Oregon Coast - part 3.

On Tuesday morning, I was still sick in bed.  But Auntie Angie and Grandma took Clara down to the beach to check out the tide pools.  They saw tons of orange and purple starfish, and sea anemones which Clara lovingly called "sea Emmys", and I think they may have seen some sea urchins too.  They had a ball.  Clara touched a lot of creatures.  She's not afraid!

Once they returned from the beach, I woke up from my 20 hour nap and cleaned up and felt a whole lot better.  So we decided to drive to the town lighthouse and do a tour.  Sadly, we were all wearing open toed shoes, so we couldn't climb the 12 foot ladder to the top.  So we just looked around down below, and Clara got a cute souvenir, Crabby, a little stuffed crab.  Thanks Grandma!

We wandered a little more around Old Town Bandon, visited the museum and learned all about Bandon's history.  There were two fires in the early 1900s, town industry history included artifacts from cranberries, blueberries, fishing, (among other things...I was chasing a 2 year old around begging her to keep her hands in her pockets!).  The museum also had some pretty cool ship artifacts and military stuff.  They also had artifacts from the indigenous people of Bandon and the surrounding area.  It was a nice little tribute to the town, and we all liked learning a little more about the place we were calling home for the week.

Tuesday afternoon, we also visited the Bandon creamery.  The original Bandon creamery was bought by Tillamook, and was closed in Bandon long ago.  There was some bad blood between Tillamook and the way the people of Bandon wanted the creamery run, or something!  But in the last little bit, they've opened a new Bandon creamery with delish cheese curds, ice cream, and other sauces.  It was fun to visit their gorgeous facility, watch the employees stuffing plastic bags with cheese curds that we ended up sampling and buying right outside those windows, and Clara enjoyed a bowl of milk chocolate chip ice cream, which may be her new favorite!

We headed back to Steve and Mary's house for the evening, and had a scallop dinner.  Yum!  After dinner, Mary and Clara started a little nightly tradition of having a dance party.  Clara loved it and learned all sorts of cool "vintage" dances like the monkey, the pony, the twist, among others.  Don't be offended by my use of the word "vintage" to describe those dances (Mom).

We then watched Bridesmaids, because some of us in the group hadn't seen it.  That movie cracks me up, and everyone enjoyed it.  Since the family had seen skunks the night before, we all wanted to flash on the outside lights before bed to see if any creatures decided to pay a visit that night.  Well sure enough!  There was an opossum outside enjoying the fallen bird seed!  Sick!  They gross me out!  But it made the night exciting!

Stay tuned for more from our trip in part 4, tomorrow!

Oregon Coast Trip - part 2.

After our wonderful dinner that first night, we all headed to bed to get ready for the next day, which was to be our first full day at the ocean.

We woke up the next morning, which was Monday, had a little bite and some coffee, and decided we girls would walk to town.  It was a 2 mile walk to town, all along a little road called Beach Loop which hugged the coast.  It was so fun to see the different houses and gardens and flowers along the way.  Once we got to town, we visited a few shops and then the men drove down to meet us for lunch.  At that point, I wasn't feeling 100%.  But I told myself mind over matter, and moved on with the day.

We shopped a little more in Old Town Bandon, and then decided to walk home so everyone could enjoy a nice, coastal, afternoon nap.  We got back and I felt terrible.  I was in a panic.  Everyone in my family, including Kurtis and Clara, had been dealing with the stomach flu the week before, and I was terrified it was hitting me.  It tortured me for the rest of that day.  I tossed my cookies in Steve and Mary's gorgeous new beach house toilet.  Not pretty.

Here's my pity-party selfie shot taken as I was laying in bed.  It does look like I'm wearing some super cool daisy headband, but I'm not.  That's just the pretty quilted pillow sham I'm resting my sick head on.

From what I'm told, everyone else enjoyed happy hour and dinner together that evening.  And later that night, a family of skunks (a mom and 5 babies) visited the bird feeders behind Steve and Mary's place.  Everyone watched them from the windows inside, and Clara loved to see skunks up close and personal.

To add to the excitement, Tica (Brad and Angie's dog) had to go outside to do her business and decided to pay a visit to the family of skunks.  The story I heard was that it wasn't pretty.  Kurtis and Brad spent a good part of the late evening scrubbing Tica with Dawn and baking soda to try to rid her of the stink and make her swollen eye deflate a little.

This trip was not starting out perfectly.  Not at all.  I think everyone went to be hoping that Tuesday would be a little better...

Oregon Coast Trip - part 1.

We were so lucky to be able to stay in Bandon, Oregon for a week.  We were invited by Clara's Auntie Angie to stay at her Dad's and Mary's house.  We had such a fabulous week.  We missed Brian and Christianne, but everyone else from the family was able to make it.

The trip wasn't perfect...in fact, it started out pretty poorly.  We knew we had a 10-12 hour drive ahead of us on Sunday the 8th.  And about an hour and a half into the drive, Clara vomited all over herself and her carseat.  So that was fun.

