lava

the whole k family got off for a couple days to go camping this past weekend.

but my family had already planned on going up to the cabin that weekend, so we went with the original plan and got to spend a little time with the m clan.

friday, the girls had a blast with some of their other cousins running around and playing.

we sneaked out of the cabin and went to the swimming pool in town to play on their speed slides while grandma and grandpa watched the girls.

so. much. fun.

i can't wait to do it again.

saturday we just hung around until it was time to go home.

only we decided that we were going to stay another night.

so we did.

and on our way home yesterday, we got to stop and see my brother and sil's new baby girl.

such a cutie.

then we stopped in twin to see shoshone falls.

we had so much fun and can't wait until we have another chance to go back and have some more fun!

california/oregon coast, final installment

our next stop was portland.

mt. hood

we spent wednesday at the oregon museum of science and industry.

pretty sure the mr. enjoyed it more than the girls.

okay, me too.

the exhibits were very cool.

while there, we went to the planetarium.

then we grabbed lunch before heading to our imax show.

never again.

it's not even the height of the theater that bugs me.

it's the whole 'in your face' part.

it makes me dizzy when the whole room feels like it's moving.

so now in addition to 3d movies, the mr. has to go to imax movies by himself too.

the next day, we headed to the zoo.

m slept through some of it, but b really liked it.

b next to the life size photo of a baby elephant.

after the zoo, we were going to go to the portland children's museum.

but because we were tired we skipped out.

it also didn't help that they charged admission for m too.

really?  she was barely 13 months!

so we had a late lunch and did a little sightseeing.

we went to fort vancouver but only made it there 15 minutes before they were closing, so they wouldn't let us in.

much better photo of mt. hood

we stayed one more night and headed home the next day.

on the way home, we stopped at multnomah falls.

it's literally just a couple miles off of the interstate.

in fact, you can get off the interstate, keep driving the direction you were heading on the interstate for like 8 miles and then get right back on the interstate like you never got off.

well worth the extra half hour to see it.

wahkeena falls before you get to multnomah falls

multnomah falls and the beautiful lodge there

aaand the girls about 5 minutes from home.

can you tell they were done with the car?

we had a ton of fun and hope to be able to go back sometime in the spring one year.

and maybe we'll wait till they get a little better in the car :)

california/oregon coast, part five

after our stop in the redwoods, we continued up the coast and into oregon.

we first stopped in gold beach.

the plan was to stop and eat at a place that came recommended and then continue on.

we found the restaurant.

it was closed.

just for the month of january.

so we found a subway instead.

the rogue river in gold beach

we wanted to stop in bandon and check out the west coast game park but they were only open on weekends during january.

there are several lighthouses along the coast as well, but we knew that tours don't open until april, so we vetoed those too.

one of the bridges as we were driving into newport.

we're dorks, we know, but we thought it was cool that a portion of the bridge moved to allow boats to pass.

so our final stop and stay for the night was going to be in newport.

when we got to newport, we found a restaurant that was on the beach because the mr. wanted seafood and this would be our last night on the coast.

we picked the best restaurant and the best night to go.

they were having their customer appreciation night, which only happens once a year.

everything was half off.

yay, us.

so the plan for tuesday was to head to the wax works and ripley's believe it or not.

we were going to skip the oregon coast aquarium because we were planning on going to the zoo when we got to portland.

so we head out tuesday morning to head to the places we had planned.

well, as luck would have it, the wax works and ripley's were closed on tuesdays.

they were open mondays.

they were open wednesday.

just not tuesday.

just a note of advice:  don't go to the coast in january/february.

it's their off season.

we knew some things wouldn't be open because we checked ahead of time.

we just didn't know all the things we were planning on doing would be closed randomly too.

newport

so instead, we walked down the boardwalk to find salt water taffy.

because really, you can't go to the coast and not get salt water taffy.

well, i can't.

we stopped a little candy store called newport candy shoppe.

yummy.

then, since we were in newport and had already planned on spending the day there, we decided to head to the aquarium.

the girls loved it.

so glad we decided to go.

we got to watch them feed the sea otters.

then the girls got to feel sea creatures in the touch pool.

b was loving that.

and then of course, we had to play on a couple of the statues before we left.

then we stopped somewhere between depoe bay and lincoln city to get some pictures on the beach.

b and the mr. would run from the waves so they couldn't get them.

so cute.

california/oregon coast, part four

after our trip up highway 1, we stopped and stayed in eureka, ca for the night.

then we started back up the coast.

we got to see a lot of the pacific ocean and a ton of redwoods.

elk that could care less that we were less than 50 yards away from them.

of course, they're in a national forest, so i guess i wouldn't care either.

the mr. loves the mossy trees.

me?  pretty, but i'd rather have non-mossy trees because that means it's not as wet.

the trees were massive!