Trip to the Beach

The kids had a lot of fun at the beach. Everything that you hear about the Oregon beach is that it is always cold so we didn't wear any swimsuits since I figured it would be too cold to get into the water. Well, once we got there, the kids immediately ran off to play in the water.
In no time at all M&M & Luke were both wet up to their waist and were begging me to let them change into their swimsuits. So I took the two older ones back to the car to change into their swimsuits and while we were there, DH brought Blondie to me because she wanted to change as well.

Kitty wasn't too crazy about the ocean water so she didn't mind staying in her clothes. I think she didn't like the fact that the water does not stay still and kept coming up farther onto the sand. So Kitty was content to play on the sand with her dad while M&M & Luke stayed in the water almost the whole time we were there. Blondie played about equally in the water and on the sand - one of her favorite activities was trying to jump over the waves when they reached her. Here is a picture of Grandma N. helping Blondie jump over the waves.

It was an overcast day while we were there, but it wasn't too cold or windy. The kids all had a great time and didn't want to leave.

Kitty helping her dad.

DH's sand creature.

Blondie is 4!

Sunday, July 15, 2007
Blondie got to celebrate her birthday at Grandma & Grandpa N's house this year. She opened the presents from us before church and then the presents from Grandma & Grandpa after we got home.





The hard part about having 2 sisters and 3 girl cousins is that Blondie had to share some of her presents because all the girls wanted to play with them (except cousin L who is a little too young right now). Blondie managed pretty well though.








Since I wasn't at home I just made a simple cake for Blondie this year.








It was fun being able to eat cake with the cousins before they had to leave for home.

Redwood Trees

The Coastal Redwood Trees in Northern California are truly an amazing sight. It is impossible to capture in pictures the tremendous size and beauty of these trees. You feel like a dwarf walking through them. The tree above and to the left is called The Big Tree. It is 304 feet tall, has a diameter of 21 1/2 feet and is about 1500 years old.

The weather there was perfect! I was a little concerned at first that I had forgotten our jackets because it was rather cool and there was an almost constant mist amongst the trees. Luckily though I had remembered long pants for everyone and that was fine for the day we were there (plus it helped that we did some hiking). The temperature was in the 60s there and it was just beautiful! If you look in the bottom left of this picture you can see me & if you look closer you can see M&M standing next to me.

We took a hike from The Big Tree that was supposed to be about 1.4 miles, but the trail was not marked very well and we ended up having to do some backtracking to get back to our car. I think we ended up hiking over 2 miles (and I ended up carrying Kitty & DH was carrying Blondie so we could hike faster).
These are two trees (above) that we had to climb over to get to the other side of the trail. We are standing on one and there is a second one in front of that one.
These trees are incredibly resilient. This tree had been hollowed out by fire, but amazingly is still alive.

I would definitely recommend the redwood trees to anyone who hasn't seen them. The hard part about visiting them is that there isn't just one place to go. These trees are all along the coastline of Northern California and there are National Parks and State Parks interspersed. We hiked the trail at The Big Tree and then we also hiked a one mile trail at a site called Lady Bird Johnson Grove where this last picture was taken (incidentally we were there the day after she passed away). It is a self-guided tour where you take a map with you and there are numbers marked along the way with descriptions of different spots of interest in the forest.

There are a few privately owned "drive-thru" trees that you have to pay to go through, but they were too far out of our way and we were running short on time.

Crater Lake

Crater Lake is absolutely beautiful! One of the reasons we were interested in visiting the lake is that Luke has a deep fascination with volcanoes and so we have read numerous volcano books.

Mount Mazama is a volcano that erupted thousands of years ago and then collapsed in on itself after the eruption. The island that you see in the first picture is the caldera that formed as a result of the collapse. The surrounding area then filled up with water to form the beautiful Crater Lake. (It was just a little windy at the top!)

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the U.S. and the 7th deepest in the world. There are no inlets or outlets and the water is crystal clear. The only boats that are there are tourist boats (that can take you on a tour of the lake - for a hefty fee) and some research boats. The sides leading down to the lake are very steep cliffs and there is only one area where you can get down to the shoreline. The only way to get boats in and out of the lake is by helicopter!

