We made good time with just a few quick stops for bathroom and food breaks, but decided to take some extra time to play on the beach on our stop in Arlington, Oregon.
We made it to the Rushing Resort just in time for Cheer Camp. My nieces run a cheer camp every summer in their backyard. It’s very well organized which isn’t any surprise to anyone who knows Kennedy. She’s gonna run the country one day. Mia, Morgan and Hadley signed up and were excited to learn a new cheer, stunts and dance. Morgan enjoyed it for the first few minutes of each day and then she was done and sneaking back into the house to watch her favorite movies on Aunt Heidi’s computer. They did a performance for all of the parents at the end of the week. I loved Mia’s dance to “Call me, maybe”. She did the cutest ‘running girl’ and knew all of the words to the song.
Of course we did the traditional hike together. Scott promised me this one wouldn’t be as scary as Beacon Rock and I wouldn’t feel like I was going to fall off the mountain. I've always said I like hiking but I think I’ve finally accepted that I don’t like it at all. I have such an extreme fear of heights and falling off the edge of a trail that it just doesn’t go well with hiking. I do enjoy the exercise and the scenery, just not the trails to get there.
This hike was only a mile (which equals 2 hours when hiking with Morgan) and ended at a beautiful waterfall. It was definitely worth the hike and the scenery was beautiful. Everything was covered in green moss--the trail, the rocks, the trees.
The best way to get Morgan to walk and not ask to be carried every 20 seconds was to put her in charge of walking Bailey. Poor Bailey got more love, from Morgan, then she wanted on our vacation.
We spent an afternoon at Horseshoe Lake. It was warm and a perfect day for swimming and playing. Jack, Ryan and Cassidy swam the width of the lake over to the docks on the other side. Will enjoyed getting buried in the sand with the boys own little sand creations/castles on top of him.
Portland is known for their blackberries and there is an area in my sister’s neighborhood that is full of blackberry bushes, we decided to walk there with the kids and pick some berries for a cobbler. The pickings were slim and we were still a few weeks early. Mia was the lucky one who got to try the first berry to see if it was ready to eat or still a little sour. Love her face. Mine did the exact same thing when I tried one. Sourest berry ever!
Getting ready for our next road trip . . . Sunriver, Oregon.
The second half of our vacation was spent here in Sunriver. We rented a huge house that fit us all in-- 11 kids, 4 adults and 1 dog.
The deck overlooked the golf course where Gavin spent most of his time (with some of the kids) on this trip. I think he and Scott went golfing 5 times together. That may be more golf than Gavin has done in the past 5 years combined.
We spent a few days at the new pool. Griffin tried going down a big water slide for his first time and loved it. I had to force him to go down the first time. There was a huge line of people watching as I pried his fingers loose from the slide and carried him far enough down the tube and let go. Luckily he loved it!
We drove into Bend on Sunday for church.
And of course, it isn’t a trip to Sunriver without a few bike rides and deer sightings.
We didn’t play as many games, go to the pool or bike ride as much this time around because we were inside watching the Summer Olympics together.
We finished the trip with more golf. After the real game of golf ended, we all got to go do 'put put’ on part of the golf course. It was all fun and games until Griffin got hurt by a miniature golf club that was being balanced on Cassidy’s hand and fell and hit Griffin in the head. Fortunately he’s one tough kid. He cried for a minute but once we got the bleeding to stop, he wouldn’t let us put any ice on it and never complained about it again.
As much as I love vacations and traveling, there’s nothing that compares to coming back home. After 10 days and 2000 miles on the road, we were all glad to be home again. And Mia let us know that she never wants to go anywhere that long in the car again.
