Happy Birthday Oregon !

Oregon's Painted Cove area in the John Day Fossil Beds National Park

The beautiful state of Oregon turns the big one-five-oh on Saturday and to those that have lived there or visited there, know just what an absolutely beautiful state it is!

My grandfather lived and worked in Oregon in the early 1900's.... and he would tell me stories before I went to bed at night about logging and mining, hunting and fishing and how he loved it there so much that he wanted to one day go back and retire there .

Since my Grandfather would have celebrated a birthday this month also......he would have turned a big one-one-five on the 25Th of February, I wanted to include him in my birthday shout out!
(I also celebrate a birthday this month...
and I'm soooooooooooo much younger then the state of Oregon and my grandfather)

Unfortunately my Grandpa was never able to return to live in Oregon like he wanted to do! He and my Grandmother helped my Mom take care of my brothers and I after my Mom and Dad were divorced.

I consider myself so fortunate to have lived with my Grandparents while growing up in Evanston, Illinois, and I never felt deprived of attention or love .... My grandpa filled whatever void I might have felt without my father living with us.... I was..after all ....my grandpa's "princess"......and I always knew that I was loved.
(I did reconnect with my father later on and we had a fine relationship...he had remarried and his wife Ruth remains to this day a treasured friend.)

My Mom often tells me, even up to this morning, that my Grandpa would walk the floors of the hospital with me in his arms, for hours at a time when I was a baby recovering from my surgeries.
Both grandparents gave up a lot to help care for my mother, brothers and myself ....and my grandfather gave up his dream of one day going back to his adopted home state. He ended up not retiring until the age of 84...a true renaissance man to the end!

After looking at the pictures at the top of my post, I think that my Grandpa would have been so thrilled to see how beautiful Oregon continues to be!

So ""Happy Birthday Grandpa".... just thought that you would like to know that you favorite state is still lookin good !!!