Oregon Part 2

Tuesday was spent exploring. We started by driving to Shore Acres Gardens.  These beautiful gardens are on the top of rocky cliffs by the ocean.  They have so many beautiful flowers and plants.  The kids loved the roses!  They had to smell every single kind of rose that they had.  

The rocky shores below the gardens.

Nate and the girls checking out the view.

Jonah was so excited to look out over the ocean! 

We had a lot of fun climbing on this old tree and taking pictures.

Nate and Jayne

Jonah & Lilly in the gardens

Checking out some of the flowers

I can't remember the name of these flowers.  It was something like 'starfire'. 

I thought these swirling leaves were magnificent!

Lilly, Jonah, & Jayne beneath the monkey puzzle tree.

Jayne smelling the roses.  I love her face! 

Lilly had to smell every single type of rose too. 

Taking a circus peanut break.

More of the gardens.

After the gardens, we went to Coos Bay.  Nate wanted to take us to the Myrtlewood Factory.  It was neat to see how they turn a giant tree into such beautiful things!  

Then we headed down to Bandon, another coastal town.  We went to their "Old Town" and checked out the shops.  I remember going there with Nate the summer we were married.  It was fun to look in all the shops.  I got some divine smelling bath salts and we sampled the sweets at the candy factory. My favorite was the licorice flavored dark chocolate.  I would never have thought of putting those two together, but they were perfect!  We bought some fudge, an absolute must!  Nate picked out 6 different flavors.  We had cookies and cream, peanut butter, rocky road, white chocolate with walnuts, mint chocolate, and walnut pinoche.  My favorite was the white chocolate.  Nate and the kids loved the peanut butter.  We let the kids pick out some seashells for souvenirs.  Jonah and Lilly chose sea stars and Jayne chose a tiger conch.  

 By the time we got back to camp, we were all ready for bed.  We had some dinner, relaxed by the fire, and turned in early.  

Hanging out around the fire.

Oregon Part 1

While Nate was growing up, he spent quite a few summers in Oregon with his family.  He took me there once, right after we got married and we've always wanted to go again and take the kids.  So this year we decided to do it.  We spent 5 days camping at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park near Winchester Bay and Reedsport.  

I'm going to have to split up the trip into a few different posts simply because there is so much to tell and there are so many pictures to share.  So here goes.....

If you know me but at all, you know that camping is not my favorite.  I don't like being dirty.  I don't like sleeping in a tent.  I don't like the campfire smell that permeates your clothes and hair.  And I definitely don't like outhouses.  So when Nate said he wanted to go camping in Oregon, I told him I had a few conditions.  We had to have a campground with showers and flushing toilets and the cooking had to be kept simple.  He knew right where to go.  I have to admit that I enjoyed this camping trip more than any other that I've done before.  Being able to take a hot shower every day, not have the stink of an outhouse, getting to eat out occasionally, and Nate taking over the rest of the cooking definitely made it enjoyable.  =)  The nice, cool weather helped too.  In my experience, camping has always been hot and sweaty during the day and a little bit miserable.  In Oregon, the highs were in the upper 60's.  It was pure bliss!

I'm still not sure what possessed us to schedule the trip like we did.  We planned it back in March or April.  Somehow it ended up that we would be leaving for Oregon the same day that Nate would be getting back from Scout Camp and we would be in Oregon during finals week of my summer semester.  Not our best bit of planning, but we pulled it off.  

So I spent the week before our trip being a crazy woman.  I had lots of school assignments to do plus taking my finals early and getting ready for the trip.  Nate was gone to Scout Camp from Thursday until Saturday.  Thanks to a lot of help from family, (Nate's parents were in town and watched the kids while I did some of my finals and my mom took them Friday night and all day Saturday so I could finish up assignments and get the packing done) we managed to get everything done and were ready to leave late Saturday night.  

