Monday, July 27, 2009

Three Weeks in Oregon

We started our trip to Oregon visiting Carl's family. They have a family reunion every year at a place called Camp Alpine. It is a really neat place. We sleep in tents but there is a big enclosed hall with a giant kitchen, a lake for swimming, water fall, etc. This post is going to be pictures from our whole trip!








Grandpa Olsen had a lot of crafts available
and the grandkids took advantage of that!
They built and painted models, did puzzles,
made boondoggles (sp), etc.





There was a game of ultimate frisbee that Carl enjoyed playing with his relatives!















Here is the waterfall I mentioned earlier.
The kids had a blast playing in it!















After Camp Alpine we headed to my Aunt's house for a 4th of July BBQ. The cousins had fun playing and had a huge water fight. By the end Cousin Mike was the main target and soaking wet, as were all the kids!













Then we had to get a picture of the cousins!










That night we headed to Carl's sister Brenda's house for fireworks! The girls had fun playing with sparklers and watching fireworks!















We made a visit to the Portland Zoo with Brenda's family, my Dad and step-mom, and step-sister Angie's family.















We stopped to watch the Bird of Prey show! Some of those birds are so big, it is amazing they can fly. The American Eagle was huge.













The girls took a quick break in a boat. That is a big zoo and we did a lot of walking, I think we pretty much saw everything there was to see!















We said good bye to Carl as he had to head back to Utah to work and my Dad took the rest of us to The Enchanted Forest. I used to go here when I was a kid and while some things had been modernized a lot of it was still the same. We rode roller coasters and the girls panned for treasures which they each found a few and were very excited!













Can you imagine how surprised we were to see President Abraham Lincoln there? It was a good thing the girls had worn there old fashioned clothes that day!











We were then on to Mercer Lake. My family has gone there every year since my Dad was a child. We swim, fish, tube, kayak, sand dune buggy, etc. We didn't do all of those things this year but the girls did try tubing for their first time and really gave fishing a try. Grace and Laura both caught a trout and a few perch each. Towards the end of the week we had a fish fry and let me tell you, the fish were delish and they made quite a dish.









































Kate loves to pose for the camera!

















On our way home we stopped for a potty break along the side of the road and the girls wanted to take a picture on the log. This was just outside of Sisters.














The grand finale of the picture parade is a short clip of Kate riding down the zip line with me. She was a good sport and went down a few times! The girls loved it and they were brave enough to ride down on their own.

7 comments:

Eldon and Janeil Olsen said...

What great pictures! I love the video of the zipline. And the way Kate strikes a pose. Your girls are too cute! You make it sound like you had a wonderful vacation!

Ken said...

What a summer! Your girls will have great memories of this year.

SMITH FAMILY said...

Looks like you had a super fun time. One of your nieces looks just like Laura. We are glad that you are back in Utah.

Gail said...

Great trip! Glad I've been to Camp Alpine to "relate." Does anyone else get to use the zip line or do you disassemble it? Cool pictures! Cool layout! Somebody needs to teach me how to do it. :)

Be seeing you all soon!

r said...

Great pictures!! Looks like you had a ton of fun :)

Can't wait to see you guys!!!

velvetelement said...

Gail,
The church actually bought it all off of Mike and Brenda last year and improved upon it for this year!

Tiffiny said...

Looks like a fun trip! We love the Enchanted Forest too. Well, the kids do anyway. Sorry we missed seeing you, the girls are getting so big!