We stopped in an awesome little town called Sisters, Oregon for lunch.  It was the halfway point, so it was a good time to take a break.  Clara seemed to perk up, and after a little running around, it was back to the truck for the next leg of the trip.  Barf again.  But this time, her amazing and talented mother caught the sickness in a McDonalds orange juice cup.  Thank God!

Here is a quick phone shot from inside the truck of the mountains outside of Sisters.

After being sick again, Clara promptly fell asleep, and slept for a good chunk of the rest of the drive to Bandon.  Bandon is located in southern Oregon, and to get there, we drove to Eugene and headed south, and west, and south again.  We got out of the trucks upon arrival, unloaded some of our stuff, and promptly headed to the beach, which was a quick 5 minute walk away.  Maybe less.

This is what we were greeted with!  Stunning!

 It was so fun to watch Clara enjoy the waves and the sand.  This was her first ocean experience, so that made it even more special.

  

After the beach, we headed back to Steve and Mary's to have a bite to eat.  We were so relived to have arrived and for our vacation to begin.  Stay tuned for what happened next...

Camping at Hell Roaring...and my birthday!

Clara and I got home from McCall with the Tyler family, and the very next day headed up to the Stanley basin to camp with the Busch/Wilkinsons.  It was a hot weekend, but not nearly as hot as it was down in Boise!  I snapped a few pictures of the spectacular Sawtooth mountain range with my phone as we drove into Stanley.  The phone doesn't due them justice!

We got to the camp spot and joined the Busch family and Molly's parents, Dan and Candy.  Clara loves older kids, and these girls are great with Clara!  She had built-in entertainment all weekend.  Oh, and they gave her sweet snacks!  That bag of chips is as big as Clara!

 Checking out the camp site, Clara was having a ball with Aria!

 Clara got carried around quite a bit by the big girls.

 

She even hopped in the dog kennel to spend time with the little dogs!  

 And sat on the 4-wheeler!

 Kurtis and Mike enjoying the heat!

 Later that night, the kids went to bed and we had some fun campfire times, as you can see!

 The next day, Kurtis let me sleep in...because it was my birthday!  We hung around camp for a bit, and by the afternoon decided to head to the beach at nearby Alturas Lake.  The boys fished in the Salmon River right next to camp, and we girls headed out.

Here is Avery hanging out on the beach!

 And Aria working on her moat!

 Clara fell asleep on the way to the beach, and slept the entire 3+ hours we were there.  She would pop her head up every so often, look at us, and then lay back down.  I should have known something was wrong then...what 2 year old sees her people having fun at the beach and LAYS BACK DOWN TO SLEEP...but instead I kept reading my book and enjoying the peaceful mountain beach!  Slacker parenting, right there!

 When we got back to camp, I thought Clara was feverish, but we HAD been outside all day.  Molly grabbed a thermometer and Clara's temp was almost 103 degrees.  So we decided to get some tylenol in her.  As soon as the last of the syringe of meds went in her mouth, she gagged and puked everywhere.  We were able to carry her to the edge of camp where she vomited some more.  Poor girl!  And this was all during dinner!  Sorry everyone for ruining your appetites!

Luckily, Dan and Candy have a motor home, and they let us set Clara in their tub.  However, she didn't love the cool water that I ran for her.  I was just worried about her temp and needed her to cool down!

Molly had some gatorade, so her and Kurtis put some Tylenol in that gatorade, and luckily she drank that and was able to keep it down.  Within a little bit, she was perking up!  Thank goodness for Tylenol!  So we decided to jump on the four wheeler and head downstream to fish in a great hole that Kurtis and Mike had found earlier that day.

 I got the sweet seat since it was my birthday!  You can see in these pics that Clara is feeling better!

 We fished till dark.  The adults used fly rods and the kids used worms on hooks.  Clara's pink Barbie rod caught some massive bull trout!  We got some great pictures, but they are on Mike and Molly's camera.  So I'll post those when I get them!  But seriously, those fish were incredible!  Kurtis is pretty sure we have our Christmas card picture from fishing that night!

The next day was Sunday, the day we headed home.  But in the morning, we all took frigid baths in the river and headed to the Salmon River fish hatchery to check out the huge salmon.  Clara loved watching them (and was feeling a little better after a good sleep).  But beyond the salmon holding cages, this hatchery has a kiddie pond stocked with eager little trout.  She didn't last long, but she did manage to reel her rod in a few times and she caught a little trout!

 She reels the line in really well!  She can go slow or fast, and usually follows Daddy's directions pretty well!

 So cute!

 Here's her little trout.

 She wasn't so sure about it...it was wriggling around like crazy on the line!

 And that little guy startled her quite a bit!

After fishing, we went back to camp, packed up, and headed home.  It was boiling out by the time we left camp at 2 pm.  It was a fantastic weekend with friends.  Thanks again Busch and Wilkinson clan for letting us tag along!  It was a fantastic 31st birthday camp trip!