Grandma Lutz's House

Only a few days after we landed back in DC we were back to the airport to fly to Baker City, OR. If you don't know where that is, you aren't alone. It's a little old mining town that boasts a population of 9,000 people. There's not much to do in this tiny little town. I watched a few seasons of "Friends," the kids played with all the uncles and their dog, and Shaun played hours of games with his brothers. It was pretty cold outside, but we went out a played a few times anyway.
Shaun's brother, Aaron and his fiancee, came up for the day and we all went to the Baker Historical Museum. It had some interesting antique mining equipment and old time clothes and trinkets. It had a room of rocks that glowed under a black light, and tons of other rocks. Alex was excited to see the mining carts that looked like trains! And more then anything he loved chasing his uncles all over the place. After that we headed over to Sumpter Junction. It's a cafe with an electric train that runs on tracks that go all over the restaurant. Alex calls it the "choo choo food store" and had been asking to go back for a year now.

Another day we hit the Baker County Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It was all about pioneers and the trek they made from Missouri to Oregon. Alex loved the covered wagon displays that allowed you to try to fit everything into a wooden wagon. Even better then that, he liked the full sized display. Shaun and I packed our play wagon with everything we would have taken with us. We left out "unnecessary" things, like coffee, whiskey, bed headboards, fine clothes, grandma's clock, and fine china. I think we would have been more more practical in our packing. Shaun and I had our wagon all nice and packed and Alex wanted to bring a bed. It was completely make believe, but we kept throwing the bed back out of the cart, and he insisted on putting it back into the cart. In his little three year old mind, it was vitally important that the bed make it on the wagon. Annie found a small cheval mirror that she fell in love with... well actually she just like staring at her reflection.
Can you see what Shaun's mind was on the day we went to the museum?
Alex's absolute favorite thing to do was finding trains. There are a set of train tracks only a block away from Shaun's house. You can hear huge freight trains pass by about every two hours all day long. So Alex, Annie, and I would sit at the old train station and wait for trains to come. He seems really bored until he hears that first train whistle in the distance and then he gets excited. The train is only about 10 feet away from us-on the other side of a fence-and the first time that 20 foot tall train blew a whistle right next to him, he jumped right into my arms. It scared him to death! As soon as the 5 engines flew by he was ready to stare and marvel at the train flying by. We ended up sitting at the station a few times so that he could wait for another train. I wanted to get a picture of Alex on the tracks but he wasn't going for it. "The train will squish me!" I promised I would keep him safe, but he wasn't going to risk it. I'm actually glad for that. There are also a few abandoned tracks nearby and when I explained to him that there were no trains on these tracks, I finally got some cute pictures of my baby on the train tracks. He found a railroad spike and it's become a new treasure.
On Sunday, grandma wanted to have a little pre-Easter celebration so she hid eggs for Annie and Alex to find. They can't wait for another Easter very soon.

Shaun was kind enough to brave the cold and wind for me. He drove me up into the mountains, far away from Baker City, so I could try my hand at night photography. I was having fun trying new things out until I heard a pack of coyotes not to far away. Shaun swears that there have never been coyote attacks, but I didn't care. When I hear a pack of dogs howling in the middle of the mountains in complete darkness, I ran straight for the car and dived in. (side note; coyotes have been known to attack people, but it's pretty rare) I did get a picture of most of the big dipper. Can you see it? Next time I come to Baker I want to try star trails pictures.
The red line is a plane that went threw my picture.
I can't say I wasn't a little bit excited to be going home. In a month and a half I went on 10 different flights in 3 final destinations. The kids did remarkably well on the plane rides. Looking at Alex you would think he is completely pampered on plane rides, which honestly he is. Annie's favorite part of flying is landing and buckling and unbuckling her seat belt.