Thursday, August 17, 2017

Summer Vacation - Part 1 Oregon

This summer's vacation started out in Oregon. Nearly all of Russ's family was able to make it out for our reunion at the beach. 

Friday morning we packed 5 vehicles to the brim with food and luggage and beach toys and people. 


Just before heading out we kicked off the reunion with a family devotional and introduction of our reunion theme.


Made it to the beach!


While Kaylee and Ashlyn were off climbing rocks with Russ and Uncle Brandon, the younger cousins discovered the joys of rolling down a sandy hill into the shallow water below . . . . again and again and again. (They all went straight to the showers when we arrived at our beach house!)




On Saturday we explored a different beach and had fun with Nana's scavenger hunt. Well, most of us had fun.  McKell ended up with some intense scraping that extended from her knee up to her hip when she tried to touch a starfish and slipped on the barnacles. Luckily, Uncle Brandon just completed his P.A. certification and was able to clean and bandage her leg with his medical kit.




The view from the porch of our awesome beach house.


Enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon together. 




Monday we traveled back to Canby. We were heading for Utah early Wednesday morning, but what's a summer trip to Oregon without blueberries? So Tuesday was our blueberry picking day (probably Russ's favorite day in the whole year).



Luckily, Russ's Mom sent him with 2 big canisters full of blueberries to enjoy during our drive out to Utah!


Saturday, August 5, 2017

The Douglas Family Does Texas

We were SO HAPPY the Douglas family (Nikki is Russ's older sister) had some flight vouchers, and that they decided to use them to come to Texas!

While here, James discovered his new favorite game, Pandemic.


Instead of Gingerbread Houses, we made graham cracker Beach Houses. 


Team 1: Russ & Brenna

Team 2: Jason and James

Team 3: Bekah and Kaylee

Team 4: Anne and McKell

Team 5: Nikki and Ashlyn
We got to take them to one of our favorite places - Six Flags.

I think this was the only ride all 10 of us went on. It was so fun!

Nikki and Ashlyn were the only ones brave enough to ride SCREAM!
Ashlyn says, "What's the big deal? This ride is like a walk in the park."



We went to the movies to see "LEGO: The Batman Movie".



 We went swimming. Twice. James isn't a huge fan, but he loved the challenge of the lily pads.


McKell also tried the lily pads for the first time, and made it all the way across on her third attempt!

We had such an awesome week together and were sad to see it end.


And some of us were completely worn out by all the fun.