Oregon Trip- Part two- Oregon & California

Okay- so part two of our trip includes lots of fun with cousins and some traveling to California. 

After our coast day, the kids wanted to spend the night at the cousins' house so I went over with them and spent the night. Chris needed to work so he didn't stay the night. 

The kids successfully slept outside all night and I think we were all impressed. 
Tanner, Chase and Benson slept on the trampoline. 
Well Benson started out on the trampoline and then moved in with the girls. 

Bailey and Paige slept in a tent in the backyard

Tucker started out in the hammock, but he kept managing to roll out of it, so eventually he climbed in with the girls too. 

Conner had a little one man tent that he set up and slept in. 
It was pretty cute and the kids loved  their night under the stars. 

The next morning Stephanie and I left the kids home together and went to run some errands. We did a little shopping and then we had to get our obligatory "Crumbl" cookies. It's our tradition. 

When we got back, we got kids ready and drove over to the river to float together. 
Chris was able to meet us there and that was nice. 

We also borrowed a couple of kayaks from Aunt Susie, so with Stephanie's two- we had 4 total. 

Stephanie and I relaxed in the "Mom float" while the kids kayaked and tubed around us. 

We also may or may not have tied a rope to the back of Chase's kayak so he could pull us. 
He was a good sport. 

These kids also latched onto our tube, so Chase was really pulling the lot of us. 

Tanner kayaked the whole way down the river and loved it. 

 

Benson loved tubing, but he didn't love having his feet in the cold river. It took him awhile to get use to the temp and for a while he kept his feet tucked up on the tube. 

Eventually he was able to float and let his feet dangle in the water.

These two friends were so cute together and floated the whole time with their tubes connected. 

Tucker also kayaked the entire trip and he did great. Turns out, he really loves kayaking. Him and Paige had the best time doing rapids together and exploring. 

 

I sure love all these cute cousins. We have so much fun together.

Eventually we arrived at Uncle Matt's property and the kids were able to switch out and take turns on the kayaks. Bailey and Benson took their turns and they loved the freedom and ease of the kayaks. 

We met Uncle Phillip, Mimi and Grandpa at the sandbar/gravel bar at Uncle Matts. 
Uncle Matt and Aunt Susie came down and met us there too. 
We grilled burgers and had a great time. 

Floating the river is one of our favorite things to do in the summer and the bbq afterwards makes it even more awesome. 

We spent lots of time at Mimi and Grandpa's, exploring and playing outside. 

Grandpa enjoyed taking the kids out to work on different parts of his ranch. He even let Tanner drive. 
This made Tanner feel so grown up.

On another day, we convinced Dad to take a long lunch and go on a picnic with us. 
We all loaded up in the jeep and we let Bailey drive us out to find a place to eat on the property. 

Bailey really did good. She was careful and responsible. It was encouraging to see that she could take some things seriously. I think she liked being given more responsibility too. 

Eventually we found a place to eat with a nice view. 
Then the kids talked us into driving over to see their fort. They had been working hard on this fort whenever Grandpa took them over to this part of the property. 

Tucker was so excited to show me his moss bed. 
He had pulled moss off the trees and made a little bed pad with it. It was surprisingly soft and Tucker was so proud of it. 

The kids love exploring the woods and I'm grateful they can play outside all they want in Oregon. It's not hot and Don and Deveney's property is safe. 

I love this family of mind and I love exploring together. 

Tanner drove us back after our picnic. 

My kids all love Grandpa's dog, Rosie. However, over the years she's gotten older and slower. She didn't run after and follow us on our explorations this time and the kids were sad about that. 
The long distance runs are harder for her as she gets older. 

On another day we drove over to Aunt Susie and Uncle Matt's house. Aunt Susie raises bunnies and had offered to let us come see her baby bunnies and snuggle them.

This was obviously a huge highlight. We all enjoyed the bunnies but Bailey was especially in heaven. 

Benson loved the baby ones. It was so fun to hold them. They were so soft. 

