We're Home...

We just got back from a 10 day trip to Oregon and Washington. It was beautiful. I'll give you a couple of highlights and then post later about the details of our trip.

We were able to visit the house that we bought 5 years ago in Oregon. We've never actually seen the house and have had renters the entire time...Stephen's uncle takes care of the place for us. It was really nice.

It even had a Tee Pee (any way I spell that, it just doesn't look right) in the back yard that was made from the fallen branches on our property. It came complete with a foyer too! The kids loved it and wanted to move in just for the backyard. I must admit, having an acre of land would be fun for the kids to play on.

We visited Smith Rock State Park. It was like a "Mini Grand Canyon." There were lots of rock climbers in the area and the Crooked River ran through the middle of the canyon. It was beautiful. However, Twerp #1 read the sign that warned of Rattlesnakes in the area...kind of freaked him out. We didn't hike off the trail and we didn't hike too far down the canyon. If we had, we would have heard about it from Twerp #2 forEVER.

We went to Whidby Island in Washington where we visited with my brother and his family. Kristen took us up to Coupeville...such a cute seaside town where Twerp #3 proceeded to lose his flip flop when looking over the balcony railing.

So sad...he went the rest of the afternoon with one shoe on and one shoe off. (diddle diddle dumpling, my son John....)

On the land in which my brother lives, there is a HUGE tree swing. We took all 7 (yes, between Aaron and I, we have 7 kids) over to the swing and let them go for it. The swing hung between two tall trees and the went out over a cliff and swung over the road leading to their home. The kids had a blast being brave and all...

They were braver than I...I wouldn't go on that swing if I could eat anything I wanted and not gain a pound! Stephen did it though...twice!

After leaving Aaron and Kristen's, we went to Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. It was beautiful. I took more pictures than I care to admit...most of them of really big trees and my family. It's good we have a digital camera. Otherwise, we'd have had to mortgage our home just for developing all the pictures I took. Here's a picture of Stephen with the three kids in our campground.

This is one of the "smaller" trees in our campground. I know, I know...everyone has taken a picture just like this when they go to the redwoods. Why break with tradition?!?

And here is my family again. Yes, in a tree. We are in the woods, afterall.

I'll post more on our trip later...in smaller chunks...we had a great time and I would do it again tomorrow if: 1) we had more cash to pay for the gas. 2) if I could get the same spot in the Redwoods again. 3) if we could borrow movies from my friends so the kids didn't have to watch the same ones again. 4) if we didn't have to stay in scary Fresno on the way home.