Camping with the Girls

Our annual Girls Camping Trip was at Suzann's farm this year. It was SO fun! The girls had a ball climbing trees, wading in the creek, riding in the tractor... there was so much to do!

There was lots of playing dolls and Barbies in the shade of the trees.

Gramma Midge busted out the "Poor Man's" silk screen (a coffee filter!) and roup pictures in the t-shirts they made.

It was such a great time! The bummer was that Casey and her girls couldn't be there... and my girls and I had to leave a day early. We're already thinking about the fun we'll have next year!

What the What??

It's November? {Technically, closer to December.} Ali has been giving me a hard time about not updating the blog in forever. I don't know what has been so different about this school year; life usually gets extremely hectic in September! However, this year has been really overwhelming... I haven't even taken pictures like I usually do. Huhm. Is it too early to make New Year's Resolutions? :)

The Pacific Northwest

There's just something about Oregon... and each time I've been somewhere else (especially someplace hot and dry!) I'm always reminded why I live here.

Trav said his favorite sight on our trip was Crater Lake. Thousands of miles, around several states... and his favorite is right here. Who knew? It is a pretty spectacular place!

We went on a couple of different hikes by the river and around our campground. We had lunch at a great little restaurant along the highway, and of course, had to stop by the ice cream shop.

Almost Home!

On our way back to Oregon we stayed a couple of nights in Salt Lake City. Trav says this was his favorite campground. Mostly because it was the first time we weren't in a hurry to the next landmark. We got to take some extra time and relax. :)

The Great Salt Lake

And then, it was a lot of nothing. And, more nothing. For a very long time.

Colorado Springs & Arches

This was our actual destination... we just took the long way to get here! :) It was so great to see everyone, and the girls were super excited to play with Marisa again. We went out to lunch, went shopping, hung out and caught up.

One of the nights we were there we got to watch an amazing lightning "show" that was happening out in the back fields. In fact, Merilyn says this was coolest thing she saw on our trip. :)

There wasn't any lightning going on in this photo!

On the 4th of July we headed over to Grandma Karen's sister's for a barbeque/family get-together. It was hot, hot, hot! But, fun. :) The girls had a ball with the other kids and Merilyn lost another tooth!

After we left Grandpa Ken and Grandma Karen, we went on to Arches National Park. Ali and I both think that one day we'd like to come back here and do some more hiking and exploring. This park was pretty amazing!

How does it do that!?

It was another very hot day... whew! But, the girls got a kick our of climbing up, down, and around the giant rocks.

Mt. Rushmore

I imagine that if I tried to put our whole trip on one post it might take a full day to read. We don't have the time for that, right? :)

Moving on to Mt. Rushmore... This was one spot that we could all agree on; super cool!

It was very bright! Miss Meri was having a hard time keeping her eyes open and smiling at the same time.

We enjoyed the hike all around the base checking out the information about each president. We were excited to be standing right where they were in National Treasure!

Summer Trip

Summer is usually the time when I can get caught up on this blog... what's going on? Here is it August, and I'm posting pictures from June! Oh well... :)

We took our first major roadtrip-family vacation this summer. We were originally headed to Colorado to visit Grandpa Ken and Grandma Karen (Trav's dad), and I thought, "As long as we're going, why don't we..." Poor Travis. :)

Our first landmark we visited was Yellowstone. Amazingly beautiful! Ali thought this was the coolest sight we saw along the trip. She loved the geisers and the hot steam that blew off and on.

Of course, Old Faithful was amazing! 

The next stop on our adventure was at Custer's Last Stand - Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana. This was very interesting... for Travis and I. :) It was one of the hottest days for us, and the girls were having a hard time finding anything special about this place.

The headstone with the black belongs to Custer.

Mer was pretty hot. Can you tell?

We drove the whole loop so Trav could check everything out. I was really missing my dad at the battlefield. This was the kind of stuff that brought that man such joy! :)