Ed & Kay Bejarana

Master is moving, must pee.

“blah blah Boy, want to go outside?”

wag tail, pant…oops, stretch.  Pant.

“Ok boy, blah blah blah outside blah blah eat”

Pee, then eat.  ground is cold (snif snif) this is not my spot (snif snif) who is this?  Post.  Ahhhhhh.  ground cold, paws cold.  Oops, got some on my feet.

“come on boy”

eat food! Pant, wag tail, bark.  “Bark”  Run, oo, ball…

“Come on boy, want to eat?”

Eat!

Chew, chew, chew, wag tail.  Look up at master.  Eat.

“Good boy, blah blah blah blah”

Water.  Scratch, clean me.

Sleep in front of fire.

Day two started with overcast sky’s and very cold temperatures.  During my regular morning soak in the hot tub I contemplated the possibility of us not having good weather for the trip to Mt. Saint Helen’s.  However, by the time I got out of the tub the sky was already clearing.

I should tell you a little bit about each of my family members.  My biological mom is Mary Louise Jacobs.  My brother is Tom Jacobs and he is married to Tammy and they had a son, Tommy (13), and a daughter, Katelynn (8).  My sister, Chrissee, and her husband Jason, were not able to make the trip west this year.  We hope they can make a future trip.

At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. The furry unleased on the Pacific Northwest was a wake up call to the dangers of major metropolitian areas being built in the foot hills of active volcanos.

The plan was to get up early and make for the first museum at the bottom of the hill.  While driving north, Tommy got a taste of Uncle Ed’s question game.  Never one to pass up an opportunity to make education fun, I love to asked the kids questions.  Tommy got a BIG dose of American Civics.  All in all Tommy did a pretty good job.  He does need to read up a bit on how many people serve in congress and the differences between the House and the Senate, but he has a good grasp of American history.  By the end of the trip, Tommy was really getting into the game and even stumping me on some questions.  Like which country in WWII had the best tank.  Good job Tommy!

The picture is a little over exposed, but here we are standing at the over look outside the St. Johns Ridge Observatory.  This was the first time Kay and I had even made it to the ridge, in all our past trips we were turned around by snow and road closures.

From left to right, the people in the photo are:

Tom, Tommy, Me, Katelynn, Kay, Louise and Tammy.  While the day turned out to be only partly cloudy, the temperature was in the mid 40’s.  The white stuff on the mountain was fresh snow dropped the night before.

After touring the volcano, we made haste for TGI Friday’s.  One of the common themes of this trip was eating.  Louise insisted on paying for dinner, so I ordered the ribs!  Thanks.

Wednesday evening Tom, Tommy and I played Tiger Wood ‘06 Golf.  I didn’t realize just how much fun golfing on the XBOX 360 was.  Afterward, we put in SceneIT and the entire family tested our knowledge of movie trivia.  Tom knows more actors names, so he edged me out of first place both games.

Thursday made for a VERY interesting day.  Doesn’t everyone travel great distances only to be made to go to school?  I take a small business development class at the Clackamas Small Business Development Center and it only happens once a month, so Tom and I went to school together for the first time in our lives!  To think it took 37 years for us to ride together to school and we ended up in the same class.

While Tom and I were partaking in the educational joys of small business management, Kay, Louise, Tammy, Tommy and Katelynn went shopping and to the movies.  They went to see that TacoBell dog movie.  Something about a stupid dog that sings.

I just couldn’t help myself.  Here are a couple of pictures of Katelynn, the symbolism is right on target, if you know what I mean.

It is surprising just how tired Kay and I were after the Buffalo family came to town.  I think this is a great representation of just how much fun we had together.  First a little back ground information, this is a fun story!

I was adopted at birth.  My biological mother was young and her parents encouraged her to give me up for adoption.  Turns out that my mom (the one who adopted me) was the nurse helping Louise (my biological mother) in a maternity ward.  My mom got wind that Louise was leaning towards putting me up for adoption so she approach Louise with information about a nice couple who was looking to adopt a baby boy.  Unbeknownist to Louise, the nurse turned out to be one of the young couple interested.  My mom was in the delivery room and was one of the very first people to hold me.

Both of my parents were always very open with me about me being adopted.  While I was curious about my biological family, I spent most of my life content that I had two loving parents who did the best they knew how to raise me.  While I didn’t always agree with them, they were my parents and I didn’t feel the urge to seek out new parents.

Both of my parents passed away several years ago when I was in my 30’s and I was reaching the age where my doctors were asking more about my family history.  So I felt it was time to seek out my parents and find out was, if any, medical conditions I should be on guard for.  I’ll save the part about how we found one another for another story and instead jump ahead to our most recent family vacation.

This trip was postponed from last year when I took ill and suffered from one of those medical problems it turns out is in my geans.  There were only two requested hot spots Louise and family wanted to see, Mt. Saint Helen’s and the Pacific Ocean.

As most of you know, Oregon in October is hit or miss: so Kay and I were not too sure we’d be able to see much of the Volcano nor have a very pleasant time at the coast.  Never-the-less, we planned the trips anyways.  It turns out that both Kay and I are in the good graces of god because he blessed us with amazing weather on the perfect days!

The family flew in on Tuesday.  We rented a mini van so we didn’t have to split up into two vehicles.  Considering everyone had been traveling for six plus hours, we knew lunch immediately upon arrival was a must.  We originally planned on Chinese but our favorite restaurant has taken a turn for the worse so we went with plan B, Red Robin’s.  Turns out the family all LOVES Red Robbin.

I had arranged to play in the worship team band at church because my family had NEVER heard me play.  Louise had written in the adoption agreement a request that should I should any predisposition towards music that I be allowed to pursue it.  I did, and they did.  After my stint in the US Army Band, I hung up my music career for when I was older and better off financially.  This last year was my time for reentry into the world of instrumental music.

After lunch we went back ot he house so everyone could un pack and get settled.  I had a rehearsal later that evening, so we were limited on what we could on this first day.

As it turned out, my brother, Tom, celebrated his 37’s birthday on the day they arrived.  Kay and I wanted to take everyone out for a special dinner so we went for steak at Syler’s in Portland.  Since 1948 Syler’s has been offering the 72oz meal challenge.  When Tom saw the opportunity to eat a 72oz steak for free he said, “I wish I hadn’t eatin’ lunch.”

Louise is a lobster lover, so she got the twin lobster tail dinner.  Kay and Tammy had the prime rib, Tommy and I had the Ribeye and Katelyn had Mac and Cheese.  After the great feast we headed back from home where I left everyone at attended the final rehearsal at church.

to be continued…

Ed Bejarana