Portland and the Home of Giant Berries

Heading north from Silver Falls quickly brought us back into Portland.  It was the first place we stopped in Oregon, and we were ready to get more time with some good friends here.  This time in Portland, we were not feeling like we needed to do "big city stuff", because we'd already done it two months ago.
We got to explore a little more like locals.  Friends took us berry picking on Sauvie Island. 

I thought I'd seen some berries before, but I was so wrong!  The variety of berries that Oregon produces is just amazing!  Holding these gigantic boysen berries made me feel like a scene out of James and the Giant Peach.

After our baskets and bellies were full, we headed further up the island for some beach time on the Columbia River.

Seems like Blossom is a true beach girl at heart.  She at least did her best to thoroughly soak in her last days in Oregon.

The next morning, we all woke up to the smell of berry pies coming out of the oven!  I am not ashamed to say that I ate pistachios and warm berry pie for dinner tonight.  No regrets.

We are sad to be leaving these friends and amazing Portland hosts.  We are also sad that it is our last night in Oregon.  Time to head home.  Not straight home, mind you... but a nearly 3,000 miles of driving awaits us, so we're reluctantly going to get started.
Loved Oregon so much.  It's definitely secured a place in our hearts.

Headed West

Howdy!  We worked our butts off getting our house ready for Airbnb, and it's booked for nearly the whole time we'll be gone!  Clay decided to stay in Asheville while the rest of us road trip.  He just turned 17 and got a Summer job.  He'll be staying with friends, and skateboarding a lot - sounds like a great Summer!

We started off our road trip on Memorial Day weekend.  Bobby drove overnight and we reached Omaha in no time!  We loved visiting with Grandma, Bob and Uncle David and their sweet dogs.

We met up with one of my sweet friends from High School, who now has a daughter that's ZB's age!  They loved each other and we all went to the Joslyn Art Museum, they had a great kids area.

We walked a pedestrian bridge over the Missouri River (Iowa/Nebraska state line) in the gorgeous midwest sunset and got to wander around parks with fields just right for ZB to go wildflower hunting.

We ended our trip to Omaha by visiting the famous Henry Doorley Zoo.  We loved so many parts of it!  Blossom was especially tickled to be able to walk right up to one of the many wandering peacocks and snap a photo. And then, cool off in the Artic-themed splashpark.

We then packed up and headed West again!

First stop was Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming for some camping next to these amazing rock formations!  We all had a fun time hiking around and doing some bouldering. When we first arrived, there was a light rain and out came a double rainbow to greet us - so beautiful!

The following day, we headed to Idaho for 4 days of camping and enjoying various hot springs in the state.  Did you know that Idaho has the most hot springs in one state?  Pretty amazing!  We went to 3 of them, and camped right next to one.  What a great way to wake up in the morning!

 And P.S. - Thanks Mom & Bob for the new tires!!  This was the road in Boise National Forest that led to our campsite.  I'm not sure it really even captures how big those ruts were...The tires work well!

Before heading out of Idaho, we randomly met up with some good Asheville friends who were actually vacationing in Boise - what are the chances?!?

Loved this part of trip!

Rainbow Cape!

We had such a sweet (but too short!) visit with Sissa and Big Pa this weekend.  ZB was just tickled to get to reconnect with her grandparents.  And it starts a month of seeing all the grandparents, actually!  Sissa and ZB got to play dress-up, put on a puppet show and even do each other's hair.

The following day, ZB reminded me I had never made her the rainbow cape she had requested probably a month ago.  Such a slacker am I :)

ZB helped me choose and iron the fabrics.  I cut pieces while she drew shapes on scraps and cut those out.

I told her I would sew it after she went to bed.  She instructed me to wrap it in a piece of silk, tie it with a ribbon and put it in a gift bag, so there could be present-opening in the morning. ha!  This kid cracks me up!

 I think it turned out awfully cute, and ZB is pleased as well!

Family Camping

We just came home from a lovely weekend camping with some other sweet families!

We were at the Briar Bottom Campground near Micaville, NC.  The kids loved exploring the woods and finding all sorts of mushrooms and creatures.

We all went on a waterfall hike.  The little ones stayed at the bottom of the falls, while the older kids hiked to the top.

Reed even got in some push-ups and a refreshing shower!

A neighboring campground offered ranger programs, so a few of the parents and all the kids walked down to learn about "skulls and skins".