I really loved these little bunnies. I could have stayed there all day holding baby bunnies. 

Tucker called this bunny combo a reverse oreo. 
The white and black ones look like cookie and cream ice cream and we all loved them. 

Aunt Susie also has a beautiful flower garden and an amazing vegetable garden.

Tucker especially loved finding produce in the garden. Aunt Susie let us take whatever we wanted. 
How massive is that zucchini. 

Before we left, we went to meet the horses. Bailey was in heaven. 
That girl sure loves animals. 

The next morning we drove up to the Portland Temple. 

The older four kids are old enough to do baptisms so we decided to make a day of it. 

 

Grandpa wasn't able to come, but Mimi came with us and we were so glad she came. 

We had to get a picture with the first generation and Mimi and then the second generation with Mimi.

I hope these kids treasure these memories of serving in the temple with their Mimi. 

  

Meanwhile, Stephanie kept the younger three kids outside the temple while the rest of us did baptisms. 

They walked around the temple and explored the visitors center and atrium. 

When we finished at the temple, we all drove over to "MOD Pizza" for lunch. 
The food was amazing and everyone enjoyed it. 

Then we went to the bookstore before driving home. 

The next morning we left to drive over to Crescent City, California. 
Stephanie and I had planned this trip to the redwoods months earlier and we were all excited about it. 

We started our trip the "Trees of Mysteries" and it was awesome. 

There were lots of stories about Paul Bunyan and lots of other tall tales. It was pretty cute. 

 

I think one of the coolest parts were these sky bridges. 
The redwoods are so tall and massive that these bridges that connected them were super high.

 

  

This tree was called the brother tree, so naturally I had to get a picture of my boys in front of it. 

Then we board the sky tram. This was pretty cool. We got to ride it up to the top to see the overlook and it was a gorgeous ride. 

After enjoying the overlook, we started the long hike back down. 
It was a lot of downhill hiking and so there was a rope tied along the path so you could hold onto it and not fall on the loose rock. 

I can't get over the size of these trees. Legend says people would cut the trees down and then hold dances on the stumps  because they were so big. 

These wood carvings were so fun. 

This particular tree stump shows the history of the world according to the age of the tree. It's so crazy to think how long these trees have been growing. 

After we finished at the "Trees of Mysteries", we checked into our hotel and then we went to get dinner. 
Then we all went back to our hotel rooms to get some sleep because we were exhausted from hiking around so much. 

The next morning we ate breakfast and then drove over to the "Drive Thru Tree". This was the thing I was most excited about. I don't really know why, but I couldn't wait to do this particular activity. I had been planning the photo in my head for months and I couldn't wait to experience it. 

Sadly, things did not go smoothly. 

So here's the story. Both Stephanie and I wanted to get pictures of our families as we drove through the tree. So before we drove up the hill to the tree, Stephanie hopped into our van. 
Then, before we entered the tree, she hopped out and walked through to record us and take pictures as we drove our van through this massive tree. 

Meanwhile, we rolled our windows down and opened the sunroof so the kids could peek out and get the full experience. We didn't expect the tunnel to be so narrow. It was an incredible tight fit. 

This is where the story takes a turn. When Stephanie got out of our van, she thought she hit the button to close to sliding door and with all the chaos of rolling down windows and opening the sunroof, we didn't realize the door didn't actually close and it was still fully open. 

So we get halfway through and Chris is being so careful because if you even turn your tires too far one way or the other, you will get stuck. Well then we heard a screeching sound and realized what had happened.  Because the door was open, we were too wide with that extra few inches and we couldn't fit.. 

So then the world fell apart as we desperately tried to back up enough to close the door, only to realize we couldn't back up or go forward without the door getting damaged. Seriously, the sounds that door was making will forever give me nightmares. 
We eventually realized we just had to bite the bullet and pull it closed inside the tunnel and listen as the metal door  made all sorts of terrible noises. 
You can imagine how ticked off Chris was and how much yelling was going on inside our van. It was loud enough to be heard outside the drive-thru tunnel and Stephanie had to quit recording because it was not sounding happy.

