It has been a long while. It has been busy. For the month of July we had our nephews, Jon and Dylan. That was interesting. Not use to having kids around on an everyday basis. But it was fun.
Hubby had talks with them, the normal right and wrongs, helping mom, being brothers. Tried to teach them to clean up after themselves, clean up around the house without being asked…..we’ll see if anything sticks…lol But at that age, you can only try.
We took them on a small hike on Mt Hood, around Trillium Lake
Hubby with Dylan & Jon at Trillium Lake
Even got to see a critter on the trail.
We took them to the Oregon Zoo, getting Jon to smile for pics is tough….Dylan, he loves to smile…lol
Jon & Dylan
After the zoo we went to the Portland Rose Gardens…..it is something to see. Dylan loved the smell of the different roses.
Portland Rose Gardens
We took them back to Canada and had an extended family camping the first weekend of Aug at Cultus Lake.
Hubby with Eliza
Spent one of those days at the water park….that was a ton of fun. That weekend was full of lots of food, talk and good times with 48 people. =)
Hubby & I
Most of July, we had below average temps and above average rain….during our “dry” season. We finally started getting decent weather towards the end. So didn’t do as much with the boys as we really wanted to. But still had fun. =)
We did have a fun gift for the boy’s Uncle Von….grin This is something college fans, especially Big Ten fans would appreciate. Their Von is a HUGE Michigan fan and you know, our loyalties are with Purdue….sooo.. We decided to give their uncle something to remember us by. We all dressed in Purdue gear, hung a Purdue flag and took a picture that we printed out and put into a Purdue frame, so he can put it in his Michigan room….grin As he said, it is the people in the picture that matters, not what we were wearing……LOL
The boy's gift to their Uncle Von, a HUGE Michigan Fan. =)
Aunt Patrice & Uncle Von getting their gift from the boys. =)
A week after we got back we decided to go for a small trip. We never drove up the 101 coast of WA….BIG mistake. We were expecting it to be scenic like Northern California and all of Oregon….wow, disappointing. The first part of it, you had all the sloughs….which were kind of cool to see. And the Kalaloch Beach of the Olympic National Park, was really cool….that is what we expected to see more of. But the rest of the drive was boring…..no really scenic areas, just tunnel trees and what scenic areas there were….like 2 of them, there were no pull offs to enjoy them.
The bridge out of Astoria, OR into Washington
Kalaloch Beach, Olympic National Park
Hubby had done some research and found where we wanted to try and get a site. Well, that was totally full. =( And then we visited like 5 more sites before we found a place to camp. This was the first time we have never made reservations. People made fun of us for that, well, we’ll stick with making reservations.
We camped lite, food wise. Took some dehydrated foods, a few subs and oatmeal….kind of nice not to have a lot of bunch of excess of stuff, but kind of weird.
We got our site at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge…..it was really nice. Had enough camp sites, it was well maintained. We would like to go back to and do more exploring.
Trail at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge
Dungeness Spit
The next day we had a dilliema, we were going to try and visit friends or go to Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park in the opposite direction. We really wanted to see our friends, but the whole point of the trip was the site seeing and any hiking we can get in. So we decided on Hurricane Ridge….totally worth it! This is what we expected and wanted.
Zoomed in on Mt Baker from one of the pull overs on the way up to the Ridge
At Hurricane Ridge
We so totally want to go back and do some camping at the base and do some hiking up there. There was still snow up there while there was a stunning amount of wildflowers everywhere. Loved it! I highly recommend it. It helped to make up for they day before, that was a big disappointment.
On our drive out we saw signs for the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim. We drove through Sequim, WA and found that it was the most pretty town we have ever driven through….lavender every where. We both enjoyed and didn’t like the Olympic Game Farm, the reason why we didn’t like it is only because we hate seeing animals caged/fenced up. We know that they are there for a reason and are taken care of and we love seeing them close up, but rather see them in the wild. We did enjoy feeding them wheat bread. =)
A Kodiak Beer telling me to give him another piece of bread....LOL
A Yak, they are not shy on getting close to get a treat. =)
So at least our trip ended on a high note. =) We are already planning on next trip. Trying for Mt Rainer again, by the back roads….got turned around last time. But we know were we got turned around, so going to be more careful…..we ended up on roads that weren’t on the map…..lol
I have gotten myself back into reading. Kind of helped that our Borders is going out of business and I’ve made a few trips. I finally got the finally 2 books of The Clan of The Cave Bears series….been almost 20yrs since I read the Plains of Passage. It is going to suck not to have a big bookstore near by. I love Powells, but don’t want to have to head into PDX all the time for that. That is life. =)