This is a picture of us taking the hike down to the shoreline. When DH heard that there was a trail to the shoreline where you could get into the water, he was determined that we hike it so that we could say that we touched the water. The National Park Service labels each of their hikes based on length & difficulty and the Cleetwood Cove Trail to the shoreline is labeled as "strenuous" - their most difficult rating. The hike is only 1.1 miles each way - so not too long - but it is very steep - up to an 11% grade in spots. They say the trail is equivalent to walking down and up 65 flights of stairs.

The hike down was fairly easy and we had numerous people that we passed who were going up that wished us luck going back up with all the kids and that they hoped we were ready to carry them...

Once we got down to the bottom we all sat down to take off our shoes and wade in the water. There was a man there who saw us all sitting down together and offered to take a picture of us with our camera.

You can actually go swimming in the water if you want to but the water is very cold so we settled on just putting our feet in. I was surprised at how sharp the rocks were at the bottom of the lake - it really hurt to walk on them! All of the kids loved it though and Kitty just wanted to jump in and couldn't understand why we had to hold onto her! (She is laughing/squealing in the picture here!)

After we had had enough of the water, we dried off our feet and started the hike back up. The trail is basically switchbacks the whole way and DH & I were both ready to carry the two little ones if we needed to. DH & I were both amazed at how well the kids did though. There were no complaints from any of them! Kitty & Blondie hiked most of it themselves, much to our surprise! Really the only time we carried Kitty was when she caused us to get too far behind the rest of the group and DH carried Blondie just for a little bit. It was mostly DH leading the trail with the 3 older kids and Kitty & me bringing up the rear. Kitty's biggest problem was that she wanted to stop and pick up pine cones and look at everything on the trail.

Most people who take the Cleetwood Cove Trail do so because that is how you get to the boat tours & the only way to the shoreline if you want to do any fishing. Fish are not native to the lake. They were introduced in the lake from 1888-1941. Six species were originally stocked, but only two have survived. Because the fish are not native, they encourage fishing - no license is required and there is no limit to how many you can catch.


Once we finally made it back up to the top and got into the car, it didn't take the two little ones long to crash!





M&M took this picture for us.


The lake averages about 45 feet of snow a year. The surface temperature of the water can get up to 56 degrees in the summer.


What does this island look like to you? This is called the Phantom Ship.






Overall we had a great time at Crater Lake and would recommend it to anyone - it is more beautiful than you can capture in pictures!

Can you do this?

And in case you can't make it out clearly - Yes she is asleep & Yes she is standing up (with her ankles crossed, I might add).

I've mentioned in previous blogs that Kitty doesn't normally take naps - well we think she is going through a growth spurt. The picture above was taken on July 30 and the one below was taken on July 28. Definitely unusual behavior for Kitty...

As a side note, I will hopefully be able to update my blog sometime next week. I only have time today to put up this quick blog - I thought everyone could use a good laugh. I leave tomorrow for YW camp and won't be back until Saturday - and that's when DH's parents will be arriving in town for a few days. So wish DH & my parents good luck with taking care of the kids while I'm gone!!

This next picture was taken today...

First day of school!

M&M & Luke started school today! Luke is in 1st grade and has the same teacher that M&M had for 1st grade. M&M has her first male teacher this year for 4th grade. The beginning of the year is pretty hectic because the school tends to be very unorganized. They don't give out any bus schedules until after the first day and the kids aren't told ahead of time where to line up for their classes. M&M gets very nervous on the first day of school so I had the kids ride the bus to school so they would know what bus number to get on in the afternoon and then I drove to the school to help the kids find their classes & teachers.

Luke was supposed to go to school last Friday to meet his teacher and to find out where to go today, but we got the notice about the meeting after it had already taken place. I had our mail put on hold at the post office while we were out of town and they were supposed to deliver the accumulated mail starting last Thursday. Well, on Thursday we didn't get any mail and we didn't on Friday either. So on Saturday I went to the post office and found out that they were holding it there for me to pick up because there was too much to fit in our mailbox - nice of them to let me know, huh? Luckily for Luke there is a friend of his in our neighborhood that is in the same class and rides the same bus so I told Luke to just follow her to find out where to line up.