Chris definitely owed about $40 to the swear jar afterwards. 

We finally made it through. I hopped out of our angry van to photograph Stephanie's family as they drove through and then went down to see the full damage.  

Miraculously, the door was fine. There was a little bit of paint scratched off on the handle, but that was it. Seriously- it was a miracle. It sounded so much worse, we couldn't believe there wasn't more damage to the car. This helped calm Chris down. 

Needless to say, we didn't get any cute pictures. There was no way Chris was smiling after or during that ordeal. 

So we left and went to do some hikes inside the Redwood National Forest. 

After some time to cool down, I asked Chris if we could go back again and drive through one more time so I could get my picture. Remember, I had been looking forward to this for months. 
My indulgent husband obliged and we went back one more time and drove through, without incident, and I was able to get this cute picture!

This picture makes me laugh every time I see it, because of the story behind it and I hope it can bring us many laughs for years to come. 

But just take my word for it, make sure all your doors are closed when you drive through those trees- its such a tight fit. 

Now, back to the hikes. The trees were amazing and it really felt like we were in another world. 

 

Chris called us "tree-huggers" after this picture, but I really wanted to demonstrate how wide the trees were. We could hardly cover half the tree's circumference with our arms spread out. 

This is one of my favorite shots because it looks like we are on the planet of Endor in Star Wars. You know the one I'm talking about, the planet where the cute little E-woks live. 
The greenery and trees were unreal. We loved it. 

This tree is supposedly the largest tree in the state and its called "The Big Tree"

The boys had fun climbing up some the trees. They are wild!

 

From there we grabbed some lunch and went to the beach to play. 
Now the California coast is similar to the Oregon coast but maybe a little bit warmer. And there were tons of huge rocks on the shoreline. The kids loved climbing on them and seeing the mini tide pools that had formed. 

 

The cousins spent hours playing in the sand together and it was so cute to watch. 

You can tell from Tucker's face in this picture that the water still wasn't warm. Just maybe a few degrees warmer than the Oregon coast we had visited the previous week. 

Somehow, Bailey and Chase had no problem swimming in the freezing cold water. 
They are apparently crazy!

We had a great afternoon at the coast and didn't want it to end. 

However, with a little persuasion, we were able to talk the kids into going back to the hotel to change and then we went to get everyone burgers from this delicious diner down the road. 

Tanner especially loved his "avocado burger" and I'm not sure any other burger will be able to live up to this hype. 

Naturally we had to end the day with ice cream. 

Then it was back to the hotel for showers and bed. 
We let the kids hang out in our room all together, while the adults talked for a bit. 
But we didn't stay up super late because we really were exhausted. 

The next morning was our last day in California and we decided to visit the lighthouse in Crescent City before we started the long drive back. 

This lighthouse is still operational and run by volunteers. However, there is a little museum set up inside that houses some of the original lighthouse keeper's items. It was a cool tour and the kids loved climbing to the top for the panoramic view. 

Its such a cute little lighthouse. 

Then we walked across the path back from the lighthouse that is only accessible during low tide. 

Sadly, every time the tide goes out, it leaves behind a bunch of starfish. 
These starfish can only live so long without water and so they were already dead when we found them. 
Bailey and Tucker did try to move some that didn't feel totally stiff back into the water, but who knows if those efforts were in vain. 

Regardless, it made for some cool sea life hunting.

 

The little crabs were everywhere too but they were very much alive. 

We had fun exploring for a while and then we drove over to a nearby park to let the kids play while the dads went to grab lunch.

Then we ate lunch and started the long trek back to Oregon. It was really only 4.5-5 hours or so but after all our other driving, we weren't ready to be back in the car. 
However, the kids did great on the drive back and we all agreed, we had a wonderful visit to California.

Now stay tuned for part 3 of our trip and our last week in Oregon.