Oregon 2017: Day 4 - Tie Dye Shirts, Lunch, & Waterfall Hike

Our first activity for the trip was tie dying shirts.  So Monday morning after we all ate breakfast and got ready for the day we headed to Great grandpa's house. 

My mom bought all the kids and grand kids white shirts and then got tie dying kits for us to go wild. The kids who went to Grandma Camp were all experts at tie dying but the rest of us were newbies and had fun figuring out how we wanted our shirts to look.

After we twisted our shirts and put our rubber bands on them how we wanted then it was time to dye the shirts.  My mom had us put on the dye over a crab cage.  Tony helped Megan and Allie do theirs how they said they wanted it and then Tyler and Josh did theirs all by themselves. Once we were all done with dying the shirts we put them in bags to set until we were ready to wash them in 24 hours.  

After we were all done with our shirts we went to lunch at the burger and shakes place.  Kevin and his family came with us and the rest of the family went to a sandwich place.  We all got some yummy food and had a good time. 

After we all ate we went back to the cottages to get ready to go on our hike to the waterfall.  I am not a huge fan of hiking and being around cliffs and drops really makes me anxious, but I knew that the kids would have a good time.

It took us a little over an hour to get to the waterfall.  The road seemed like it would go on forever and you'd never guess that the road ended with a little state park with trails for hiking.  

We took the first trail to see the waterfall and it was kind of scary.  It was good at first but then it got pretty hard to walk.  I was starting to worry about one of my kids falling down the mountain side or even down the water fall or rocks...my mama bear brain was going crazy. 

The kids loved seeing the waterfall and climbing all over the huge rocks.  While they were doing this I took some pictures before having a full blown panic attack.  Their are just so many ways that kids can fall and get hurt that I wouldn't know how to help them.  I just kept worrying about them all falling and I just couldn't handle it anymore.  After I started crying my mom helped me get Megan and Allie down the trail.  I don't normally get like that, but something about waterfalls and trails worries me so much.

Because of how I reacted we decided not to go do the other trail.  We decided to start driving back to the cottages to have some dinner.  We did find out later from the rest of the family that the other trail was much easier with no big drops.  Darn, oh well.  

We got back and ate some dinner.  We then let the kids hang out and then when the cousins came back they played with them.  Then it was bed time for the kids and DQ later that night for the adult siblings.  A great way to end our first full day in Coos Bay!

Oregon 2017: Day 3 - Coos Bay Bound

After we left Nate and Amy's house we decided to stop at McDonald's to let the kids play and for Tony and I to eat some breakfast.  After we all had our fill of both we piled back into the car and headed to Coos Bay.
We stopped at the Costco in Eugene for some gas, to eat lunch and to pick up a couple things for the week (like yummy muffins).
After Costco it was back to the car for a few more hours of driving before getting to our cottages.
We took the route that took us along the ocean and it was beautiful.  We decided to stop for some ice cream at Dairy Queen.  It took us a lot longer then we thought it would but it was a nice break from the car.  We were still about an hour or so from Coos Bay.
After ice cream it was back to it for our final leg of the trip.  When we got to the cottages most of my family was already there (just not Kevin).  They were all unpacking their cars and getting settled into their home for the week.

We unpacked our car and just left it all in the cottage in a heap while we all went to the beach.  It is hard not to go right away and enjoy the beauty of the ocean and the awesome cool weather that we had all been looking forward to.  I even had to get out the jackets for the kids before we left.  I thought it felt wonderful.
After we let the kids play at the beach for a while we decided we had better go back and get cleaned up so we could go to the store and get food for the week and dinner for that night.

We ended up at a smoked BBQ joint for dinner.  It was pretty good food but took a long time to get our food.  It seems like all the restaurants in Coos Bay always have slow service.  They just run on a different speed there.
After dinner we stopped at Walmart for the week's necessities.  By this time we all just wanted to get back to the cottages to play with cousins and unpack all our stuff.  So we shopped quickly and then went back to our home.

The kids play for a little while but it was getting pretty dark so they came back in and got ready for bed.  Tyler and Josh slept over at Grandma Kim's cottage next door so we would have more room.  Tony and I got Megan and Allie down for the night and then I went out to DQ (Dairy Queen) with Boyd and Julie.  It is such a fun tradition of us siblings going out for ice cream each night.  Not all of us go every night, but when we do it is lots of fun.  We were all so glad to finally all be there in Oregon.

Oregon 2017: Day 2 - Bend Bound

After getting dressed and eating a yummy breakfast we started our journey towards Bend.  We all had a good time at the hotel and spending time with Kevin's family.
The car ride to Bend was pretty good.  A lot of the ride is really pretty with lots of farms and animals to look at.  The other parts are boring and never ending.
Before we went to Nate's house we stopped and got some lunch.  It took us a while to find a place and then it was kind of ghetto.  It worked though and we all ate.

Then we went to Nate and Amy's house.  The kids were so excited to finally be there.  Megan was the most excited to see Lydia.  Those two are so cute together.  They love being together and become the best of friends when they are together.
After they played for a while Tony and Nate went to the hardware store and we let the kids play outside.
After they got back Amy and I helped them unload the pavers from the truck before going back inside because it was so hot.  After Nate came back from taking the truck back we all got ready to go to dinner.

