PS Now you all need to go visit them! Darin and I painted their family room as our Christmas present. It turned out good (if we say so ourselves, hee hee) And that sent Mom on a path that could not be altered. I mean that positively. Now Dad has painted the kitchen and the living room. GO Mom and Dad! It must be a whooooole new house. We all need to check it out!
Secondly, as I mentioned before, we went to Utah. I finally got my act together and took almost 400 pictures. (Heidi, you are beeming with pride now aren't you?!) As the months pass and I have nothing interesting to say, I'll have to send out random pictures. It really was a lot of fun and there are already plans in the works for next year in Utah. Can we vote for California in 2010??!! :) Thanks Mom and Dad Phippen for a great time! And for all the cousins, who helped wrangle our kids. We are so blessed to have such nice nieces and nephews on both sides. And especially Camille and Carri who let Darin and I go on a hike and a four wheeler ride kid free. ALONE. WAHOOOO!
Poor Ellie, As you can see she is fast asleep on Darin's back. She was so exhausted, she had to find a way to sleep somehow. She just laid her head down and she was OUT! This is us at Cedar Breaks National Monument- July 24th
Our last trip was to Lincoln Beach, Oregon. Last year, Shelley(my eldest sister) and her husband Darren mentioned we should get together in Oregon. They live in Washington so it would be a meet in the middle if we hit OR. We readily agreed since we have not yet explored any of northern CA or Oregon at all. Little did we know at the time what an awesome trip it would turn out to be. We first met our dear friends Young and Rob Powell outside of Sacramento. I met Young in high school and I grew up with Rob in my ward for years. Young joined our Church her senior year and we have shared a bond that will last the eternities for sure. We have had the hardest time getting together and I was determined to meet. We had a few hours together and it was SOOOOoooo good to see her and her four girls. Yes, FOUR girls. What can I say? Bosom buddies think and well I guess reproduce the same. Ha ha. They are darling girls and we wish we were closer. Here they all are lined up!
We then went on to Redding and spent the night and went to Church. A very fascinating chapel by the way. I wish I could have taken a picture of the inside. It was interesting to say the least. That is for another entry. But we did go see the Sundial Bridge on Saturday evening. It is a glass topped bridge that spans the Sacramento River. As the name implies it tells the time (although not acurately). It was amazing. Our girls loved it and it was spectacular. They light it up at night, but we had to miss that so that will have to be for another trip. It is beautiful, especially to us who have not seen very many bridges. SLC and PHX don't have too many bodies of water to cross!
After Redding, CA, we headed on up to Salem and met Shelley and Darren. They have two girls, Mikayla and Whitney. Shelley and Darren took us to Silver Falls State Park on Monday morning and I think it has got to be one of the prettiest places on earth. It was Garden of Eden green. We saw like 7 (or was it more Darren?) different waterfalls in a 3 mile hike. It was waterfall after waterfall and so pretty in between too.
From there, we headed to the coast to enjoy a house we had rented a block from the beach. We got so lucky that the house was so nice and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Yea, we didn't get the sunshine we had hoped for, but what do you expect? It is Oregon! In some ways it was almost a welcome sight for us sundrenched Californians. The water was freezing but our kids did not even seem to notice. Ellie ran out yelling wa wa (water) and joined her sisters in the water. But the minute her toes touched the water, she said that was ENOUGH for her. She cried and seemed mortally afraid of the noise and afraid we were going to put her back in. Eventually she seemed to like it a little better. We went to an aquarium, climbed two lighthouses, saw some tidepools, saw several whales and even a seal. I think I almost broke Darin's eardrum when I caught sight of the whale. We were walking down the street hand in hand (thanks Shelley and Darren for some alone time, ahh it was sooo very nice) and I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I screamed "WHALE, WHALE!!" I was going nuts with excitement and probably embarassing Darin to death, good thing he loves me! I was yelling so loud I am sure everyone on the block heard me, but nobody else seemed as excited. Boo hoo. Come on people. It was a WHALE! :) LOL! We even sort of flew a kite. It was windy up until we bought a kite, and then everyday we tried after that there was hardly any wind. It was funny to see Darin running up the beach like a mad man trying to get it up. (Yes, it was funny!) But one day, it mostly stayed up! The kite must of been a little doomed from the start. We parralled parked along a main street and I sat in the car with the kids while Darin went in with the Wilkes to get a kite. I got the scare of my life when a motorhome tried to take off the side of the van. I screamed bloody murder, honked and chased them down the street before they stopped. Only they took off after I went to check on the kids and get Darin. That got my blood boiling. I don't know how they live with themselves not knowing if someone was hurt or how much damage they did. (thankfully it wasn't much, just the side mirror, but we salvaged the poor thing from off the sidewalk.) But enough with the one dark moment. The tidepools were one of the kids favorites and it was fascinating after going to the aquarium to go and see all of the sea life in their true habitat. The whole trip was just so fun, being with the Wilkes (we love you guys! thank you SOOOO much), seeing a new state, and being on the ocean. It has to be one of our favorite vacations. All in all, Kate still wins the prize for the best summary: "this is the best summer ever!"
No comments:
Post a Comment