We decided to take our car, a Chevy Impala, rather than our Jeep Commander.  The Commander has more room and is much more comfortable for long drives, but the Impala gets 10 to 15 miles per gallon more than the Jeep and on a long drive that translates into a couple of hundred dollars worth of difference.  

Much to my amazement, Nate managed to pack everything we would need into the trunk of our Chevy Impala.   In order to save space, we didn't take up all of our food for the trip.  We just packed what we would need for the first day or two and then planned to get groceries in Oregon.

It's a 15 hour drive to where we were staying.  Nate prefers to do long drives through the night so that the kids can sleep and there's a lot less traffic.  The drive was pretty uneventful.  The kids slept pretty well most of the way.  We arrived at our campsite at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park in the mid-afternoon on Sunday. 

The campground was nice and peaceful.  There was a lake, Lake Marie, near the campground and it's just a short drive down to the lighthouse and the ocean.   The first thing we did after getting the tent set up was to take a nice long nap.  That night we roasted hot dogs and s'mores for dinner.  We walked down to check out the lake.  There's a 1 mile trail that goes around the lake and there is a small sandy beach area for playing or swimming.  The rest of the evening we just relaxed in camp.  Then we slept to the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the rocks and the foghorn of the lighthouse in the distance. 

On Monday the first order of business was to get a few groceries.  So we went to the Safeway in Reedsport.   That store is tiny!  You can barely get your cart through the aisles.  The clerk informed us that we had great timing.  We had just missed the annual Dune Fest that had been that weekend.  Apparently the town is pretty much overrun by people and their dune buggies and the store had lots of problems with overcrowding and stealing.  She said she was so glad to see them all go.  

After a healthy breakfast at McDonald's, (yes, that's how I cook when I camp) we headed back to camp.  Then we decided to go check out the pier where people were doing some crabbing.  First we had to walk on the beach.  This was the first time any of our kids had been to the ocean and they were so excited to walk in the sand in their bare feet and look for seashells.  

After getting sufficiently wet and sandy, we walked down the pier to watch the crabbing.  Two gentlemen were kind enough to explain everything to the kids and let them watch as they pulled in their crabs and sorted out the ones that had to be thrown back.  

We spent the rest of Monday at our campsite.  The kids loved playing in the dirt and Jonah even found a little "camouflage" spot in the bushes where he and Lilly liked to set up their chairs and hang out.  I took this picture right after Jonah said, "Mom! I bet you can't see me.  I blend right in!"

 That night, after everyone was in their pajamas and it had gotten dark, we decided to drive over to the lighthouse so that the kids could see it lit up.  The kids loved seeing how the lights danced on the trees and out into the ocean. 

Daddy & Jayne at the lighthouse. 

Well, that's about it for part one of our adventure.  Be sure to read part two about our adventures at the Shore Acre Gardens, Coos Bay, Bandon, and Florence. 

Camping with the Culbertsons

You can all breathe a sigh of relief and rejoice!  I found the camera cord!  That means we have some catching up to do.  We're going all the way back to July 7th!  We went camping with my mom, one of my sisters, and one of my brothers.  We went to Payson Lakes Campground.  Nate and I had never been there before.  It was very pretty and our campsite was nice and secluded.  Jake brought his fabulous trailer, Mom and Sarah had their tent, and we, of course, brought our lovely tent that we acquired last summer.  

Got the tent set up and we are ready to camp!

As the name of the campground implies, there was a lake nearby.  Jake had brought all of his fishing gear and was so kind to let the kids fish with him.  I don't know much of anything about fishing except that I don't like to do it.  Jake was so patient and good with the kids.  He helped them each bait their hooks and cast their lines more times than I can count.  Sadly, no one caught anything.  But it wasn't for lack of trying, that's for sure. 

The Beautiful Lake

Jonah casting his line all by himself

Lilly loved holding her fishing pole!

Even Jayne gave it a try

Being silly by the lake!

Jayne is ready with the net!

