Cruisin' Some Property

Todd's brother, Robb, and his fiancé, Amber,

bought 20 acres in Shingle Springs.

They invited us to come and see their new purchase,

so of course we had to go check it out.

 

They are so excited, and they should be.

The property is beautiful.

 

I forgot to take pictures at the top of the property,

but I did manage to get pictures where they plan

to build their house eventually.

 

Here's Robb explaining where the property lines are.

 

Here's Amber taking me to the stream.

 

Lower part of the creek looking up.

Isn't it  pretty.

 

It has some beautiful green natural landscape.

 

Todd and Robb hiked to 3 of the 4 property corners.

Here they are coming down the hill from one.

 

It was so fun to hear what Robb and Amber's future

plans are, and their vision for the property.

I'm truly excited for them and can't wait to

see their dreams become a reality.

It's the Weekend!

via

 

The kids played the dumbest song

for me the other day and now I can't

get it out of my head.

It's #Selfie by the Chainsmokers.

 

Since I don't have much planned this weekend,

I guess I sit around, listen to the song

 and practice taking selfies!

 

Please tell me you have something

much more productive planned than me.

Vacation Days 7 & 8 (Our last Vacation Days)

So on our last day of vacation before we started the drive home,

we decided to visit the Ape Caves

which is in Mt. St. Helens National Monument in Cougar, WA.

Todd's brother, Robb, had visited and suggested we see it.

 

 

The Ape Cave is the longest lava tube in

the continental United States, and stretches

 over two miles in length.

 

 

Dog's aren't allowed in the caves,

and because we had Thor and Loki,

I got babysitting duty which was

fine with me since I'm not a huge fan of caves.

 

 

Todd, Austin and Alexxa all went,

so I'm not very familiar with what went on in the cave,

but I'm sure you can figure most of it out yourselves.

 

Entrance of the cave.

 

Using the lantern to light there way through the cave.

 

Austin and Lexx doing there super sexy poses.

 

 

Todd squeezing through a tight spot.

 

How do we get out of here? 

 

This little excursion took all day,

so the only other thing we did was eat and then

we headed back to the cottage.

 

We enjoyed our last evening in Mt Hood,

then woke up bright and early so we could

get on the road at a decent hour.

 

Bye Mt. Hood!

We'll see you again real soon.

 

Originally we had planned to go home through Medford, OR,

but at the last minute we changed plans and

 headed over to the Oregon Coast.

 

We were wanting to visit the ocean and

 enjoy 60 degree weather.

 

 

We drove for what seemed like forever,

but finally made it to the coast.

I found the bridges along the coast to be

kind of pretty.  They seemed a little art deco to me.

 

 

Because we drove all the way to the coast,

we of course had to get out and enjoy the beaches.

One thing about the Oregon Coast,

it's kind of rocky and can be steep in places.

So where did we chose to stop,

a steep rocky area!

 

Those dots in the middle of the picture are

Austin and Alexxa climbing down to the beach.

 

One thing we couldn't complain about were crowded beaches.

It was so cold that nobody was on the beach.

Score for us!

  

See, when I say no one,
I mean no one!

 

Loki had fun chasing the birds and going swimming,

but was ready to get back in the nice warm car.

 

We ended driving from 9 AM - 11 PM,

keeping in mind that we stopped to eat

and take breaks.  So we were truly on the road

for about 10ish hours.

 

We arrived in Eureka, CA at 11 PM

and found the cheapest hotel we could get and

crashed there for the evening.

 

We didn't get any pictures of our true last day

because all we did was drive home,

and honestly I slept most of the way.

 

We ended up getting home about 5 PM

and took the next two days to recuperate.

 

It was a great vacation with lots of activities

packed in to a short amount of time,

but it was so awesome being able to spend

time with my most favorite people in the world.

I just love my family -

even after being stuck in a car with

them for 16 hours in two days!

We Interrupt Our Vacation Update

To introduce our newest member of the family,

Cole Widdle McComb

(Anybody catch a Star Wars reference in there?)

He's a rescue and we couldn't adore him more.

Vacation Days 4, 5 & 6

We ended up leaving my parents house on the 7th

and heading up through Oregon.

 

Our first stop was Crater Lake.

 

It's always so beautiful.

The blue water seems almost unreal.

 

After we toured Crater Lake

we headed up to Mt. Hood, where we would be staying.

 

 

Todd had originally booked us a rustic cabin.

The only amenity it had was a flush toilet,

but when we got there they told us that they

were having septic issues in our cabin,

and unfortunately we would have to stay in a cottage.

We were a little skeptical because all Todd and I

could think was, "How much extra is this going to cost us?"

With very few options, we took what they had to offer. 

