Oregon Day I

It was kind of a quick trip, a long weekend, but we went to Oregon! We have some friends there we wanted to visit -Rebecca, my old mission companion, her husband Max, and their two boys Charlie and Miles, about the same ages as June and Hazel!- and we stayed with them and were able to borrow a car. It all worked out so perfectly and we are grateful. Also, you will see in the posts about our trip that some of these photos were taken by Rebecca, she says that I taught her everything she knows and if that's true then I'm grateful because she got some wonderful photos of our family! I've labeled the ones she took with her camera and edited. There are other photos you will see that I am in that I obviously didn't take. Those were with my camera and either done by Buck, Rebecca or Max, I'm just not sure who for all of them. ;)

Anyway, getting there was a bedtime flight, thankfully a short one, but it was still crazy with Hazel. haha. But we made it one piece.

The next morning when we all woke up we were off on our first adventure! We all piled into their van and headed to their friend's parent's house to pick blackberries. These people have 26 acres of land out in the Oregon forests and it was incredible. The only problem was that Miles was crying and crying and would not stop, like something was hurting him, it was a constant cry. So Max took him away and tried walking with him while we picked.

But the bushes were amazing! They were probably 20 feet high and thick and wild. We had to watch out for poison oak too. But those black berries were so juicy and sweet. I hardly got any into the bucket, I kept eating them all! June, Hazel, and Charlie helped too. It drizzled the whole time and as we were walking back to the car, it started to rain more. We also got to stop and look at their goats and llamas! It felt like an authentic Oregon experience. Rain and berries.

Photo by Rebecca

Rain faces

After the babies napped, we went to the this forest state park and went on a little one mile hike/walk. It was really beautiful, like fairies could live in there... or dinosaurs! It's so green, even the brown tree trunks are covered in green moss. The kids seemed happy for this. They ran and held hands. They climbed up tree trunks and collected leaves. And all the while it sprinkled rain. But it wasn't very cold.

Dirty bums from sliding down a rock

This photo I know was from Buck :)

photo by Rebecca!

June didn't want to walk anymore and was whining so I told her she better build a house to live there then. All the kids went right for it, "building" away with sticks, dirt, and leaves. I loved how quickly they took on that challenge.

Photo by Rebecca

 Photo by Rebecca

Splashing in a puddle in the parking lot.

Rebecca put this together. Some of you may remember that June and I went to visit Oregon two years ago. So here's a photo of Charlie and June holding hands through the same hike then and now!

Back at their house, hanging out. Trying to make the babes best friends.

photo by Rebecca

A graham cracker and melted chocolate chocolate treat before bed

Photo by Rebecca

Once the kids were in bed that night us grown ups went outside and had a fire and roasted things and ate treats and stayed up late talking. I told a story about my first night on the mission at the mission home when the shower went crazy and water sprayed everywhere and broke the lights and I started laughing SO HARD I was crying and completely delirious. I've only laughed like that probably four or five times in my life. Nobody knew what to do with me! It felt great. And somehow Buck and I ended up telling some of our secrets!  I couldn't believe Buck brought it up and talked me into sharing it. Just goes to show that having adult time with friends after kids are in bed is a rare treat and we apparently go crazy. Well, crazy for us Mormon people. ;)

So many adventures in one day! Stay tuned for the next two posts! You know I have a million photos to share. xoxo