Hey everyone!  My time in Oregon is over but I'll tell you what I did!

On Thursday (22nd) I got up at 4:00 for a shower before getting in the car and driving for a long time.  We got to our hotel and then we unloaded our car before going out to dinner with my grandma.  She is so nice!  She took us to a pizza place called Pizzacato which was actually pretty nice.  I loved their food!  They even had a little mint at the end!

On Friday we did the finishing preparations for my dress that I was to wear at my aunt's wedding and reception.  Then we set up for the reception almost all day on Friday.  It was hard work!  But it turned out to be amazing!  We had lunch and dinner there, too.  That was really good.

Saturday was the wedding and reception.  Boy, when my aunt came out of those doors with my new uncle, she had a smile on her face that was unforgettable!!  That was amazing.

Then we went to the reception.  That was amazing.  We had decorated it all together.  It was catered and the food was delicious.  It was great when they cut the cake.  Usually the newlyweds will make at least a crumb or two smear on each other's faces but they didn't.  That made it extra cute.  My favorite part about the cake was not how absolutely scrumptious it was (because it was) but was how they didn't have a little "couple" statue at the top of the cake.  They had action figures!  It was so cute!  I loved it.  When they went out to their car, my mom tried to blow bubbles.  But it didn't work very well because of the wind.  Eh.  Oh, well.  It was fun!  And I'm pretty sure they loved it, too.

When everything was over we went back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep before getting up to drive all day.  The drive was great!  After a while we got to see the immortal tree.  We drove some more and got to Endor!  (Meaning where the part of Star Wars that was on the forest moon of Endor was filmed.)  That was so much fun!  The Puppy and my dad had a "lightsaber" (foam sword) fight on Endor, too.  That was awesome.  We also found out that there was no reception on Endor!  Haha!  What do you know?  There was a river there (a big, slow one) and we all got to learn how to skip rocks.  I was having trouble for a while, finding a good rock and then having to skip it.  My dad taught us.  I was finally able to skip it once, a tiny skip but worth it.  I was able to do that about once in every seven throws.  Then I found a really good skipping rock and, finally, with my dad watching, I skipped it!  Like, 8 or 9 times!!!!! I was so happy!  My dad gave a yell, a jump for joy, and a big hug.  I had accomplished something, and we were proud of it.

We stopped at a hotel for the night.  In the morning we loaded up again and started off to finish our drive over the river and through the woods (literally) to Grandma's house!  We drove over Eel River and through the Redwood Forest.  We stopped in the middle to visit a visitors' center, where I got some cool pictures of animals found there, a few magnets, and bookmarks.  We stopped later at the Chandelier Tree.  Of course, we couldn't go through it with our big van but it was fun to go under it and touch the top.  We went into the souvenir shop and I got a present for The Otter's birthday coming up this week (a cool ring with her birthstone on it), a ring for me, and a little piece of wood (pictures at the end).  And I still have 50 of my 100 dollars that I saved up just for this trip!  I am so happy!  Ahem, anyway.  We also got to actually see a real beach (in person!  Not on TV) as we drove past it.  It was too dark to visit it.

Now I'm staying at my Grandma's house in CA.  Today we went to my great grandparents' house and had a nice time.  They have a seven-acre yard that we got to explore a little.  I whipped out the camera and got a few really good pictures of things in nature that I really liked.

Now we're at my Grandma's house.  I'll be posting more later.

A.J. McKay

P.S.  Here are the pictures of my little piece of wood.

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