Time for a Cheeto break.  Every time Jayne pulled a Cheeto out of the bag she had to say the line from the movie "Despicabe Me"....."Aw, my caterpillar never turned into a butterfly" then she'd get you to tell her that it's not a caterpillar and she'd say "Oh, well."  and pop it into her mouth.  She seriously went through this routine with every single Cheeto that day. 

Grandma Laurie trying to stay warm and dry.

We got rained on quite a bit.  But what fun is camping if you don't get a little muddy, right?  
My mom and Sarah kept the kids entertained with fun activities, crafts, and even a treasure hunt.  

Jayne, Jonah, & Lilly sporting the visors that they decorated.

Hunting for treasure

Chilling around the campfire waiting for the foil dinners to cook.

Getting crafty with Aunt Sarah

Uncle Jake, Aunt Sarah, Grandma Laurie, Jonah, & Lilly roasting hot dogs. 

After the rain, came the rainbow.  This picture doesn't do it justice. 

And then of course, there was a beautiful sunset that just lit the sky with gold!

It was a short camping trip, just two nights, but it was a lot of fun.  Thanks Jake for bringing you trailer and for helping the kids with their fishing.  Thanks Mom and Sarah for keeping the kids happy.  We had a wonderful time!

Our weekend "camping" trip

Nate had last Friday, Saturday, & Sunday off, which is an extremely rare thing.  We decided kind of at the last minute that we wanted to head down to the St. George area and go camping.  We wanted to go to Zion's National Park.  So I checked online and all the campsites that you can reserve were full.  There are about 150 walk up campsites that are first come, first served.  After calling down to the park information people, we were reassured that if we got there first thing in the morning, we'd likely get a place to camp.  
So we loaded up the car and headed down the road at about 4:30 Friday morning.  Yes, we took the car.  It gets twice the mileage that our Jeep Commander gets.  And yes, Nate fit everything in that trunk including our tent, four sleeping bags, our cooler, two backpacks, one suitcase, one box of firewood, one big box of camping cooking gear, and a port-a-potty.  Impressed?  You totally should be.  That man is a packing genius!  
Anyway, the drive down went smoothly enough until we got to Zion's and lo and behold every single camping space was taken.  It was 9:30 in the morning for crying out loud!  I guess that's what we get for not calling ahead.  We decided to drive through the park since we were there.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful!  We drove through the long tunnel.  The kids loved that part.  They yelled things out the windows to hear their own echo.  
After the drive we decided we'd better get going if we were going to find a camping spot anywhere else.  Well, after driving to 4 or 5 different campgrounds and being turned away at all of them, we threw in the towel.  It was now about 4:00 in the afternoon and we were all hot and tired and hungry.  It's a good thing that Nate has relatives in St. George.  His aunt and uncle were out of town for the weekend and let us sleep  at their house.  They live next door to Nate's Grandpa Barnum and take care of him.  Nate's sister had been staying there while they were away, but she had to go back to Las Vegas to take an exam and decided that since we were there, she didn't need to come back.  It was good to spend time with Grandpa.  We took him with us to get shakes at Iceberg and took him to lunch at Chuck-A-Rama.  We spent our weekend playing in the yard and at the park, seeing a movie, visiting the St. George temple, and napping.  
While it definitely wasn't the relaxing, nature-filled weekend that we had envisioned, it turned out nice.  I especially enjoyed reading some of Nate's grandparents' personal histories.  His grandmother was an excellent record keeper.  She kept journals and wrote down hers and her husband's life histories.  We didn't get to read them all the way through, but it was fascinating to read about Grandpa's experiences in WWII and Grandma's life and challenges and both of their faith.  

Loading up bright and early.

Lilly was just so happy to finally be out of the car!

This is what Jayne was doing by the time we finished driving through Zion's.

Lilly thought Grandpa's flowers were so pretty that she just had to have her picture taken by them. 

Jonah showed off his Frisbee skills at the park.

Swinging the day away.

St. George Temple

We're planning another camping trip in a few weeks.  This time we've got reservations.  =)  Wish us luck with that one!