The Oregon Edition of our Wild West vacation started off with an 8 hour drive from Boise to Eugene.
The first two hours were pretty with mountains hills, farms and vegetation.
We stopped for lunch at a park in Burns.
and stretched our legs
the next SIX hours looked like this
-ugh-
(the sky was pretty though)
The final two hours were beautiful again.
We took the McKenzie Pass
(which just opened that morning)
Of course we checked out the mountains and lava beds at the Dee Wright Observatory
a patch of lingering SNOW!
Once we arrived at Grammy and GG's house it seemed we were always off doing something fun.
The time flew by!
The Semi-Annual Family Get-Together
My Mom's Mom and my Dad's Dad
(GG and Great Grandpa Bob)
Kevin (Uncle Monkey) winning the annual Horse Shoe Tournament
the camera can't see me!
Hillary and Lauren
(second cousins or something like that)
My two-month-old nephew Patrick.
(I can't believe my brother (Kevin) is a Dad!)
I think he likes me!
Okay one last baby pic and then moving on...
Family Time at Grammy and GG's house
(GG recently sold her house and moved in with my Mom)
showing GG and Mr. Buddy (white fluff ball) the iPAD
special dinner
(special because Grammy doesn't normally cook)
checkers on a chess board with Uncle Brian
Matt-Man (not unlike Super-man) completed some projects for Mom and GG
(their house looks FABULOUS by the way)
friendly yet fierce game of Risk on the iPad
Pass the Baby
feeding her cousin
and just one more Patrick picture
(he's such a good good baby!)
oh I lied, he's in this family pic too
(l-r: Uncle Brian, Tyler, Me, GG, Grammy, Patrick, Matt, Lauren, Mili, Kevin and Mili's Mom)
(turning into an annual trip)
the crooked house
a couple of hotties chilling out
The Pacific Ocean
Lincoln City, Oregon
picture perfect day!
Uncle Brian and Tyler dug a DEEP hole and buried Grammy's beach ball with the intent that a child in China would also dig a deep hole and find the ball. Kind of like a gift you know?
Unfortunately, Grammy wasn't appreciative of their goodwill gesture and made them recover the ball.
Drift Creek Falls Trail
Lincoln City, Oregon
Matt, Lauren and I hiked a 3-mile round trip path to see the waterfall.
Lauren did great and did not complain once!
The bridge was very modern yet still very high.
It took us a few minutes to get acclimated.
view from below
What a fun hike! Now that the kids are getting older I look forward to more great hiking experiences.
And just as our hike brought us back to where we started...
...the Wild West 2011 vacation ended as we caught our round-trip plane ride home.
Thanks for all the great memories!
We already miss you!
(sorry if that closing transition didn't quite work for you...this was a long long post and I was "tarred."
