Spruce Goosed

I have always wanted to see the Spruce Goose, ever since I read a biography of Howard Hughes, Jr.  So, when the camp director planned a field trip to McMinnville, OR for it, I was excited!  It was impossible to get a view of all of it at once.  This is the left wing.

It is a beautiful new facility.  The variety of aircraft is impressive.  They've stuffed a lot inside, but there are aircraft out in the middle of the fields, too!

I thought the benches to relax on were brilliant.

Although some of the amenities confused William.

This is the tail.

My tail... for perspective...  :)

Thanks, Eno Brad for a great picture so you can see the fuselage.

Really?  There are mechanical engineering landmarks?  Cool!

You go up stairs to enter.  This is looking at the left wing from the entrance. 

Inside was cool to see.  William is holding the information, where you can see its size compared to other aircraft. 

This is where you would go upstairs to the cockpit and the seats.

We weren't allowed up there, so I got a picture of their picture of what it looks like. 

This is towards the tail of the plane.  Beach balls for buoyancy.  Seriously! 

They have it all glassed off, so you can't go play with the beach balls.

William caught sight of this B-17, and thought it was really cool. 

Eno Brad bought tickets for the inside tour, which was very informative and William loved it.  Can you imagine being at altitude, no insulation in the plane, and you have to man this gun?

This is where the bombs dropped from.  The Norden bombsight was up front, and you entered a small hatch up front to get there from here!

The bomb bay from a different angle.

One of Eno Brad's colorful friends, Ann Danby, got to go on a B-17 ride.  Her husband had been one of these ball turret bottom gunners.

Camp Boyd

With all the fun we have here, and all the different activities, Tim started calling our stay 'Camp Boyd.'

Mummi Kay is nervous as to what will happen...

One of the ingredients is Mentos.

Kristi got into the action.

I was tempting fate...

William LOVED doing all the research!

And Brad was a co-conspiritor. 

What was better, regular or diet? 

I would say diet was easier to clean off.... 

Here are the dynamic duo.  The 'Eugene Mythbusters' if you will...

Cola Challenge

Again, when William has an idea, the Boyd's just GO WITH IT!  William wanted to do a taste test on colas.  Next thing I know, Brad and he are at Fred Meyer's buying a cart full of sodas!

We had papers to write down which ones we thought were which.

The cups inside were Mummi Kay's and Kristi's to share, the outside ones for me and William to do the tasting from.

Each cola was coded only by a number.

I got many right, but was totally surprised I could not tell the difference between full calorie and diet.  I liked Coke the best.  I did pick out the Dr. Pepper's, but I was amazed I didn't nail Coke Zero.

We all sipped and sipped, and Wm emptied the cups... into his gullet!

Mummi Kay won the challenge.  What fun!  We get to have the most fun at the Boyd's.

Rock Tour

Mummi Kay's friend, Paula, owns Delta Construction Company.  They could never get out of the vehicle they got the tour in, due to safety reasons, but how cool is this?

William's picture (I have to figure out why they always look fuzzy?)

Brad went with William, and got clearer pictures.

This is the beginning of the rock crusher.

It gets filled up...

...and off it goes!

Their crusher is a very complex, nice one. 

Thus ends the windshield tour.  William loved looking at all the big equipment, and how it operates.  He asked few questions.  When quizzed, he explained how this worked.  So, he'd been paying attention!

Thanks to Kay and Paula for setting this up!  We are so blessed to know people who know PEOPLE with big rigs!

All the Way from Japan

Mummi Kay asked if William would give a concert.  It had been a month since he practiced, but he bucked up and got ready for the event.  He was very concerned about his appearance.  He wrote his introduction and orchestrated how he wanted it to go.

It was fun to see him perform.

He was such a little professional.

Mummi Kay's music room is quite impressive.

Mummi Kay and Kristi were wonderful to put this on for William.  It was fun meeting their friends, as well.

Boyd Blueberries and Green Frogs

One of the most enchanted things about being at the Boyd's is that no matter how juvenile or silly the ideas William has, they embrace it and embellish it!  We had bought some blueberries since William loves blueberries, only to find that Farmer Brad had picked some of his own for us.  William wanted to do a taste test.  Before I knew it, they were blindfolded and were running a blind sample.

The ones on the right won for sweetness.  Those were the store-bought ones.  Although I preferred the ones on the left.  Infinitely cheaper!  (It all depends on what your primary criterium is!)

Summer is always fun, since their water feature is the perfect spawning ground for small green frogs.

I just think they're so cute.  They take shelter in the hydrangeas.

I didn't check if Farmer Brad's blueberry bushes were also covered with these little guys.  I just don't want to know.  :)