The Coombs Family

ALASKA! We went to Alaska for a week to do some major fishing. We went to go fish the red salmon and do some site seeing. My parents, Rhoda & Trevor, Grandpa Walker, Uncle Gordon, Uncle Carl and his son Fletcher all went together. They had a particularly bad year for fishing however. The main reason that Caleb wanted to go, and we weren't having much luck. Caleb caught the biggest fish and he did catch about one a day. Not what we were hoping for though.  We hiked up to a glacier that was just amazing.  It was pretty cold, but the view and the water was incredible. We hate some huge king size crab legs. My goodness are they huge. It cost us $120 for a huge box of the biggest crab legs you have ever seen. We stayed with a family and didn't have to pay anything for rent. We just each gave them some money at the end to thank them for their hospitality. The mosquito's are a little too intense for me. You can keep your crazy bugs Alaska. No thank you! It was very beau...

This year it was my turn to make the plans. Caleb was very romantic on our first anniversary, so I decided to be a little more adventurous. We stayed at Mt Hood Inn for a week and went snowboarding four days in a row. It was so much fun. We have been hitting the mountain a lot and have lots of gear, so it made for a great week. We had a suite at the Inn and had a nice huge soaking tub in our room. We took lots of baths after a long day of riding. It was really nice to spend all that time on the mountain with Caleb. We got plenty of time at the park, riding the country and through the trees and even tried the half pipe. I didn't ride the pipe, but I did watch Caleb. He taught me how to slide on rails which is very scary and fun. I am even starting to do small jumps now and get my board off the ground a little. The rails are very slippery and I want to go slow, but that makes it worse. You just have to hit it, and hope you don't die. I went too slow on the first mailbox and end...

Since I planned the wedding and honeymoon, Caleb said he would take our first anniversary trip. He didn't tell me anything and kept the whole weekend a surprise. He made me think he forgot and had not planned anything, so I was getting pretty nervous as the weekend got closer. Then he finally said that I should probably pack a swimsuit and make plans to be gone for two nights. We went to Bonneville Hot Springs Resort & Spa in Washington. Caleb got us a honeymoon suite with a hot tub on our back deck. I had a lovely bouquet of flowers waiting for me with a cute note. We got to go soak in the soaking pools, go in the sauna, and he even scheduled us each a one hour massage. After that, we had the most amazing dinner ever. I had swordfish and it was divine! Caleb had steak. We stayed the night, hit the spa in the morning again, and then took off. We stopped and hiked the Wachella Falls in the afternoon. Then we headed to Seaside and stayed at a really cute bed and breakfast. We...

To my first born Shelby Lu, Shelby, you were our first child, first pregnancy and first love other than each other. Your dad and I wanted to wait until he was in or almost done with his second year of dental school before we got pregnant. We knew that the second year was the hardest and he would be gone a lot, so we made our plan. We were married for five years before we had you. I was pregnant with you when I turned 30. You were born three months after my birthday. Your dad threw a surprise birthday party for me, and I was so embarrassed. I love to spoil other people, but get very shy when the attention is on me. I was wearing a shirt with a stain, and couldn't find any clothes to fit me. My birthday was miserably hot and I was a sweaty mess. We tried to get pregnant for 6 months after we decided we were ready. I had a hard time waiting once we decided, and I had hoped it would happen instantly. Once I was pregnant I didn't get sick until the second month. I told my sister...

Dear Calvin, You were quite a surprise for our family. Your dad and I wanted to have our kids pretty close together, and you came swiftly. We didn't have to try to get pregnant more than a couple of months. I was working full-time and Shelby was being watched by Rhoda during the day. I would drive from Portland to West Salem, and then into work. Every morning I was sick, and after work I just wanted to stay at Rhoda's and not get back into the car to take Shelby home. Dad was really busy with his last year of school. Luckily he did have senioritis, so he didn't study as much as he did the first three years of dental school. We were expecting you to be born about two weeks after he graduated from dental school. The plan was to move to Salem because that's where my job is located and I'm tired of driving so much. When we realized we were expecting you, we decided to move back to Salem to be closer to my work and family. So we started to shop for houses. We looked ...

Dear Ronin, Oh how we wanted to have another child. We tried to get pregnant for three years before we finally had you. I had been to fertility specialists, taken hormones, your dad was tested, and we just could not get and stay pregnant. Everything from being unable to conceive, to three miscarriages, and it seemed as though it would never work. Finally, after many different therapy options, I decided I couldn't do it anymore. It was such a strain on our marriage and family to constantly be taking medication, watching the calendar, and doing lots of home tests. I called the fertility doctor and said I wasn't going to move forward with IVF, our only next step. I was pregnant with you when I made the call and I just didn't know it yet. I was too tired to take more pregnancy tests, it was heart breaking every time. And then, my blood work came back from my visit a couple weeks earlier and I got a call from a nurse. Rhoda and Trevor had just bought a crazy old house that the...

September 26, 2003...... Friday was Caleb and my last day to spend time together before school stated up again for him, and he wanted to plan a date for us that night Friday afternoon I received an email that I had flowers in the reception area! I was pumped! I ran down the stairs and saw beautiful roses in an outstanding vase. The flowers had no note attached, but the gesture told me it had to be Caleb. I left work early because I knew my man was in a romantic mood, and I was not getting any work done anyway. I rushed out to my parents at 3, and waited, and waited. Caleb showed up a little after 4 and asked me if I was up to going to the beach. So we headed out the door to Lincoln City. On the drive there Caleb was passing every car that wasn't going at least 80 mph. He asked me if I wanted to come home to my parents and watch the movie Serendipity at 10 o'clock. For those of you who know Caleb, you can understand why I start to get suspicious at this point. N...