Me and My Sister's vacation

Last month my sister and I went to Rockaway beach and stayed at my friend's beach house. What a great little town this was, lots of little shops and things to see. My friend graciously loaned her beach house which sits right on the ocean as you can see. We stayed just for a night but it was really relaxing. We didn't do much of anything besides sit around and listen to jazz music. Nothing I wouldn't do normally. But it was still so much fun being with my sister before she went back home.

Mexico 2006

That was a great vacation....the hurricane...the 3rd degree burns....(and bed bugs as my sister was kind enough to remind me!) it was fun, I promise!






Photos courtesy of my sweet sister.

Back home

Well I am back home after a week and a half of running non-stop! Just a short summary of my trip right now. Later I will break down a few of my favorite moments for you all because I know everyone is waiting on pins and needles to find out what I did!

I spent the first four days in Utah camping with some of my family and that was pretty fun. I am not a camp in a tent kind of camper so it wasn't as fun as when I went camping at Seaside, Oregon in a cabin. The only thing that made the camping in Utah better then the camping in Oregon was being with my family.

Then my brother, his wife and my 10 month old neice drove to Washington on their vacation. Like I said we went to Seaside and camped in a cabin and spent some time on the beach.

Then we drove up to Seattle and walked around Pike Place Market which was cool as always. A woman got slimed with a fish that the guys were throwing at her. We went to get the best donuts in the world but they had run out by the time we got there! There were signs for the donut line that went all the way down the hall, so those donuts must be spectacular!! Next month when I go up there I will be sure to get there plenty early.

My brother and his family went home yesterday and it was sad to see them leave. I miss them already!! That cute little neice of mine is just the sweetest thing ever! I love all my neices and nephews I couldn't ask for a better family.

On a side note; Hi Sarah! I didn't get down to Cedar or otherwise I would have dropped by! I hope you are doing well!

Welcome to Utah!

I went back home this week to visit the family and oh the memories come rushing back. The children kicking the back of my chair the ENTIRE plane trip, the endless stressing, no trees, extreme hot temperatures and you can't forget the drivers...oh you can not forget the drivers. Although, somehow it is comforting to know you can drive like crap and no one cares. I love to come back home because it makes me remember all the reasons I left!

Yes, I have only been gone four months but you start to act like the place you live. For example, I smile at everyone in the NW because it is almost necessary to do so because so many others are smiling at you! I smile at folks in the stores here and they look at me like I have come from outer space. And don't even THINK about talking to them. It's like talking to yourself when you talk to folks around here. Rarely does someone have a conversation with a complete stranger here. My mom is probably steamed that I am giving such a negative view of this great state so I better talk about the good stuff as well. And there are good things such as the mountains; I do miss the mountains. Then there are the streets; the street addresses here are so easy to learn. I still have yet to conquer the addresses in the NW. I just realized in the last couple days that Fourth Plain overlaps highway 500. Anyway...you have to be there to know what I mean. Ok, sorry got off track there for a second, back to Utah. Other things that are great are just personal stuff such as my family are here and I miss them very much. My wonderful brother who makes the best food on the planet.

I am here for the next two days so I'll have more to talk about later!

Highway 101

Sorry about the late post. It's been interesting trying to figure out the scanner thing here on a new computer and not having a Paint Shop Pro program doesn't help matters. But on to the exciting stuff.....

My sister and I went on a mini vacation before she went back home. We had a blast visiting all these little towns and meeting new people. I wish I would have been more open to stopping at the places my sister wanted to stop at. But all of you who know me, knows I am a planner and my plan was to be at the beach by mid morning because I heard a group of people put out blown glass globes on the beach in the morning for people to look for and I wanted to be one of those people! But of course like so many of my other adventures, I didn't get what I wanted. Oh well, there is always next year!

So, we drove down Highway 101 along the Pacific ocean and it was beautiful as always. We went to the sea lion caves which were stinky but pretty cool. There were about 100 lions in the cave and there were two particular lions who seemed to be putting on a show for the folks watching them. One was standing on a rock and the other was swimming in the water. The one in the water was biting the one on the rock. It was very cute to see but I am sure that lion was very serious about getting on that rock! The cave itself was kinda creepy, very dark and cold. My sister and I both forgot our cameras (yes, DUH!!!) so we bought disposables and none of the pictures inside the cave turned out. :(

Then we stayed at the Umpqua Lighthouse campground which was pretty neat. I thought it was on the beach but it was near a lake instead. We stayed in a yurt. If you have never seen a yurt, there is a picture above there. This campground was surrounded by TALL trees, it made a beautiful sight. My sister and I hiked through the forest to the beach and that was an amazing part of the ocean! It had a sand dune and walking on the sand was incredible! You could walk right on the sand without sinking in.

There is a picture there of my sister near the campfire that we attempted to build. HAHA! That was a hoot. If I ever got lost and had to make a fire, I would die. I have never made a fire before and it was an interesting experience!! Then making smores. Oh don't get me started on those!! Sheesh, you'd think I couldn't do anything! I guess I have always had people doing stuff for me. I didn't think I was spoiled like that but apparently having 4 older brothers to do all that for me, I was spoiled. I am sure a lot of other stuff happened but it was a while ago and I have forgotten. I had to get all the pictures developed and that took a week. Geez I really gotta get me a digi camera. Well thanks for reading and sticking with the blog :)

The semi-family outing

Ok, I was waiting for some beautiful pictures of Zion Canyon, where we went on our day trip, but my brother isn't sending them. So I will have to put them up whenever he gets his rear in gear and emails them to me. This makes me think I need to buy my own digi camera so I don't have to ask others. Anyway, the day started at about 11:00 a.m when my brother and his family came down from S.L.C to visit and haul my furniture back up there. We had 7 children all under the age of 11, you can just imagine! Oh my it was an adventurous trip. I give my mother more credit than I already did, she has 6 children. Of course the 7 children were split between my sister-in-law and her twin sister. They were all very sweet and well-behaved as much as a child can be right?!? We drove down to Zion Canyon about an hour away and decided to go on the Emerald Pools trail. My sister-in-law has a bad knee so we didn't want to go on a treacherous hike, and we thought this one wouldn't be too bad. We started the hike and it was uphill almost the entire time! It wasn't strenuous but it wasn't very pleasant either! There was a huge drop off that you could see into most of Zion Canyon which was SO beautiful! (Which is why I wanted the pics, ok I'll quit being disgruntled) After a while it started to drop downhill and it was actually a very beautiful trail and I am quite proud I was able to last considering I don't do a lot of hiking. It took us about 5 hours which included the lingering at the three pools. Those pools were gorgeous! They weren't very deep but still no one went in them because it would sanitize the water and you don't want to do that because it is drinking water for the animals that live in Zion. We didn't get home until about 11:00 at night because we went to eat afterwards. It was a great day!! I enjoyed being with my family and meeting new people. Again, as soon as I get pics I will post them. :)