Oregon at last

We are officially on Christmas holiday in Oregon. I cannot believe it. This has been the long awaited trip and it has arrived! Saturday morning we woke up super early and hit the road. We dropped off our friends Lucas and Shannon at the Seattle airport then continued down the highway. We arrive in Portland just in time for our hair appointments with Derek's brother-in-law. That's right! I have "new" hair yet again. It is now shorter and browner and I adore it. So we spent 2 nights in Portland and mostly just hung out with Derek's sister and her family.

Yesterday morning we hit the road again and headed for Bend. We have been so antsy to arrive in Bend because we get to be here for TWO WEEKS! After much web cam viewing and weather watching we decided to drive over Santiam pass rather than Mt. Hood because the roads seemed a lot clearer and we would rather not put chains on if we can help it. This seems to have been a mistake. As we were driving over the top of the pass there was a lot of packed, packed snow or ice. We were going down a hill, not going very fast and we lost control. We fish tailed back and forth for about 30 seconds and Derek handled the wheel so well. We thought he would be able to correct it and we would be back on our merry way. Instead, it only go worse and it became uncontrollable. Our car ended up spinning around and slamming into a snow bank on the opposite site of the road. It was so scary, so so scary. Especially because about 5 seconds later a semi truck came around the corner and had to drive around us. We know that someone up above was watching out for us. Luckily there were no other cars on the road, there were snow banks on both sides of the road and the semi truck didn't come even 2 seconds earlier. Needless to say we were quite shaken up and the rest of the drive to Bend seemed forever. Our bumper is pretty scratched up with a couple small cracks, but that is the only damage. Praise the Lord.

Anyway, we were so happy to get to Bend and see Dave and Majell (our good friends, that we are staying with in Bend). We got to see their new coffee shop and spent the evening there with them. On Monday nights they have a "coffee cupping" and we were happy to participate in that.

So we are officially in Bend and so happy and thankful to be here. More stories to come...