to play games and the boys are getting big enough to enjoy some of our favorites. Getting to play real Monopoly with my mom (their Grammy) was a big hit for them. There were many Monopoly games to be played over the course of the weekend. My brother may have added some creative rules that kept everyone laughing. We also introduced the boys to Scrabble and Isaac ruled the roost with Rummikub.

Besides Cub Scouts activities, the boys also had swim practices and Sandlot Baseball games – an informal league in our town. It was super hot for their Sandlot games, but both boys enjoyed being on the baseball fields. This was actually a first for Isaac and he was very proud of himself.

I am so thankful that our family was able to get together. It has been a crazy year with co^id and I will be forever grateful that our family has chosen to continue to meet throughout the last 18 months when possible. As Isaac is currently a fan of saying, "We shall meet again..."

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 28 (Henryetta, OK and Crater of Diamonds)

Last night we were able to snag a nearly new bike rack off Marketplace in Oklahoma City. We woke up this morning by a small lake in Henryetta. When we arrived late last night the gate was open but a large sign said gates closed at 10pm. It was 10:30. We rolled the dice and stayed anyway. This morning we drove through the Choctaw Nation area of Oklahoma before crossing into Arkansas. The kids have been dreaming of being miners for the last year. They have a group of friends that they have formed a mining club with. They all have pickaxes and like to dig big holes in our back yard. When they heard there was a real diamond mine that was open to the public, they wanted to go, so it went on our list of place to stop at on this trip. I visited Crater of Diamonds with my family when I was a teenager and had told them about it. Today we made the stop as we crossed Arkansas to see my parents. The boys learned that mining is hard work and it doesn’t always net a profit. But they still had fun. We arrived later than we hope to my parents, but were able to enjoy a home cooked meal — my mom’s amazing roast with mashed potatoes and carrots dripping in butter, all topped off with gravy. After dinner we visited and then my mom got out the pistachio cake she made for Isaac because his birthday is on Sunday. It’s a family tradition and I’m so glad we got to share it with with my parents. I hate that we only have time for one night with them, but we are already planning a summer gathering.

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 13 (Goodbye Oregon, Hello California)

A driving force for this trip out west was to meet up with my sister and her family. She is currently a travel nurse doing a contract in southern Oregon. We started making plans and then got our brother involved. A trip that was originally going to be to southern New Mexico ended up being to southern Oregon instead. We drove with our camper 2,600 miles to meet them. My brother flew. We spent five full days together exploring the region my sister currently lives in. We played in the snow on a frozen lake, we visited the deepest lake in the US, we crawled through caves, we hiked to a waterfall, we prodded our kids through a river canyon and over a giant rock formation on a trail named Misery. We had the best time. I’m so thankful for siblings who love to adventure, and who enjoy doing it together. My brother left two days ago and we will be heading out later today to complete the rest of our trip. I’m so glad we all made the effort to do this. We have made memories to last a lifetime. I can’t wait until we meet up to adventure together again.

We still have lots of adventure in front of us on this trip, but I’m pretty confident that a week adventuring with cousins will always be the gold standard for the best kind of adventure. The kids were sad to say goodbye and are planning when we can meet up again.

Day 13, we were back on the road today. We slept in, packed up, spent a final hour at Moore Park in Klamath Falls before saying our goodbyes to family and heading further west. During our time in Oregon, we drove an additional 900 miles. After today’s drive, we have made it to the west coast and have driven a total of 3,800 miles. So far, Northwest California has been narrow mountain roads next to fast flowing rivers, similar in some ways to East Tennessee. We drove through giant redwoods as we arrived at our campground at dark. They are jaw-droppingly big. We can’t wait to see them in daylight. Our campsite has some giant stumps and the kids can’t wait to explore when it is daylight. I think we are going to enjoy our time among these giant trees.

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 12 (Oregon)

Day 12 was more low key for us. We slept in, did some school work, did laundry, then took the kids sledding at Annie’s Creek. It was icy and slushy thanks to recent warm afternoons, but the kids still had a good time. We are soaking in our last 24 hours with cousins.

mohaus