Our trip to Oregon

We went on  a week-long trip to visit my parents in Oregon. We spent one night on our way in Twin Falls, where we spend the night at Cory's cousin Marcella's house, which was fun. They used to live in Monument Valley, which is about the most remote place in the country, but have recently moved to Twin. We really enjoy spending time with their family, and we had a lot of fun - although Lear and Ella broke a picture frame and Ella plastered herself with diaper cream while they were there. It's a good thing they have kids, too, so they understand how they can be sometimes.

We took our time driving the rest of the way to Salem. We even stopped to take a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls in the Columbia Gorge - and silly me, I forgot the camera. Figures. Anyway, we stopped at the car dealership in Portland that my brother Barton works at, where the kids got gigantic balloons - the kind that the dealership uses for promoting the cars. They loved them. Ella invented a game in which she let the balloon fly to the ceiling, and Cory lifted her up to retrieve it. She had a lot of fun with it, until Cory got tired to lifting her up. 

We also went to the Oregon Coast - and it was actually sunny!! We've gone there several times since Cory and I got married, and it's always been stormy, so were were surprised. My parents, our family, and our nephew Zacharia were there. We stopped for our traditional lunch at Mo's, a fun seafood restaurant, and then went to Fogarty Creek, a beach that my family used to go to a lot when I was little. It has a creek that goes down the beach to the ocean, and some huge rocks at the shoreline. You can see a little of them in one of the pictures. The top of the rocks are probably three stories high, and I used to climb up there quite fearlessly when I was younger, but not so much now. It was much steeper, and scarier, than I remember. I think that I've climbed it for the last time, even though the view is spectacular from the top. The children had a blast playing in the creek, which is perfect for little ones to swim in - it's shallow, slow-moving, as well as wave and under-tow free. 

Ella quote: Mommy: "Ella, do you have an stinky bum?"

Ella: "No, I 'ave a cute bum."

Cory quote: "I have to race like a pee horse!"