 

Here is our cottage, equipped with full bathroom, kitchen,

cable tv, spa, bbq, deck and fully furnished.

Cost - same as the rustic cabin.

SCORE! 

 

After suffering through the horrific conditions (cough, cough),

we woke up the next morning and

spent the day going to waterfalls in Oregon

near the Columbia Gorge.

There are several (I believe 90 total),

but we saw five.

I didn't take pictures of all of them,

but I did include pictures from my favorites in this post.

 

 

Bridal Veil was impressive, and was about 1/2 -1 mile hike.

You had to hike downhill to view the waterfall,

but it was pretty impressive once you got there.

My favorite part?

All the benches to rest and catch your breath

once you headed back up the hill. 

That was some great planning!

 

Another impressive waterfall was Multnomah Falls.

It was so tall, I had to practically stand in the

parking lot to get this picture.

 

The favorite of the trip was Oneontah Falls

(not my favorite, but everyone elses).

At Oneontah you have to hike through a creek bed,

over a large log jam, 

 

Can you see Todd at the top of the logs?

and then hike up to your chest through water to see the falls.

I made it through the creek bed, to the log jam,

and while climbing over a wet log, my foot slid out from

underneath me and I fell into a hole created by the logs.

I thought I broke my leg, but the only thing

broken was my pride.  It scared me bad enough that

I ended up stopping there, while the rest

of the family trudged through.

Don't feel sorry for me, because I had fun

watching everyone slip and fall all over the place.

 

After hiking around all day, we decided to

 call it a day and went home.

 

We jumped in the spa and relaxed, so that we could

be spry for the next day.

 

The next day was momma's day.

I wanted to go to Astoria, OR and site see.

 

We ended up having coffee and snacks at the pier,

 

Visiting the actual Goonie House

(you know the movie Goonies?  That house).

 

visiting the film museum (don't spend the money),

and climbing the Astoria Column.

 

This was not an easy task as it is 6 flights of stairs up,

and 6 down all on a spiral staircase.

 

 

It was worth all the suffering though

because you got a 360 degree view of Astoria and

all of the surrounding areas.



 

We wanted to see the Maritime Museum,

but because we didn't get to Astoria until pretty late,

we couldn't fit it in, so instead we went to a brewery.

 

The Wet Dog Café was awesome,

and totally dog friendly. 

We ate al fresco with our puppies in tow along the water.

It couldn't have been a more perfect end to that evening.

 

Next up...the rest of our vacation.

 

We're Back and We're Melting

The family returned from vacation this last Saturday,

just in time for the horrible heat wave.
We came from 63 degree weather to 109 degrees.

We drove 2300 miles in 7 days,
so we were exhausted.
I had to take some time to recuperate,
and then I had to go back to work...
Boooo!

We did tons of activities on this vacation,
and I took 700 photos, so I thought I would
just share some of the highlights.
I'm definitely going to have to break it into
a couple different posts,
so you'll have to stick around to see what we did.

We all jumped in the car on July 3rd,
and headed to my parent's house after work.
We didn't pull in their driveway until 2 AM on the 4th,
so needless to say I didn't get any pictures
of our first day.

We did, however, manage to get a zillion pictures
of the other four days we were there.

So what did we do?
A little bit of this, a little bit of that,
you know.
Just take a look for yourself.

 

We walked around lots.

Down to the lake, around the property, you name it.

 

We spent the majority of our time at the lake relaxing.

 

Loki liked to go on boat rides.

 

My mom liked to observe.

 

Lexx liked to rescue Thor.

 

Todd liked to hang out.

 

I liked enjoying the scenery.

 

 

Todd could be found at the lake every morning

around 6:30 AM, and then after lunch.

 

My parents would quad down to the lake

occasionally and check up on us.

Aren't they cool?

My dad's 74 and my mom is almost 70. 

 

We did spend an afternoon stream fishing.

We didn't go to catch dinner

(thank goodness because we would have starved),

we did go to catch and release the fish.

 

 

Austin didn't have any luck and gave up after

about 30 minutes.  Lexx kept fishing but didn't catch anything.

 

 

Todd kept fishing and caught what he was telling

everyone was a foot long trout.

 

Can you say "fish tale" anyone?

 

While the gang fished,

Austin took a nap and I took pictures.

 

On the 4th of July,

we headed to our favorite restaurant in the area,

the Cowboy Dinner Tree.

It didn't disappoint.

The food was plentiful and large.



 

My mom and I managed to snap a picture together

after dinner.  I really like this picture of us.

We NEVER take good pictures together.

This is as good as it gets guys.

 

It seemed like our time at my parent's house flew by.

Before we knew it we were on the road and headed

higher up in to Oregon.