After I got to the school I located M&M who was kind of wandering around not knowing where to go and then we went over to Luke's class to talk to his teacher. Mrs. Bray gave M&M a hug and I pointed out to her that Luke was M&M's brother. She was surprised to hear that because she hadn't made the connection yet. Mrs. Bray said that she had already introduced herself to Luke and had asked Luke if he would be a friend to another boy in the line - to which Luke said 'sure' and then introduced himself to the boy. Mrs. Bray was pretty impressed with Luke's outgoing attitude.

I then took M&M to the back of the school where the older classes were lined up. We ran into one of her teachers from last year who gave her a hug and said that she was so sad when she saw M&M's name on another class list. She then said that she had already talked to M&M's new teacher about her and said that she was sure M&M would do just fine this year. We then walked a little farther & I saw some students that I recognized from her class last year. There wasn't a teacher's name where they were lining up but I asked what class it was and they said it was Mr. Redmond's class - which is M&M's teacher. I talked to one of the moms there and asked if she knows anything about the teacher. She said that her son had him a couple of years ago and while he isn't known as one of the better teachers at the school, this mom & her son didn't have any problems with him and haven't heard anything bad about him. We will get to meet him tomorrow night at back-to-school night.

It's definitely going to be different having just the two younger girls at home during the day now...

Summer vacation!

(I'm going to give a basic outline of our whole trip in this post and then I'll add more details and pictures about some of the events in subsequent posts.)

Tuesday, July 10:
Our first day of vacation was not too exciting. Our trip itinerary was to drive about 10 1/2 hours the first day to get us close to Crater Lake - and the scenery wasn't much to look at. We drove through Utah and into Nevada to Winnemucca and then headed up in a north/northwest direction to finally stop at Klamath Falls, Oregon where we spent the night in a Motel 6. After we left Interstate 80 at Winnemucca, we were just traveling on 2-lane state highways. We also got some rain as it started to get dark. The kids drove us absolutely crazy that first day and I think DH & I were both wondering what we were getting ourselves into...

The most exciting scenery for the day were the salt flats in western Utah. The kids were looking out the window and shouted out, "Look, snow!"
Once we were an hour or two into our trip I started thinking about what I had packed and I had the sinking suspicion that I had forgotten to pack my tennis shoes. I also realized that I had forgotten ALL of our jackets. (Next time I'm going to have to do a better job about making a packing list - and getting DH to help...)

I had booked the motel online at a discounted rate and kids stay free at Motel 6 so it was a pretty cheap price for the night. We got in to the motel around 11:30 at night. It was a tiny room with just enough space to fit 2 double beds and there were lots of smokers standing outside their room doors smoking. M&M & Luke volunteered to sleep on the floor the first night which meant that Kitty & Blondie were going to be sharing a bed. Well, as you can imagine, that didn't work too well. The two girls were having too much fun rolling around and goofing off so DH & I had to split them up. I shared a bed with Kitty and she is definitely a violent sleeper. She kept rolling over and kicking me during the whole night.

Wednesday, July 11:
We had to take a small detour in the morning to find a store where I could buy some tennis shoes since we were planning on hiking once we got to Crater Lake. Luckily there was a Wal-mart in Klamath Falls and I was able to buy some fairly cheap shoes and we picked up a couple of food items while we were there also. Then we headed up to Crater Lake National Park which is about an hour north of Klamath Falls. We spent several hours there and then we headed in a southwest direction to get to northern California.

We stopped in Grants Pass, Oregon for dinner at McDonald's which is just a few miles north of the California border. Once we got our food and sat down to start eating, DH made a comment that he felt like it was going to rain. I looked outside and was surprised to see that the sky had gotten very dark and there were storm clouds just to the west of us. I asked DH if he wanted to put his bike in the car and he said that he would before we hit the road again. I looked at the sky again and suggested that he should probably not wait and do it right then. As soon as DH walked out the door to the car there was a loud clap of thunder and then another one as he was reaching up to the roof to get the bike down. I was sitting in the restaurant watching him and wishing I could go and help but I was hesitant to leave the kids by themselves. The wind was blowing pretty good and DH was struggling to get some things moved out of the way so that the bike would fit between the seats. I told M&M to watch the younger ones for me and then I ran out to the car for just a minute to help with the bike.