Bend has a really fun pizza place that has an indoor playground.  The kids loved it so much and had so much fun playing with their cousins and eating some pizza.  After we had as much fun as we could handle, we headed back to Nate's house.
Nate set up his projector for the kids to watch a movie on the ceiling.  They got out tons of blankets and pillows for the kids to lay on, it was adorable.
After it was all over we sent all the kids to bed and Tony and I zonked out too.  We were all so tired.  The next morning the kids had some breakfast before we packed up the car and headed off to Coos Bay.

Oregon 2017: Day 1 - Boise Bound

Tony and I had packed up most of the car the night before we left so it didn't take too much for me to finish packing before heading up to Ogden to pick up Tony at work.
We didn't have to wait too long for Tony before we were off.  We picked up some lunch before we got on the freeway and started our long journey to Coos Bay (by way of Boise and Bend).

The drive was a good one to Boise.  We checked into our hotel and they gave us a room that was not cleaned.  We were a little surprised and quickly asked for a new room.  After getting our new and clean room we were then able to unload our stuff and get situated.
We then decided to check out the hotel's evening reception that just started.  They had salad, soup, and veggies.  Even drinks from the bar.  I am sure the bar tender was surprised when Tony and I both got a lemonade.  The light dinner was perfect after a day of eating car snacks.

After our yummy dinner we went to fill up the car with gas and then to check out the Boise Temple. It is located just across the street from our hotel.  It is a different looking temple, but still super pretty.  The kids loved walking around and seeing all the flowers.
I loved taking their pictures and feeling the peace that comes with being on the temple grounds.  We talked a little about how everyone felt being at the temple and how to behave there.  After a while we decided to go back to our hotel and go swimming.
Kevin and his family were also staying at our same hotel that night.  They left a few hours after us so they had just gotten there when we were getting ready to go swimming.  They went down to eat first and then met us at the swimming pool.
My kids love swimming and is a highlight whenever we stay at a hotel AND the kids love the water (and so do Tony and I).

We swam and swam and swam.  Allie got done first (as usual) and Tony took her back to the room to get washed and ready for bed.  Josh was not being a very good listener so he was the second kid to go back to the room.  I stayed back watching Megan and Tyler play and chatted with Kevin and Betsy.  It was nice letting the kids play and chatting with family.
After a while I was ready to be done and took the other kids back to the room to get washed.  Baths and bed was just what we all needed.  When we got back the hotel manager had brought cookies and milk to apologize for the unclean room we first got.  I thought that was nice.  After one cookie each we all crawled into bed and zonked out for the night.

Baby Graham

Sherri adopted a baby from Richard's niece.  She named him Addison Graham Clark Madson.  He is a sweetheart.  Julie, Averee, and I took the evening to go to dinner at Teagan's work (California Pizza Kitchen) and then went to Sherri's house to hold baby Graham.
He was so little and I loved snuggling him.  We are all so happy for Sherri and Rich and wish them the very best with their new baby. 

End of Summer Soccer

Summer soccer is now over.  Tyler had a pretty good team this season.  It was fun to watch him.  It was so hot each game, but it was fun to get out and see him play soccer.  He has such a good leg and is fun to watch.  Now he gets a little break before fall soccer starts in September.  I sure do love my Tyler.

Family Movie Day

We went and saw the movie, "Despicable Me 3" today.  It was an okay movie.  Allie got bored pretty fast with this one.  They didn't have any singing and I think that is what she likes.  But it was nice to be able to go as a family and not have to leave anyone behind with a baby.

Family Tennis

After we got a taste of tennis we decided to go one morning that Tony had off.  Tony and I bought Tyler and Josh their own rackets and they were excited to get to play with them.
We all had a great time.  The girls got bored of tennis pretty fast and just wanted to play around which was fine because we had plenty of room for everyone to play.
We all had a good time and hope that we can do it again soon.

What to do While Tyler Plays Tennis

Allie loves playing in the car and spent most the time doing so while Tyler played Tennis.

Josh and Megan would go in and out of the car to play soccer and run around.  Good times.

Megan loved running around.

Megan, Josh, and Allie hanging out in the car while Tyler was playing tennis.

Josh is too cute for words!!!

Megan is pretty adorable too!

Allie is such a cutie pie!!!

Tyler & Tennis

Tyler has shown interest in playing tennis for a few years now.  I found out that the rec center had tennis lessons during the summer for only $18 a week.
So I found a week that we didn't have anything else planned and got him signed up.  He was so excited and LOVED tennis.  I tried to get Josh to try it too, but he wouldn't.  I think he was nervous to try.

Tony came on the last day of tennis (because he didn't have work) and worked with Josh.  Josh picked it up pretty fast and did a good job on his first practice.  I think he probably learned more working with Tony for that hour then Tyler did the whole week.  So I think Josh decided he would like to learn more tennis and Tyler would like to do it some more.  It was fun watching him learn a new sport and I hope that we can continue to encourage him to try new things.