You Don't See That Every Day

Dear Mom, We made it. 11 days. Oregon to Idaho to Utah to Wyoming to Colorado to Montana to Idaho to Washington to Oregon. Over 3000 miles. Our first two days were just driving, hours and hours of driving. There wasn't a lot of "amazing" sights to see but the different terrain was interesting. The endless miles of road construction were not a lot of fun, but being able to drive 70 mph, or 80 in some places, made up for that. We pulled into outskirts of Denver late Friday. The Boy had taken a flight there and arrived a couple of hours earlier. So he and the uncle, aunt and cousins went to dinner. They were nice enough to bring back some ice cream to the hotel for all of us. I was so wiped out from 2 days of travel that I just stayed in watching "Fixer Upper with Little K," while the others went swimming. On Saturday the 'fun' times began. We went up to Red Rocks Amphitheater and took in some touristy action. The theater was pretty incredible. The...

Halfway through summer! Here are some of the adventures we've had so far McDowell Creek hike with the whole crew:  And a sweet treat at the end of the trail - Silver Creek Falls - The Boy has to work now, so he doesn't always get to go with us: And no summer is complete without swim lessons: We also had a mini-golf day, but the competition was fierce so we didn't get any photos. We've got loads more planned for the second half of the summer, but I'm afraid we might run out of time before we get it all done. Which means, we'll just have to extend our summer into September .. at least those of us at home can!

August 2016-- family campout. We made it to Diamond Lake this year for our camping experience. It has now become one of our favorites. Even though it was quite a long drive, with many "how much farther?" questions from the 6 year old, there was plenty to see, and plenty of time to talk. We did see a car accident that must have happened within the half hour; that was pretty sobering. We got there in time for the kids to set up the tent with Dad while I got dinner together with some helpers. The yellow jackets decided they liked our taco salad, so we had to move our supper time inside the tent. Once we were done the visitors left and we came out in time to go down to the lake for a beautiful sunset. A campfire, with s'mores and a game helped end the day.   Brrr - the nighttime is cold there! Even though we weren't all feeling rested the next morning we went on bike rides. Little K. is now pretty much a pro on her bike without training wheels. That was an ...

Not wanting to sit around all day again one Sunday we heeded the well known advice offered by our forefathers. Go west , they said; and so we did. We rounded up our troops, loaded them in our truck and my sister's car, and drove out to explore a new-to-us park, Fort Yamhill. The website I looked at made it sound like there would be some sort of physical evidence of buildings that once were at the fort. Only one remained. There were signs for everything and how the fort was arranged There was plenty of historical information. But no old ruins, no evidence that there was actually a fort there once upon a time. And there were no trees, until the very last part of the walk. All in all, it was a nice enough outing, but not one that I would highly urge my guests to visit unless they were researching for a book.     I had to throw this one in there because they actually stood still, without silly faces, long enough to snap a picture.

** I can't really write about our July adventures until I update what we did last month!** So here is the final revision of an entry I started a month ag o ** Time for a field trip! With some but not all schools in the area still in session we grabbed at one last chance to go to a nearby attraction before there were too many crowds. Just down the road is a place called Enchanted Forest. It was built back in the 70s and I can remember as a child driving by it on the way to and from Grandma's house, and always longing to go there. It looked so wonderful, so exciting! A play-land centered around fairy tale. I knew as a kid I would never be going to Disneyland (that didn't happen until I was 19, living in California) But this place ... it was near! It was a possibility, although maybe slight. And yes, as I got a little older and actually stayed with relatives without my parents, I did get to go to Enchanted Forest. Such happy memories. So now that we live nearer, I make su...