After we came back in the restaurant it started pouring. Then a few minutes later the power went out. Luckily we already had our food because there's not much a restaurant can do without power. There was an older couple eating near us with their granddaughter and we all just ate and watched the lightning out the very large windows at McDonald's. Once we finished eating, DH went out to the car to get a flashlight so we could use the restrooms there and then we loaded the kids up in the car to continue on our journey. Luckily we had already filled up the car with gas because I'm not sure if the gas stations are able to function without power (and gas prices in California are outrageous). It took us a little while to get onto the highway going into California because none of the traffic lights were working. Finally we made it to the highway and then we had about a 1 1/2 hour drive to Crescent City, California.

I didn't have a hotel room booked for Crescent City because I wasn't able to find one online for under $100. So we decided to just drive there and see what we could find. Once we made it to the city we drove down the main road looking at the hotels on it and then picked one to stop at. When we went in the office and asked if they had a room for 2 adults and 4 kids she sounded doubtful at first and then found that she had one more room available that had 2 queen beds in it (and it was under $100). Apparently just before we got there the California Department of Forestry (CDF) had come and booked a large number of rooms for some firefighters that were there to fight a nearby forest fire. This room was much more spacious with a bed in the first room when you walked in the door and then a separate bedroom with another bed in it. It also had a small refrigerator and microwave in the room and they offered a free continental breakfast in the morning. One downside though was that it didn't have any air conditioning. Luckily it wasn't too hot and there was a ceiling fan in the back bedroom so DH & I took that bed. The hotel was also a little older and more run down than the Motel 6 we stayed at, but it was fine for our needs. I asked at the front desk if we could have some extra blankets to put down on the floor for the kids and they dropped some off at our room. Since Luke & M&M were on the floor the first night, it was Blondie & Kitty's turn for the floor and Blondie wasn't too happy about it. Luke was ecstatic that the room he & M&M were in had its own T.V. and I let them watch it for a little while after we turned the lights out.

Thursday, July 12:
On Thursday we packed the car and then headed to the front office for the continental breakfast. It wasn't great but we were able to eat enough to fill us for a while and then we headed to the National Park Service's information office in town to get some info and a map of the Redwood forests.

After several hours of sight-seeing in the Redwood forests we headed up north to drive along the Oregon coast some. We ended up driving almost halfway up the coast to Florence, OR and then we headed east to Eugene where we met up with I-5 and followed that north to get to Vancouver, WA. We ended up arriving at DH's parents' home at around 11:30 p.m. (a little later than we had originally estimated). DH's brother, S, and family were also able to come down to DH's parents' for the weekend. They ended up arriving even later than us on Thursday night.

Friday, July 13:
On Friday we took things pretty easy and just enjoyed visiting with each other most of the day. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins in Grandma & Grandpa's bounce house and in the swimming pool.

After dinner we put the kids to bed and then the adults - minus grandpa - went to see the new Harry Potter movie. That was a lot of fun and we all really enjoyed the movie.




Saturday, July 14:
DH, S & their dad got up early to get in a bike ride. After they got back we ate lunch and then went to see Multnomah Falls which is located along the Columbia River Gorge. The kids played some more in the swimming pools while dinner was cooking. Later on DH & S spent some time watch some X-men cartoons while their mom & V & I played some Rummikub.





Sunday, July 15:
Blondie's birthday! We went to church in the morning and then came home and ate lunch, had some birthday cake and then said goodbye to S & family. It was good to see them again. Niece L is a beautiful & easy-going baby!

Monday, July 16:
We were planning on going to the beach during the morning and we would take a lunch with us to eat when we got there. Unfortunately, DH's dad's computer program was having some problems which meant that Dad N. wasn't able to get much work done at the office. So DH had to spend the morning trying to figure out was wrong. So Mom N. & I took the kids and went to the dollar store to buy some buckets & shovels for the beach, hoping that the problem would be fixed by the time we got back to the house. Unfortunately, it still wasn't fixed yet so we sat down and ate lunch and were trying to decide what to do when DH got the problem fixed. So we quickly finished eating and then hit the road. The kids had a blast there and we didn't get home until after bedtime.

