Oregon Coast Day 2

We headed out trailing the RV.

First stop was a beach that had a ship wreck.
I had never seen so many pelicans! They were everywhere. It was neat to watch them dive for fish.

What kid doesn't love a good treasure?!

Lots of broken sand dollars, crab parts, little fish and a few jelly fish.

Jessie really took a liking to Uncle Dano

The Ship Wreck of Peter Iredale One ship that did not make it over the sandbars at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Fort Stevens State park has a fort that was built during the Civil War to protect the Columbia River. The fort was rebuilt during WWII to protect the Columbia from the Japanese and then was deactivated after WWII. Lots of historic buildings, gun emplacements and military stuff! Brigham was in heaven.

The bomb storage

We went over to the shores of the Columbia and spotted this daddy eagle with his eaglet.

Ft. Stevens has miles of biking trails all over. It was a beautiful ride!

We headed to Astoria to see where they had filmed Goonies, but we were surprised by what a charming little town we found.

A little History of Astoria: Oldest American community west of the Mississippi. Beautiful restored Victorian homes look out across the Columbia to Washington. 1805-06 Lewis & Clark built a fort near Astoria to establish American claim. 5 years later, in 1811, fur traders working for John Jacob Astor arrived at the mouth of the Columbia to setup a fur trading post and called it Fort Astoria. IN the War of 1812 the British took it over but returned it to US hands. It was a booming fishing town in the 1880's.

The jail the Fratelli's escape from.

This is Data's house. You may remember he zip lines from his window into the Walsh's screen door and the statue gets knocked over in the commotion. Also in the driveway is where Brand notices they let the "air out of his brand new tires" and he steals data's little sister's bike.

The street the Goonies ride their bikes down on their way to find the treasure.

They wave to Mr. Walsh who is working at the Flavel Museum.

Port of Astoria

I am posting this picture to remember our very own Sloth. Christian must have hit his head sometime because his forehead just kept swelling up right between his eyes. He looked pretty weird for sometime.

The kids loved watching and listening to the seal all over the dock.

We picked up a yummy pizza dinner and headed up the hill to see the Astoria Column.

Astoria Column was built in 1926 125ft patterned after Trajan's Column in Rome. Mural depicts the history of the area.

164 stairs to the top with an breathtaking 360 degree view

The huge Rv looks like a little spec from this high up

What amazing weather! The sun was shining and the views were awesome! So lucky

On our way back to our campsite we stopped for a bird show. This group has rescued and rehabilitated many birds. It was neat to learn a little about the many birds native to the Oregon Coast.

I love to end the day with watching the sunset. What a rare treat it was to see the sun all day!

Oregon Coast Day 1

The kids and I spent most of Monday 8.06.12 packing and getting the house ready for our trip to Washington. Mike came home at around 10pm that night and asked if I was tired. We both agreed that we weren't tired and we packed all the sleeping kiddos in the van and headed out right then. A long car ride is so much better when everyone is sleeping. Mike drove most of the way and we surprised Brook and Daniel's babysitter Tuesday 8.07.12 morning around 10am.

It was fun to see Pasco and were Brook and Daniel have their home. A beautiful city and every store and restaurant right there around their home. Their house was beautiful and the kids loved the trampoline.

That night Dan & Mike went to go pick up the RV so we could get it packed and leave for Portland early in the morning.

We drove along the Columbia River which was absolutely gorgeous. The mountains and the trees and the water! Daniel drove while Mike navigated.

The carnage that morning!

Mike was able to do a bit of work while traveling.

First stop was Multnomah Falls in Oregon.

Now I show you this picture to remember that Mike took off with a couple of kids to check things out while we were trying to get kids dressed and babies put in backpacks and such. In the meantime there were a couple of buses that pulled up and unloaded. As we made our way around the buses we saw they were filled with old people and Chinese girls. We walked as fast as we could to pass them up and had a good laugh!

Just beautiful! We walked up to the bridge to get a closer view.

Man that's a lot of kids in there!

We began to see the advantages to RV parking!

Then Daniel maneuvered us through Portland to the Portland Zoo.

The Zoo was very nice and a nice job (I thought)of educating visitors on all the different habitats/animals of the Pacific Northwest.

With Mike's camera, Katelyn's camera and my camera plus pictures from Brook we have enough pictures of animals to last us a life time.
here are some highlights of the zoo.

B is for Brigham and for Bear

Eagles Nest

Jessie what ya going for there?

This persistent goat really liked Mike.

The Elephants

Majestic Sea Lions

Look how these cuties measure up.

Tyler trying to be king of the jungle

Up close with the desert folk

Amy went into this little petting zoo area and Daniel walked up and asked anyone if they wanted to pet a "Amy". That Daniel what a riot he is!

