Summer Vacation Part 1: Washington, Oregon, California

We recently returned from our summer vacation, otherwise known as a 2 week long...

Among our crew, we had:

I can tell you that planning a 2 week trip with small children takes some planning, and a lot of packing and preparation. We had originally intended to leave on a Tuesday, and didn't actually get out the door until late afternoon on Thursday.

We made it from Seattle to Kelso, which is almost to Oregon. Our first night was in a Motel 6. Preston was particularly excited that his bed had cars on it (the Motel 6 bedspreads do have cars on them).

The 2nd day of our trip, we stopped in...

As you can see, it was...

This boat below used to serve as a floating lighthouse on the Columbia River.

We also found this...

We went down the Oregon coast and first stopped at Ecola State Park.

We had a...

and took a...

Now you know why we call him "Little Scooter"...

He also really...

We found a nifty camp spot at Beachside State Park along the Oregon Coast.

We had to run to the store, and they happened to have kid-sized shopping carts. Preston was pretty excited that he got to be the one to push the cart and hold all of the groceries. He was very adamant about us making sure to put each and every item in his cart.

Later, at the camp site...

Taylor found himself quite often stuck in "jail'.

We were right next to the beach and so that evening we took a family sunset stroll...

Of course the best part about camping is...

After we broke camp, we headed to...

We stopped at...

We made it to...

I think Loeb State Park was probably my favorite spot that we camped at. It was near the California border, the temperature was warmer, the campground was terrific, and we went on a really beautiful hike there (which I'll tell you about in a second).

We went on this hike to a Redwood Tree Grove, and I have to say it is probably one of the prettiest hikes that I've ever been on. Cascading waterfalls, lush forest (almost like a rainforest), big huge redwood trees). It was beautiful.

Preston made it about 2 hours before asking to be carried. He was such a good hiker and a real trooper!

The next day we headed into the great state of California.

We camped again...

And then the next day we ventured to the Redwoods (in our next blog post...stay tuned).

Best quotes from this part of the trip:

After we played on the beach at Ecola State Park in Oregon, we were back in the car driving and Preston is in the back taking his sandals off and trying very hard to shake his feet off. I turned around to ask him what he was doing and he replied, "I'm trying to get the sugars off my toes!"

Will, surviving on very little sleep from the night before, was trying to explain something to me while driving and he wasn't making much sense. I kept asking him "What?" and he finally replied, very jumbled, "Doe not listen to me, I'm talking to myself!". I said "DOE not listen to me? You mean DO not? Haha that is the best ever....Doe not listen to me cuz I'm talking to myself.". I got Will to laugh at himself, despite being flustered over the conversation. Ha.