Tuesday, July 17:
It turns out that it was a good thing that we went to the beach on Monday because on Tuesday it rained all morning (which is unusual for this time of year). We had originally planned to go to Fort Vancouver in the morning but since we hadn't brought any jackets with us we decided to save that for another trip. So we skipped that item on our agenda and went on to the next item.
We drove down to McMinnville, Oregon where we visited the Evergreen Aviation Museum. On our way there we took a brief detour to a Krispy Kreme doughnut store and enjoyed some doughnuts throughout the day. When we got to the museum we ate the lunch that we had brought with us and then went into the museum.
On the way back to the house we stopped at Portland's Rose Gardens. It was beautiful and since it had rained in the morning, there were raindrops on all the roses. Next we picked up some Papa Murphy's pizza to cook at Great-Grandma N's house. We had a short visit with her at her home and then headed back to Vancouver to start packing for our trip back home.

Wednesday, July 18:
Left to go back home to Utah. We ended up leaving around 9 a.m. and DH had me drive the whole way. It's about a 13-14 hour drive and since we lose an hour crossing time zones, we didn't get home until around 11:30 that night. The only "problem" we had during the trip was a lot of road construction in Idaho and then some in Utah. All in all it was a very fun vacation for our whole family!

Trip preparations

We have been planning on making a trip up to Washington to visit DH's parents for quite a while now. The last time we were up there was Christmas 2005, so it has been a while. As we were discussing the upcoming trip I thought it might be fun to take a different route up there and stop to see a few sights along the way. At first we discussed driving to see the Redwood trees in northern California. When I looked up on Mapquest the route that it recommended we take, we were surprised to see that it suggested driving partway through Nevada and then heading up north to southern Oregon to get to California. When we saw that and discovered that this route would take us close to Crater Lake, we decided to make 2 stops on our way up to Washington.

One of our dilemmas leading up to the trip was what to do with DH's bike. DH wanted to take his road bike with us so that he could go biking with his dad and brother while we were there. While we could have fit the bike in our minivan between the front seats and the two captains chairs, it makes it hard to get the kids in and out and impossible for DH or I to sit in the back with the kids if we needed to. We had been talking and thinking about what to do with the bike for a couple of weeks leading up to the trip and still hadn't decided on what to do. So on Monday evening (the day before we were leaving on the trip) we finally went to REI and thankfully had a good salesman talk to us and help us in making our decision. We were deciding between a roof rack for the bike and a trunk mount. We finally decided on the roof mount and then went home to try and get our packing done and to figure out how to install the mount to our roof rack.

Unfortunately while we were at the store, Blondie started complaining that her stomach was hurting and I ended up spending most of the night up with her. She kept feeling like she was going to throw up and she was crying on and off because of the pain. I ended up sleeping on the floor next to her bed and wasn't able to get hardly any packing done that I wanted to that night.

Thankfully Blondie was feeling somewhat better the next day, but because I still had a lot of packing to do we weren't able to leave until around noon. (I also got up early on Tuesday to mow the lawn and water my garden and flowers before we left.)

Happy 4th!

Here are the kids in our annual 4th of July neighborhood parade:
The parade starts at 9 in the morning and is followed by a pancake breakfast at the church parking lot. It's a lot of fun for the kids and the whole neighborhood joins in on the fun & helping out with the breakfast.

Later on the kids all helped shuck the corn for dinner (Kitty did a whole ear herself!)


Here is a picture of my flag cake that has been an annual tradition for me for celebrating the 4th (and in case you're counting, there are 50 blueberries for stars and 7 red stripes of strawberries):

My parents came over for dinner and then we went to watch a fireworks show in Riverton. The fireworks weren't too bad (they even had a few fireworks that made a smiley face!), but they had a carnival going on nearby during the whole show which was a little distracting. I think we'll try another show next year.

More family visits...

(I know I'm a little behind on blogging so bear with me as I try to catch up on all that has happened so far this month!!)

My brother K and his family came down from Idaho to stay with my parents for a few days right before the fourth of July. We had a couple of dinners with them and we took all the kids swimming one afternoon. Here is a picture of M&M & Luke with their cousins T Rex & C while taking a break from swimming: