The 2012 Army All-American Game Experience:

Last Saturday, our family and friends were privileged to attend the 2012 Army All-American Game to watch our grandson Tyler Matthews (#12) and the other fine young men who were selected to participate from around the U.S.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Cameron, Tyler and Kylie after the game.

Prior to the game there were several ceremonies, ranging from medal of honor soldiers to the swearing in of new recruits.  At half-time the awesome All-American marching band played, consisting of invited high school students from around the nation.  Throughout the game, players were declaring where they would be attending college.  Tyler has chosen to attend TCU.  I compiled the photos that I took of game day into chronological order.

So, here it is, my first You Tube video!  Actually it is a slide show, and I wish that I knew how to add music, but outside of misnaming the hotel (we were at the Grand Hyatt, not the Hyatt Regency) I am pretty proud of it.  At least You Tube won't be going out of business like Slide.com did and this won't be deleted anytime soon.  I hope not anyway!  Oh, I had to give Google my cell phone number so that they could text me a code in order to accommodate my 25 minutes (usually you can only post 15 minute videos).  I hope that you will enjoy this, it is long.  [Well, if it doesn't play, go to the top of the page ... a minute ago it said it is too long.  I give!  I'll try to fix it later.]




Here are some more links to info about the game:

Army All-American Bowl, You Tube 2

Army All-American You Tube 3

Rivals.com Link Containing Tons of Links

Tyler signs his autograph as proud Grandpa Cary stands by @  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Grandpa Hal, Grandma Bev, and Aunt Cheri @ Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Gr.  Hal,  Gr. Bev, Aunt Cheri and Gr. Susan @ Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Halie and Grace @ Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Randy, Cameron, Tyler, Jen and Halie @ Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Halie, Grace and Garrett @ Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

What an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime day.  We sure are all so proud of you, Tyler.

There has been a lot of football on here lately, hasn't there?  I will begin getting things back to normal as soon as I can.  I have many San Antonio photos, and now that I have figured out how to make slide shows again I'll be posting those.  I also promise to get back to my Book Blurb Friday's and my Sepia Saturdays as soon as I can ... as well as catching up with all of you.  Hugs!


~ Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Back from Texas!

Hi You Guys!

I missed you lots when I was away.  We got home yesterday morning from our trip to San Antonio, Texas where we were gathered with family to watch the Army All-American Game last Saturday.  If this is your first time to Oregon Gifts, our grandson, Tyler Matthews, was one of the quarterbacks playing on the West Team.

I'm going to keep this a short post, except to say that we had a wonderful time.  The weather got cold and rainy on Monday, our last day, but otherwise we were blessed with sunny weather with a light breeze. 


I ended up taking around 1200 pictures, so I am still working through the developing and editing of them right now.  You'll probably guess what I be posting about for awhile!

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Thank you to San Antonio for not draining the river while we were there!  (This is usually the week they clean everything up, but they decided to not to this year.)  We took a couple of boat tours and also used the river taxi to get around on our last night.  I was able to capture a lot of neat photos and learn more about the city.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I hope that you are all doing well, and I will catch up with you as soon as I can.  I plan on posting frequently for the time being so that I won't forget things, so please scroll down to older posts or check in as often as you can if you don't want to miss out.


Hugs, 

Kathy M.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Congratulaions On Winning the Rose Bowl, Oregon Ducks! AND ...The Army All-American Game:

Source:  Google Images and Oregonsportsreport.com

Yesterday, the Oregon Ducks played the Wisconsin Badgers at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and they won 45-38.  Though the Ducks have been invited many times to the Rose Bowl, this is the first time that they were victorious since 1917. 

We are Oregon fans are awful proud of our Ducks!  Here is link to a neat photo essay of the game; if you want to check it out, just "CLICK HERE".  

Cary and I enjoyed the game from the comfort of our living room, and were happy to have the construction fans and dehumidifier turned off so that we could actually hear the t.v.   Things on the roof repair are progressing smoothly, thank goodness.

Did you wonder why the Rose Bowl was not played on New Year's Day this year?  The parade and game were delayed to January 2nd instead.  One reason for this is because college teams do not play on Sunday, as Sunday is reserved for the NFL.  

So, we are almost done with football this year.  Almost.  There is now a countdown to playoff games for the pros and the Superbowl to look forward to for most people.  But our family and friends have a very special game coming up on Saturday:  The Army All-American Game in San Antonio, Texas.  The Army All-American Game is like the Superbowl for high school kids.

Photo Source:  Either Jen Matthews or Army All American Bowl's FB Page

"Tyler Matthews, #12"

Loyal Oregon Gifts readers know that our grandson, Tyler Matthews, (formerly of McPherson, Kansas, and a Texas Christian College recruit) will be playing quarterback for the West team in Saturday's game.  Currently the the West and the East are practicing hard to pull their teams together and are getting ready for the big game. 

Cary and I are so excited to be able to go and watch the game in person, and spend time with the family.  We will be sitting in the area reserved for family, so look for us if you get the chance.  The game will be shown on NBC Sports (formerly known as Verses).  It begins at 12:00 Central Time (I think that makes it 10:00 PST) on Saturday, January 7th.  I hope that you can get it where you live, and will get a chance to see Tyler play his first nationally televised game.

