family...

Earlier this month, my grandpa suffered two severe heart attacks in the same week. Because my grandma's health isn't great either, they have been set up with a hospice service to help them out.

Side note: what really should happen is they come down off that mountain and live in the city.

Side note over.

A very last minute trip up to the Gorge was thrown together, and I was lucky enough to spend several hours with my grandpa in the mornings and evenings talking about stuff. He talked to me a lot about the break up, and some of the things he said have helped a lot. It was nice -- I didn't even bring it up, and so to have grandpa ask me about it meant a great deal to me. I didn't know that he pays so much attention to my life. I'm probably grandchild 25 out of over 40! Grandpa is great.

Because these isn't a lot to do up at the Gorge, dad set up a horseback riding outing at the nearby lodge. Every time we go up there in the summer, spring, or early fall, we try and go horseback riding. It is so much fun!

Here we are with some of the horses! Meghan (top left) with Vanilla Ice, Amanda (top right) with Wishbone, and me with Wishbone.

Meghan ended up riding with Vanilla Ice, Amanda with Wishbone, and I got a pretty reddish-grey horse named Wolf (who names a horse "wolf"?). Spending time with the horses made me feel super relaxed for some reason. The slow ride through the pretty country and Wolf's sweet personality was great.

Not only was there little to do up there (pretty far from civilization), there wasn't much to eat. So mom and dad took us down to the other lodge  near Dutch John and we had amazing hamburgers and fries. Seriously, they were so good. 

Dad and mom waiting for their orders -- I could barely get them to look away from the TV so I could get a picture. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was very enthralling.

We have great hair. Just saying.

I love my grandparents. Especially grandpa. Praying for them both!