Toot Termites on top of their gi-normous hill!

My personal favorite was the bats. I had never seen such a habitat and bats awake even! It was fascinating to me!

Awesome dads and their many wild animals. We had a great day at the zoo!

That evening we bedded down in Ft. Stevens State Park. Daniel fit the RV in its space like a glove. The dads took some kids down to explore the beaches while moms got the camp and dinner ready.

Wedding In Manti

We recently had a lovely Saturday trip to Manti for Mike's cousin's wedding.

We had missed Kimbal's when we were in FL and were sad when we missed Shannon's so we were glad when it all worked out to be there for Dayna's wedding.

The temple was gorgeous and so was the bride! It was fun to get to see all the family and especially Uncle Mike and Tiffany who we hadn't seen in at least 5 years!


Good to visit with everyone.

It was my first time being in the Manti Temple. I was glad we had a little time to wait before the wedding so we could look a round for a bit. I love that old pioneer workmanship. To think they built this beautiful House of the Lord without trucks and power tools. The faith and the sacrifice stuns me. It was just neat to stand and look around.

Archery at Snowbird

Mike and Tyler went up to Snowbird on July 21st for an archery event.
There were several targets spread all over the mountain. They hiked around and practiced shooting at different animal targets. Mike said Tyler was a great archer. Tyler came home on Cloud 9.

Tyler is looking forward to going out for a bit with Mike and his brothers on the hunt at the end of August.

Mt. Timpanogos Caves

On July 31st, we headed up American Fork Canyon and hiked up to tour the three caves inside Mt. Timpanogos. It was a steady 1 1/2 mile hike up to the cave entrance climbing a little more than 1000 feet. It was a not-so-hot sunny day and a beautiful hike!

The pictures are a bit fuzzy and dark because they were taken with my iPod, but at least I had that. The kids did a great job of hiking. They were amazed with the cave and Brigham began to relax when the tour guide assured him there were no bats. The formations inside were amazing. I had been to Carlsbad Caverns when I was younger and didn't remember seeing so many different kinds of formations.
 Brigham was about the only one in our group that asked questions and he asked A LOT of questions. Before we entered the cave we had been talking about the existence of a prehistoric lake  and how we would have been under water where we were standing outside the cave. So Briggy got it in his head that the caves would have been filled with the ancient sea to and he likened all formations to some kind of sea animal. One room had a lot of flowstone and he said it was a "group of those things that sting you really bad" -jellyfish.The tour guide was nice and patient.
You could see water lines from previous years and could tell that this year was definetly a drought year. I thought it was cool to see a vault line. Amazing stuff!

Lori and Brent were so nice to watch Jessie and Christian for me ALL DAY! It was fun to just be with the four oldest and give them a bit more of my attention and talk with them. 

We went to eat at the Creamery afterwards!

Jessie loved the fry sauce!

This Is The Place

We hadn't been here in a couple of years and a good friend in our ward had been volunteering with her kids all summer so we said ... why not?

Love this place and we were surprised at all the new things to do!

The Petting Zoo- they rode the ponies and tormented all the sheep and ducks. There were some new little piggies that Jessie loved. It was awesome for everyone to try to milk the fake cow! When exiting the stables we ere approached by a "traveling doctor". He was concerned about a recent outbreak of children turning into goats. He said that if we did not drink his remedy we would turn into goats if we had touched the goats. He proceeded to open his case of a ll sort of colored viles of "remedies". You should have seen Brigham's eyes! The best $1 I have spent. So we bought a vile and made sure everyone got a drink!

Brigham was petting the sheep and I told him how the ranchers shave the sheep and thenturn the wool into thread and make clothes with it. Then he laid his face on the back of the sheep and said " Oooo this is soft. I would where his wool."

Our friends- The Andersons

It just happens that they give tour guides about baking and gardening at the Anderson home. April serves in the primary presidency with me and we have kids about the same age. April homeschools her kids and as year round education she signed up this summer to volunteer. They work every Wednesday throughout the summer from about 10am-2pm. She bakes a pie using the berries from the yard each day they are there. It was fun to learn about what they do and see their pioneer costumes!

Deseret News is Amy's favorite place to go. We got some hard candy at ZCMI. Watched the Blacksmith make fish hooks. Panned for gold and then took the gold to the bank and traded it for more hard candy. Went in all the little cabins along the way and learned about the wonderful pioneers that sacrificed so much and lived such meager lives to settle wonderful Utah!

Another train ride around a pond. Watched real Indians making beaded belts and weave a blanket. K, A and Ty helped in making a rug. Brig aboard the Brooklyn that brought pioneers to San Francisco to settle the west. And off course, who doesn't love a donut ( B. Young's original recipe)!