Source:  Army All-American Game Facebook Page

So, even though I grew up in Eugene and will always be a Duck, I am also wholeheartedly supporting the TCU Horned Frogs team and their newest quarterback, Tyler Matthews.

Go Ducks!  Go Frogs!  Go West!

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Lookout Point and Dexter Lakes:

If you have been reading my blog over the past week, you are probably thinking, geeze, she sure did take a lot of pictures on that Christmas trip to Eugene.  I did!  We only stayed one night, but the weather was warm and gorgeous and prime for photography.  This set was taken from the car window as Cary was driving on Friday, December 23, 2011.  It is amazing to me how I can get some really nice shots at 60 miles per hour by using the "Advanced Sports Shooting" setting on my camera.

Lookout Point Lake:

We pass three lakes (two of which are actually reservoirs) along the side of Hwy 58 as we go back and forth over Willamette Pass.  Odell Lake is a natural lake.  Lookout Point and Dexter are reservoirs.  The Middle Fork of the Willamette River and Deception Creek combine to fill up the miles long Lookout Point.  This year the water is lower than we have ever seen it before.  Dam engineers plan on working on the dam itself this season.  It is probably the year that we really need it to be full because we are not getting our usual Oregon rain or mountain snow.   Now we'll probably have a drought, with no water built up in the huge reservoir.  Oh, well, what can you do?

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

See the river winding through on the other side of the railroad tracks?  Usually, it is way underwater, and when the lake is full it goes up to the tree line.  Lookout Point is interesting to me.  It seems to go on forever.  For some reason, there is rarely anybody using it for anything.  Once in awhile there will be a fishing boat out there, but it isn't used for water skiing very often. 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Dexter Lake:

Dexter Lake begins where Lookout Point ends, and the small towns of Dexter and Lowell sit along it's banks.  This is where you will find people fishing, water skiing and holding drag boat races.  Dexter Lake has several parks on it, including a rest area with a handicapped fishing area at the restored historic covered bridge. 

These pictures show homes on the Lowell hill:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

During the 1950's when these dams were created for flood control, the town of Lowell was moved out of the valley and up to higher ground.  There are farming communities lying underneath all that water.  I am having a hard time finding out about them, so if you have any info about that please let me know.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

If you turn right at the covered bridge, you can get to Fall Creek, Jasper and Springfield in a quick and easy manner.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

If you don't turn at the bridge, you will pass by the town of Dexter on your left, go through Pleasant Hill and end up on I-5, at Eugene.  The picture above is of the Dexter Lake, past the covered bridge.


The Dexter Lake Club was used in a scene in the movie Animal House, featuring Otis Day and The Knights.  I went to You Tube to find a video, but the ones offered were just the music, except for this one.  KG and Meg, whoever they are, did a wedding video integrating Otis Day and his band at the Dexter Lake club, singing Shamalama Ding Dong.  I just thought it was super neat; so congratulations you two, I hope that you are still very happy!

Links:

Lookout Point Lake and Dexter Lake

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Trapper Creek at Odell Lake, Oregon

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

On December 24th, Cary and I stopped by Shelter Cove Resort, located on the west side of Odell Lake, right off of HWY 58, coming from Oakridge to the Willamette Pass Ski Area.  I will have the blog post about the resort finished pretty soon.  This post is about Trapper Creek, which is on the road to Shelter Cove Resort.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

It begins 3.9 miles upstream, where two spring-fed tributaries join together to create Trapper Creek.  It is the largest of the tributaries that flow into Odell Lake.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Trapper Creek is 68* in the summer, and gets down to 39* during the winter. 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

At one point, during the 1920's I think (but for the life of me, I can't find a photo of it yet) there was a sawmill on Trapper Creek.  There were also logging and railroad camps in the area.  Now there are several cabins close by, including a 1926 cabin that was built by a doctor who worked for the railroad.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Trapper Creek is home to Brook Trout.  It is also the only known spawning area for Bull Trout on Odell Lake.  There are projects to protect the Bull Trout, and links to more information about those projects are listed below.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

It was cold and beautiful the day that we were there.  I love these photos, where the small waterfalls are frozen over.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Right before the bridge crossing Trapper Creek is Trapper Creek Campground.  It was full of snow, so we couldn't go in.  Some of the links below tell all about it, and it sounds like a very nice place to visit.  The roads are paved, good water comes from a deep well and it even has flush toilets.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

During the winter months, this area is great for cross country skiing, snowmobiling, and it offers a snow park for sledding.  The Willamette Pass Ski Area is only a short drive away.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

A short distance down the road from Trapper Creek is Shelter Cove Resort. If you get the chance to visit Odell Lake, winter or summer, please jump at it.  I think that you will enjoy it very much.

Kathy M.

Links

Explore Central Oregon: Odell Lake

Hoodoo: Trapper Creek Campground

Wikipedia: Odell Lake

Report on Critical Habitat for Bulltrout on Trapper Creek

Trapper Creek Restoration Project Report
WildFish Habitat Initiative: Trapper Creek

Ken Brauner.com: Odell Lake Christmas Card

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.