4th of July week

 

One of the fun things we did this summer was go down to Vancouver, Wa to visit my sister and her family and then onto Oregon to visit our good friends.

We had three things we wanted to do and we ended up planning it so that we could do them all in one week.

First, my sister had been begging (ha) to have my kids come down and visit her and her kids. Like, just my kids, not me ;) But then, what would I do, I don’t know, so we worked it out so that we all visited for 3 days and then Jeff and I left to go down to Oregon for 2 days and Lesha and Peter kept our kids, minus Gage.

So this worked out awesome. We all drove down on the 4th of July which was Thursday. We took our time driving, as usual. Picnicked along the way. We hung out with them, swimming and going to the neighboring parks. That night the dads did fireworks with the kids and we all watched and awed.

The next day we went to a fun beach and it was really warm and beautiful. Then on another day we went to a pretty waterfall and some of us hiked to the top of the falls (Jeff, Braxton, Carson) while the rest of us waded in the stream below.

My sister and I went into Portland one night shopping, got ourselves lost, then came home with ice cream for our husbands.

We got to go to church with her family and meet lots of her new friends.

So second, on Sunday Jeff, Gage, and I left to drive 2 more hours down to Oregon to stay with our friends, Jeff and Shelby. They are getting married in October, Yay!, and Adelle and I are in the wedding so I wanted to be able to help her with wedding things. We had a great visit with them, eating Jeff’s famous bar-b-q’d meat and playing with their dog, Gunner.

On Monday they both had to work so Jeff and Gage and I had a date day. We had so much fun pretending Gage was our only child. We went to Salem and visited a used book store where we each found a book. We visited the farmer’s market and bought some homemade pita chips that were amazing. We walked around an old museum which had a beautiful landscape and lots of flowers. Then we went to a local favorite spot and had a wonderful breakfast/lunch. We went and walked along the river, did some window shopping in downtown Corvallis, went to Afton farm and walked all around and explored the farm… Had just a glorious day. Then when Shelby got off of work we all went and watched Jeff’s softball game (where he hit a homerun!) and hung out in the shade. That night we went to Thai food and then back to their place to visit.

Finally, third, on Tuesday Jeff got to go back to Afton Farm and help them process their chickens. Like chickens  said goodbye to their lives and he got to be right in the dirty of it all. Pretty awesome! This is something that we eventually want to do and Jeff has been learning all about it so it was really great for him to be able to get some hands on experience with it. I would have loved to help but Gage and I instead spent the morning on a long walk, and addressing wedding invites. I am not experienced enough to take my little babe with me to the slaughter. But, we did show up in time to get some pictures and to be graciously given some fresh (that seems like such an understatement in this context) whole chickens. We picked up Jeff and then hit the road back to Vancouver to grab our other children and make the drive home.

We had a really great week. Lots of fun things and lots of memories made.