Oregon, Here We Come!

—On the beach in Bandon, Oregon—

Back in February I finished and submitted our taxes and found out how much we would receive back with tax returns. I pondered all the things we would need to earmark the money for, but then had another thought cross my mind. I thought that since our daughter, Blythe, is back from her 1 1/2 years of service as a missionary for our church, we need to do a family trip while we still have all of our children back together – before our other boys are of on missions and/or off on their own. It was then I remembered the savings fund I had our bank account send money to automatically every month to save for a family trip. This would give us some money to work with for lodging.

I approached my wife, Jill, with the idea, and told her about the amount of money saved, as well as what we’d get back with tax returns. She knew immediately after I said something that we needed to do this. I knew we needed to do it too. This would be something that would help us bond us all together again as a family, before the older ones go of into the world to make their own way. It just felt right, like God was saying, “you need to do this.”

From that point Jill and Blythe took the reins of vacation planning and went to town! We had talked about wanting to see the Pacific coast in Oregon and the giant redwood trees. They found some rental homes near the coast that were within our price range for the week of the kids’ spring break. They narrowed the list down to seven options, and then we had a Family Home Evening where we basically listened to the descriptions of the places, along with their amenities and a list of nearby sites to visit. We also looked at the virtual tours of each house with pictures. Then we each voted for our top three places, and then for our number one choice. When votes were counted, Bandon, Oregon won, with the Bandon Cliff House as the winner. When funds were available we reserved the house for four nights.

Everyone decided that we would leave for Oregon on Sunday, listening to the General Conference broadcast on the way. We would stay over night in Lakeview, Oregon and on Monday travel the rest of the way to Bandon, Oregon to occupy the house there for four nights. Then we would drive home on Friday afternoon and into the night, trading drivers so we could travel straight through back home (Springville, Utah).

Jill and Blythe also planned out meals. I made a big batch of my homemade chicken enchiladas which we then froze in plastic freezer bags to take on our trip in the ice chest. We also packed boxes of food from our cupboards. On the day before, we cooked some pork roast in the crock pot so that we could just heat up the meat in the microwave at the motel in Lakeview, Oregon and have pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. This sort of meal planning saved us a lot in food expenses for the trip. It would not have happened without the hard work of Jill and Blythe and their meticulous efforts.

Everyone was so anxiously waiting, but the day of the trip finally arrived – Sunday, April 1, 2018 – April Fools Day. But, it was no April Fool’s joke. We were off on the first true vacation that we had ever taken as a family. I felt like declaring, “Oregon, here we come!”