Ross Family Reunion

After driving back to Salem and spending a night at a hotel, we drove to Tillamook for the Ross family reunion with my mom, Jim, and some aunts, uncles, and cousins. Another terrifically fun trip! Seriously, my kids are never going to be satisfied with lame ol' summers ever again!

*A random, for memory sake side note. For some reason whilst in Oregon Tyler found the most random places to sleep and terrified me twice. I had this fear that he would follow someone outside and get hopelessly lost. The first time, in Sunriver, Mark and Kyle had gone on a bike ride and a little while later I realized I hadn't seen Tyler for a while. I searched all over the house and ran around outside screaming his name. Someone finally found him fast asleep under the dining room table completely hidden under a blanket. Who sleeps like that? The second time was at the beach. Mark woke up early to go on a run. When I woke up Tyler was not in his bed and no where to be found. Once again I ran around the whole house and outside terrified that he had tried to follow Mark and gotten lost. Finally someone found him fast asleep on a couch completely covered in pillows. REALLY? That kid needs to find better ways to sleep. Ok now back to the regular post.

Our beach house was up a steep, big hill covered in bushes and trees. Getting down to the beach was a slip, sliding adventure, going back up was a completely different story. The ground was sand so basically it was a two steps forward, one step back kind of progress. On our first trip to the beach we found a whole sand dollar and lots of other broken shells. Clara loved running around until she stepped in a deceptively deep puddle and got soaked. I then had to carry her wet, sopping body up that ridiculous hill. Every time I stopped to breathe she cried even louder. It's pretty cold at the Oregon coast, especially when you're soaked. Talk about exercise! 

Before the fall in the puddle.

 For Clara's birthday, my mom made her this princess dress....

 And this matching princess quilt, with built in pockets for stuffed princess dolls. Clara LOVED the presents. I have a hard time convincing her to wear a different dress long enough for me to wash the princess dress.

 Tyler giving some loves to grandma

 My mommy and auntie.

 Nap time with grandma

Tyler fell in love with grandma's dog. He followed her around the whole time and wanted to hold her constantly! Someday we'll have to get this kid a dog...someday.

 Tyler and cousin Jackson with great grandma. Grandma loved being with lots of her family all under one roof. 

You can't be in Tillamook and not go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We had a delicious lunch at the Tillamook cafe of grilled cheese and ice cream.

 Tyler in the cheese van

 Farmer Mark and Cow Tyler

Lots and lots of beach pictures:

 On one of Mark's runs he discovered this cave that leads to a different beach with lots of tide pools and fun things to see. The next day we all woke up early so we could take the kids while the tide was low enough. 

At the mouth of the cave.

The rocks were covered...I mean completely covered in sea life. If you walked on them you squished life. Some rocks were covered with shells and muscles, but some were covered with thousands of sea anemones - every square inch. I wish I could have seen them all when they were covered in water and opened up. It must be super colorful! There were also tons of starfish! 

 This isn't a cave, it's actually a big hole in the rock. 

 Tyler took these..hence the finger.

 We found a live jelly fish in a tide pool. No touchy!

 I finally talked Tyler into touching an anemone. 

 He obviously loved it......

 We found the biggest crab we'd seen yet. It was alive! But when we came back later it was gone. So we had to settle for this dead one. 

 Dead or alive...Tyler didn't want much to do with it at first.

 He eventually got more comfortable. 

Another wonderful trip with my wonderful family! It was so much fun that I really struggled when we had to leave. So did the kids. For days afterward they kept asking when we'd go back to Oregon. Hopefully soon kids, hopefully soon!

Sunriver

The day after we returned from San Diego, we flew to Oregon for some fun with my family. We spent the first night at my mom's house and then drove the 3 hours to Sunriver for some time with my dad and Sheila and my sibs. Our poor kids had traveled A LOT the past week so we stopped half way to Sunriver and did some exploring. Oh Oregon! You're so beautiful!

I made Clara her first ever daisy chain necklace.

While in Sunriver Tyler learned how to ride a two wheeler! I love his face!

 Lots of walks and bike rides on the bike paths

 One of the first orders of business was to walk through the lava tube. Mark thought the kids would get tired or scared or cold, since it's long and dark and cold, but they really loved it. I just have to realize our kids are a lot more adventurous than we think they are.

 Getting ready to walk into that deep dark cave!

 We all decided to take a lot of selfies at the entrance. I only have mine, but there were many many selfies taken.

 We played at two different parks that were both equally, awesomely fun!

Like this park that had a slide that went down to the shore of the river.

 And this awesome pirate ship that played music if you wound up the crank.

 And this park in Sunriver that my siblings and I played at as kids.

And where I got my first ever Madi kiss!!

Tyler too.

I swear I have only ever seen tire swings in Oregon. I have never ever seen any in California. Another point for Oregon.

 And what we referred to as the Christmas tree. A big Christmas tree shaped merry go round type of thing.

 After our husbands played an exciting, heart pumping game of tether ball, Katelyn and I tried our hand at the game. We weren't nearly as good, but it was fun all the same.

 Tyler climbed over the bar arch for the first time...oh that's probably because this is the first time he's ever seen one. California and their weird safe parks.

Two days were spent at the SHARC Aquatic center. They had 2 huge water slides that Tyler couldn't wait to go down, but unfortunately they had a height limit. Ugh. Safety regulations.  So instead we helped our kids hop from stump to stump more times than I can count.

Playing with Papa was the best!

 Game night with my grandma (great grandma for my kids). She is a pretty intense gamer. Don't mess with grandma!

Story time with grandma and papa

 Group shot

Clara dressed herself. I adore the fashionista in her!

 Tyler and cousin Wyatt. They had so much fun together!

Our leisurely row down the river. Poor Clara couldn't join us because she decided to start throwing up that day. Sweet Uncle Andrew volunteered to stay with her since he couldn't row after recent shoulder surgery. After setting out in 3 separate rafts we used our life jackets to tie our rafts together and floated down the river like a big island. Good use for life jackets for sure. Don't worry, the kids kept theirs on. The water was SO cold! Mark jumped in and his face was hilarious. We eventually talked Tyler into getting in and you would have thought he jumped into the arctic. After that I decided to just stay in the boat. We only had one scare when one of the little cousins fell in the water and got sucked under the boats. Superman Mark grabbed her just before her head went under and pulled her up. PHEW! Way to go Mark! 

It was such a fun, wonderful, amazing trip! I tried harder than ever to talk Mark into moving to Bend. I mean look at it! Unfortunately, other people have the same idea and real estate is freakishly expensive. Looks like we're stuck in California for now.