Sunday

Sunday of our family reunion began by going to church with Grandma and Grandpa. Afterwards I took the kids to the top of a butte that is in the middle of town to show them some views of the area.



We took a few pictures from the top.


I love the Oregon mountains and couldn't resist taking pictures with them in the background.



My kids were amazed at how many trees they saw.


It was a sunny day.

One mountain is called Broken Top because when it exploded thousands of years ago, it literally blew off its top.

The next day we went up to a lake that sits behind these mountains. (See next post)

Home, sweet home!

After our sight-seeing we headed back to the reunion for a fabulous lasagna lunch!

After lunch the cousins played a few fun games like red light, green light.

And then we got to have a special treat:

We watched a family video that Grandpa put together...it was great and was especially fun for the grandkids to see that their parents were kids once too.

Our daughter and Grandpa watching the video.

After the video we played a Family Jeopardy game that my sister put together. It was just like the t.v. game show, but with trivia from our family. It was soooo fun!!

We relived several fun memories! And laughed until we cried!

That evening was free time so we spent the evening playing with some of our Oregon cousins...what a cute bunch of kids!!

Bbq and Fireworks

After we hiked the cave we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for our 4th of July party.

Stars and Stripes!

We visited in the backyard and looked forward to...

Grandpa's bbq chicken!

We found cousins our age and got acquainted...it has been a couple years!

We enjoyed some lemonade and posed for a few pics.

Our daughter enjoyed mothering the babies...


Our youngest checked out the babes!

I got to visit with my sisters and Grandma.

We enjoyed a few backyard games,

and finally it was time for dessert....yumm!

Delicious!!

When it was finally dark outside we settled down for some fireworks.

Happy Fourth!!

The Lava River Cave

The morning of July 4th we started the reunion by hiking the lava river cave. It was formed by an underground river of lava thousands of years ago and is now an empty cave almost a mile long. It was discovered long ago because part of it collapsed leaving an entrance...it is said that Indians used the cave as a "refrigerator."






This is what the entrance looks like from a distance.





The cousins were excited to explore and many of them had never experienced a cave before.




There is a pathway to the entrance. It gets dark quickly and it also gets quite cold. We quickly put on jackets and got out our flashlights and lanterns.




Heading down into the cave.






The cave gets quite big in some spots...50-80 feet high and wide...kind of like a subway.

We stopped at one point and everyone turned off their light so that we could all experience darkness in a cave....we couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces.

Grandma and Great-Grandma really enjoyed the hike.

Grandpa brought up the rear to make sure we didn't leave anyone in the darkness.

My sister who planned the reunion....she did a great job!!

Half of our happy group!

My brother...there were a few spots we had to duck where the walls got too low. At the end you have to crawl at one point where it then opens up into one last "room."

What the "ceiling" looked like. It was very damp and humid.

This was the view of returning to the entrance after being in the dark. It was a welcomed sight!



After we came out of the cave, we had a picnic lunch in the forest.

Butterflying at Tumalo Falls

Our first day in Oregon was so fun. The reunion didn't start until the next day so we had a free day to spend with Grandma. She took us up to Tumalo Falls and taught the kids the art of butterflying.

Ever since I can remember my Mom has been fascinated by butterflies and she especially enjoys catching and identifying new ones. Armed with nets and a butterfly encyclopedia, we set out on our adventure.

Everyone was so excited to catch a butterfly!


The kids caught them and then ran to Grandma so she could identify them and then let them go....just to do it all over again.

Some of us got confused as to what we were trying to catch!

Our second oldest caught a really fast one!

Our oldest had to run pretty far to catch this one!

This one was content to sit on his finger for about five minutes...he felt so cool!!

I snuck up on this one getting a drink in the river.

It really is amazing how many different kinds of butterflies there are.

The scenery was fantastic!

After chasing all the butterflies (they really fly quite fast) we were all tired and hungry so we drove right up to the falls for a picnic lunch,

and a picture by the falls. What a fun day!!

Home!

We're home! For the past ten days the kids and I have been on a grand vacation to Oregon for my family's reunion. We drove over 2,000 miles as our reunion took us into Oregon's Cascade mountain range and then further west to the Oregon coast. We got to play with cousins, dip our toes in the icy mountain lakes, enjoy the gorgeous Central Oregon outdoors, discover sea creatures and make sand castles. I got to reconnect with my grandma, my parents, my sisters and my brother.

We got home last night exhausted from the 12 hour drive. We were asleep at 8:30 and we didn't climb out of bed until 8:30 this morning. I have unloaded the suitcases, done 7 loads of laundry...with three still waiting to be washed...and I've discovered that we brought at least a pound of sand back with us. It gets everywhere!!!

I took 1,126 photos documenting our fun and adventures. I plan on posting about our trip, but I'll have to start tomorrow since today is laundry/clean-up day. It is good to be home!