Skip to main content

Our Summer Vacation

The kids always love the beach no matter how cold it is.
Do you have a traditional place you always go for a summer vacation?  We don't.  We go somewhere different every single year.  I guess we've never found a place we loved enough to go again and again.  But it would simplify life if we did!

This year we decided to go to the Pacific Northwest since my husband spent the first 18 years of his life there and still has relatives living in the Seattle area.  It's been 11 years since we last visited so it was definitely time to go again.

Here are some of the things we did:

Driving on Interstate 84 next to the Columbia River Gorge.  That has to be one of the most scenic drives a freeway can offer.  We stopped at Multnomah Falls on our way and looked around.  That was also beautiful.

We brought 6 kids on this trip.

Camping on the Oregon beach.  The showers were hot and plentiful, the bathrooms were close, as was the beach.  I wouldn't have minded the weather being a little warmer but for the most part it was fine.  I was worried about rain but, except for a little shower one night, we didn't get rain.  The kids enjoyed it a lot.
We actually did get some sun despite how foggy this picture looks.


This was my usual beach attire.  You can bet I never got near the water.  It was just way too cold for me.




As we were leaving Oregon, we stopped by Cannon Beach which is a little famous.  The beach was even colder and windier than the one we camped by and we didn't stay long.
Camping near Mt. St. Helen's.  The eruption of Mt. St. Helen's in 1980 was a very memorable event for my husband since he lived nearby.  Every May 18th, he reminds us that that was the day it erupted.  So we camped at Seaquest State Park and then drove up to Johnston's Ridge to go to the Visitors' Center and learn more about it.  We couldn't have a fire at our campsite because of the dry weather and extreme fire danger.

Here is a tree in the visitors' center that got blasted by the volcanic wind that accompanied the eruption.

Visiting Seattle and Tacoma.   We really enjoyed the Seattle Science Center.  You could spend the whole day there and not see everything.  The membership turned out to be a great deal for us, costing about half the price of regular admission for our large group.  The traffic out of Seattle was horrendous and I'm just glad we made it back safely.

They had a cool butterfly exhibit that Camille and I enjoyed together.


On a different day, we visited and Seattle LDS temple and then we went to Dash Point State Park which has a beach and is part of Puget Sound.  Scott helped the older kids make a raft out of a couple of logs which provided some entertainment.  But that night Scott lay awake, thinking about what might have happened if they had started drifting out to sea with no life jackets or oars,  Fortunately that didn't happen.




Visiting family graves.  Scott had never visited the graves of his grandparents. We saw his maternal grandparents' graves in Vancouver, Washington, and we saw his paternal grandparents' graves in Snohomish, Washington.
This is Scott's paternal grandmother, buried next to her 5th husband.  Three of her husbands died and she divorced one.

Scott and his father


This is Scott's paternal grandfather who died very young in a logging accident.  Scott's father was not yet born when he died.
This are Scott's paternal great-grandparents.

We ended up driving almost exactly 2500 miles on this trip which was a little much, but I'm glad we went.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Cousin Drew

 This last week, my brother and his wife lost a very precious son, just 13 years old. He collapsed while running with a cross-country team and passed away before he could be revived. Everyone that knew Drew is broken-hearted at this loss. He was the happiest, most agreeable kid we knew. I remember him being at my house without anyone close to his age to hang out with, so he found our Duplo blocks and started building even though it is a toy that boys his age don't usually enjoy. He was so content. He didn't complain that I ever remember. His mother always called him the perfect child. He will leave a big hole in not only his immediate family but our extended family as well.  Here is a poem my aunt shared that seems fitting: Leave Taking How I would have liked to wave goodbye  and watch until you turned and smiled and disappeared on the horizon. You who taught me to dance  and let me teach you,  who laughed at my stories  and winked at me when I was sad. I can  just see you trav
Post a Comment
Read more

Remembering Drew

 This weekend we celebrated Drew's life. On Thursday night, we gathered as an extended family and had a dinner then sat in a big circle and talked about our memories of him. I took some notes and here is what people said. Grandpa (Gary Hansen):  The last time we saw Drew was last week on the 4th. I remember all the cousins on the trampoline, bouncing up and down and playing basketball. Grandma (Susan Hansen):  I asked Drew to come over last winter to teach my Activity Day boys how to make origami stars. He was very patient in working with them even though they were pretty clueless. Eventually they all went home happily with their stars. Paula: This last winter we invited Bruce and Michelle over for dinner and we didn't have anyone his age for him to hang out with. I remember that Drew found the Duplo blocks on his own and played with them all by himself, quite cheerfully entertaining himself. I asked him if he wanted to play with a different toy--maybe something more sophistica
Post a Comment
Read more

Drew's Funeral

Yesterday was the viewing for Drew and then today was the funeral. There were a LOT of people at the viewing. Bruce and Michelle greeted people for almost four hours yesterday and then again this morning before the funeral. Bruce said that if weren't for Drew's death, it would be the best week of his life with so much love being shown to them. Friday actually began with a family run in Drew's honor. We started at a church by the new Lindon temple and ran to Bruce and Michelle's house with breakfast following. Friday night was the viewing. There was a very nice display of all things Drew. This was one of the pictures displayed and I recognized someone I know: We stood in line and the paramedics who worked on Drew stood in line behind us so we got to talk to them. Here's a fun fact:  They cover both Orem and Vineyard but Vineyard gets a lot more 911 calls than Orem per capita. It's a younger population and they are quicker to call. They said it's hard when the
Post a Comment
Read more