Forks and La Push

Sorry. Another long picture post.

First off-Forks, a fun little town caught up in all things Twilight. Seriously, you'll walk into any store and Twilight is staring you in the face. While we were there we hit all the hot spots, the Cullen's home (much more like what I imagined than what's in the movie)-sorry no picture of that one, Bella's house, the school, the Thriftway (which I have shopped at), etc. Here's some of the (better) fun pics we took:

I laughed when I saw this

Going back to high school:

Bella's house-still not what I imagined-too well maintained for a single guy preoccupied with fishing.

I'd show the rest but my hair and the humidity did not agree with each other. It was kind of like trying to make vampires and werewolves be best friends. It ain't gonna happen.

Next-we're on to La Push. We hiked to second beach which was my favorite beach we went too. (Don't worry, I spent some time at 1st beach, too). There was a gorgeous hike down to the beach. When we were near enough to hear the waves breaking, McKay and I stumbled across this cool uprooted tree. If you look closely above and to the left of McKay's head, you'll see a (dead) crab hanging out. It made us laugh.

Hanging on the beach:

And here is 1st beach. Even though I prefer 2nd beach (which was a bit smaller), I really love this photo.

The Hoh Rain Forest and Rialto Beach

Ok. We didn't do these things on the same day, but right now I'm going to try and group like things. (nature things v. twilight things)

On our way into Forks/La Push we stopped at the rain forest. McKay was very disappointed it wasn't raining in the rain forest, but he survived. ;) It was gorgeous and surprisingly different from what we'd been seeing. There was a lot more moss covered things than we'd seen and the trees were less straight-more gnarly.

Rialto beach was awesome. It was more pebbles than sand, but we enjoyed watching the big waves come in and collecting pretty rocks. Sophie was still terrified anytime someone was going to "throw" someone into the ocean. I guess we're mean, but it was pretty funny.

The Oregon Coast

If you haven't been here for a few days, keep scrolling. I'm working on getting trip pictures posted.

We hit 3 towns along the Oregon coast-Coos Bay, Newport and Astoria. We did more hiking-some in the "Prehistoric Gardens" too expensive, but still fun for the kids to see life size replicas of dinosaurs. There were more lighthouses, beaches, time at the docks to visit sea lions, an aquarium, and a maritime museum. The Oregon part of our trip kept us hopping, but we loved it.

Prehistoric Gardens-look closely there is some dinosaur in the dark background.

View of Sunset Bay (Coos Bay area)

The older kids loved playing in the waves. Sophie preferred to stick to building sand castles.

We almost paid $11 per adult and $9 per child to go check out some sea lion caves, but then a lighthouse volunteer told us to visit the docks for free in historic Newport and we'd see tons of them up close. It pays to to talk to people.

We also ended up with a free ticket to the wax museum in Newport, so we went. Some things were more like the originals than others.....

Checking out ship stuff at the maritime museum in Astoria
We hit one beach that day and look what we found! Could it be One-eyed Willies ship?

PacNW Trip Day 3

Our last day in Crescent City we went to visit the Battery Point Lighthouse which you can only visit during low tide. I was surprised at how much the kids enjoyed it and how good they were through the tour. We got to see the home the keeper and his family lived in, some original pieces to the home (including a wind-up clock that still works), and eventually we got to go in the light tower. That was cool. Ya know those scenes in movies were people drop down the sewer hole and climb out of them so flawlessly? That's what I felt like I was doing-except not as smelly. :) You could not beat the view from the top of the tower! Gorgeous. The other fun thing we did there was pick berries. (Lots of berries-But I picked berries yesterday...Sorry) The path was lined with tons of berry plants that we could pick a little taste from.

We also went to see the Trees Of Mystery. Exciting. We got to see the big Paul Bunyan and Babe (his ox) which was fun for the kids. We had just read a book about vacation that showed them. There was a Sky trail (tram) ride that was included in the admission price. The kids didn't think they wanted to go it-too scary they said. Like the good (read: mean) parents we are, we made them go on it anyway. Guess what? That was their favorite thing we did the whole vacation!



On the Sky Trail:
At the viewing area at the top of the "trail"

PacNW Trip Day 1 and 2

As requested-here are some pics of our trip.

The kids were great in the car. I love this first picture of Sophie. We had some wireless head phones for the DVD player in the car. She crashed while watching Barbie's Princess and the Pauper.

Day 2-We're off to the redwoods! We took the slow road (dirt) road through the trees and found a few great hikes off the road. The trees were amazing. HUGE. I loved how easy it was to hike there. The ground was all soft and squishy unlike here in our dry desert mountains.

Well-we made it about 1/2 way around this tree.

We heard about this beach from the Nt'l Parks office. It was a lovely hike down (with some great camping spots for you backpackers). The beach itself was beautiful and we were there at the perfect time for picture taking. The kids loved exploring and finding all kinds of beautiful shells.

Home SWEET home!

Sigh...There's nothing like coming home. Something even the smallest people in our family know already. Our little family of 5 just returned from the most amazing, wonderful, perfect 14-day vacation known to families. We went all over here:






You can only imagine all the driving that happened. Can I just say I have the best little travellers? No whining, fighting, hitting, pushing, etc that is known to families trapped in small places for hours on end. And quite honestly, there was not nearly as many movies playing as I had anticipated. Everyone was content to color, play with their Leapsters, sing/listen to music, munch, and sometimes just chillax.

We had quite the adventures filled with hiking, chasing waves, looking for vampires and werewolves (or if your picky-shapeshifters), beach combing and more. We were on the go from the moment we woke up till we crashed on our beds late at night. We had a great time and no one was complaining to go home. I don't think anyone really even thought about it till Saturday-the day before we would arrive at our house. We all had a great time and probably would've lasted a bit longer if we chose to. When we pulled in and all walked in the house though-there was a collective sigh and tangible happiness. There truly is no place like home!

Bedtime Prayers

I love listening to my kids prayers. Lyndsi is my big girl and tries so hard to pray for good things like safety, nightmare-free nights, doing well at school, and she's really good at remembering people-uncles serving missions, aunts having babies, church leaders who are ill or hurt. Sophie narrates her prayer. She tells me what to tell her and corrects me if I say something she doesn't want to. Then there's McKay. He's the one that makes my laugh. He's not silly when he prays and is sooo sincere. Tonight he prayed for:

-to get really good at fighting (boxing)-as good as his friends

-to get to go to the fair (which he never told me he had an interest in)

-to get really gooder and gooder at ( ....oh shoot....I for forgot that one. I'll update when I remember)

I tried to not laugh because of the sincerity he prayed with, but it was not at all what I was expecting to come out of his mouth. I love that guy.