Thursday (Aug 28), Greg, Shelley & their family came to visit us. I was their travel planner/tour guide. I always get a little nervous when I am planning someone's visit - hoping they enjoy everything & hoping everything works out. Everything pretty much went smoothly - there's a few things I would have done differently if I had to plan again, but overall I think everyone had a fun time.
We sure enjoyed having them come up and visit us. The kids got along well and had fun playing together as we have a few that are the same age. Courtney played games (scripture trivial pursuit that she made up) with Trace on all of the trips. Melanie & Jessica are the same age and got along really well. Emma felt a little left out sometimes and wanted to always sit by her friend (Jessica). I don't think she could remember her name so she always called her "my friend". Whitney volunteered to be Emma's "friend" on one trip, but that just wouldn't do. Also her "boyfriend" was Nate. He broke a nightlight one day and she was showing it to me and I asked her, "who broke it?", She answered "my boyfriend". We all laughed. So when I tried to get her to say what she called Nate again, she refuse to call him that anymore since we all had laughed before. We enjoyed visiting and talking with Greg & Shelley more, it seems like we don't ever have enough time to see or visit them during Christmas when we go down to AZ to visit. And lastly, I was thrilled that the weather cooperated and we had sunshine (mostly) the whole visit :) (It rained the day before they arrived & the day after they left - so they just hit it right!)
After they arrived, we first drove out to the End of the Oregon Trail in Oregon City. This is like a museum-ish sort of place where they do presentations and tell you all about the early pioneers that came to Oregon. Then we got on a trolley and toured the town. There were stops (museums, historical houses, sites) to get off at and go see. The only thing is that the trolleys were not on time & we ended up waiting 45 minutes at each stop to get back on the trolley, & we weren't able to visit all the historical houses/museums before they closed. So if I had to do it again - I would get on the trolley & not get off at any of the sites just go on the ride & then go back & drive to each musuem, that way you avoid the long waits.... so if anyone else comes and visits and wants to go to Oregon City & see the sites - I now know how to get everything in :)
Here's some pictures from the End of the Oregon Trail and Oregon City:
Next on the agenda was Crown Point. It is a look out point. You get a beautiful view of the Columbia River & the Gorge.
Then we took them on a tour of the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge. We stopped at four of the falls, Latourell Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Wahkeena Falls, and Multnomah Falls.
The next day (Friday), we planned to go to the beach. We were meeting Don in Portland after his work where he would join us. He was tied up with something so we headed to the Portland Rose Gardens in Washington Park.
After the Rose Gardens, we headed off to the Oregon Coast. We stopped at Tillamook first. There we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory where you can see how cheese is made & packaged. You get to sample different kinds of cheeses. And lastly, we always get yummy Tillamook Ice Cream there.
Then it was off to the beach. It was cool there, but not too bad. The kids ran around and played in the water. Later we all hiked up this huge sand dune mountain. I am amazed that the little ones (Dayton, Emma, & Nate) were able to do it, it was a pretty steep big hill. Coming down they had fun. Don and the girls loved to run and jump down, (run, jump, run, jump, etc.) the hill. It was a bit nerve racking watching them & it gave me a few heart attacks watching them and hoping no one would fall. They all had fun doing it & luckily they all made it safely down with no one falling and rolling down the hill. Don kept telling me to run and jump(as it was so much fun) but I just couldn't do it.
We also watched some fishing boats come in. They just drive up on the shore & then a truck comes and pulls them off (no dock and no ramp).
Saturday the plan was to go to Ape Caves and Mount St. Helens. Ape Caves were the caves that were formed from the lava cooling from Mt. St. Helens a long time ago. There are two cave you can hike through. One is harder, steeper, rockier, and longer - so with all the little kids that we had with us, we obviously took the easier one. It was 3/4 mile each way. Besides minor arguments about who could hold the flashlight or lantern, the kids had fun exploring the cave. Dayton wanted to be a big boy and really didn't want anyone holding his hand or helping him as he walked in the cave. Unfortunately for him - it was a dark rocky cave, & I didn't want him falling so I made him hold mine or Don's hand during most of the trail. At the end of the cave, there is this little tiny hole that Don & the kids thought it would be so fun to crawl through and try to reach the very very end. I don't know if they ever reached the very end or not, but I am amazed they could get in it and crawl in such a small hole.
After the cave, we were going to drive out to Mt. St. Helens and see the volcano. But all the roads near the volcano are still closed so the only way to reach the volcano is to go back to the freeway and then back out on another exit (about a 3 hour drive) - so we realized we would not have time to do this. So we went to a Trail of Two Forests. This is an area where there are huge holes (tree wells) in the ground and tunnels from the roots of trees that were burnt up from the Lava about 2000 years ago. Don and the kids had fun climbing in the wells and exploring the tunnels.
So now I've learned if you want to do both Ape Caves & Mt. St. Helens in the same day you need to leave early in the morning as you will do lots of driving - or just do one activity per day. I also managed to lose something like I seem to do on every vacation. I lost my driver's license. Luckily, when I called Ape Caves on Tuesday after Labor Day -someone had found it in the parking lot & they were able to send it back to me.
Sunday, we went to church at the deaf branch. It was fun to see our old friends again. Greg & Shelley's kids learned some sign language while they were there. Their kids picked it up rather quickly. Then we went to Don's parents & had a yummy dinner and hung out with them. We walked around their neighborhood showed and Greg & Shelley our old home and our old "dream" home. That neighborhood is a nice neighborhood for walking - very peaceful and beautiful.
Monday we just kicked back and hung around our home and visited while the kids played. We went out to lunch before their flight left later that afternoon.
We had a great time with them & glad they came up to see us! :)
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