General resting and silliness was had, late night rummy and spades were played, campfire songs and good food were shared!

I was sad to leave and I'm already looking forward to next year's campout!

Orchard Lake Campground

This weekend, we gathered up a sweet group of friends and all our camping gear and headed to nearby Saluda to camp at Orchard Lake Campground.  Not only is a beautiful location, it also is all activities included!

We were with 6 other families who all had kids.  We all loved that our campsites were right next to a shaded playground.  It was also a short walk to the and other activities.  All the kids loved the zipline (the toddlers did a shortened version).  The main draw was the lake.

Here's Reed canoeing.  He and Clay and their friends spent hours and hours and hours at the lake - swimming and boating.  There was also a rec room with pool, foozball, and the like, right next to the lake.  So, we really didn't see them much during the weekend.  The little kids loved the lake just as much, though!

ZB got to take her first (and second and third) boat ride:

Learning how to paddle, singing "Row Your Boat" over and over, feeling the underside of lilly pads and imagining what creatures might live in the water were all things to consider.

We'll definitely be visiting here again!  Reed wants to try golfing next time.  We've plotted out which sites we'll get next time, and found which things we packed did and didn't go over well (tricycle did not work on gravel, but giant bubbles were a big hit!)

It was pretty great that the whole weekend went off so smoothly with all the families and little kids involved.  Hopefully the poison ivy outbreaks stay at a minimum and the good memories shine through!

Crabtree Falls

This hike is on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Since the parkway is a long and curvy mountain road, I thought I'd be smart and shortcut through a nearby town.  Turned out I hadn't read the map right and our short cut turned into a very midguided long cut.  But we did get to see the adorable town of Little Switzerland, NC which I had never seen before - cute swiss chalets and all!  We also checked out the NC Mineral Museum - which was pretty small, but a nice little (and free) stop if you're in the area.

My friend Jackie, little ZB and I trekked out to Crabtree Falls hike at mile marker 339.5 on the parkway.  The trail is about 1.5 miles each way.  Not very strenuous, though I did see some hikers struggling as they must have thought it was a MUCH easier/shorter hike, since all they were carrying was a small bottle of soda.  ZB walked a lot of it, and was thrilled that she was allowed to hold the leash for Hank the dog for so long (not sure how thrilled Hank was about it, but he was patient enough)!

The trail gets a little rougher the closer it gets to the falls, but the destination is well worth it!

ZB was running down the trail at one point and had a big wipe-out.  Though I don't think these hurt for too long, she sure was fascinated by the scrapes for the entire rest of the day.

I am making a note to remember to wear long pants for our next hike.  Not only could it have lessened the scraped-knee factor, but at the water, the trails were lined with irritating stinging nettles.
I'm glad the sun was shining and the temperature was cool.  What a lovely day to get out in the mountains with a couple of sweet ladies!  And an extra thanks to Jackie for snapping some of these good photos!!

Easter Road Trip

Yippee - we got a new car! Well, new to me, and certainly newer than the '93 Toyota minivan I've been driving for the last 9 years. At 264,000 miles, I was ready to move on! I guess it's not the norm to add a new baby to the family and get a smaller car, but that what we did anyhow. I went down to a Honda Accord sedan. It's not that often that all 5 of us are in the car at once, and only 1 person is in a carseat now. I really wanted better gas mileage, and found this little beauty for a great deal on craigslist... plus, I got to re-learn how to drive a stick shift!
** I'll add a photo tomorrow ;) **

In honor of having a road-worthy car again, we drove to Charlotte for Easter weekend. I made my usual thrift store stops along the way, and got some great inventory (gotta love those big city thrift stores!) Then we headed to my brother & sister-in-law's house. My only regret from the weekend is that we didn't get any photos of all the cousins together! Ugh! Well, I've got lots of the baby, so I guess that'll have to do :)

My little nephews are sweet as pie! Corrin is 2 and was digging having little ZB there to get into mischief with him - they thought it was a party as soon as the air-mattresses were brought out -
Aunt Julia didn't disappoint with her cute easter baskets. And Uncle Scott was excited to get to stage a multi-difficulty-level egg hunt. And of course the boys were excited about it all - especially the candy part ;)
ZB discovered the joy of the little plastic car that she can climb in. She played with it for quite a while last night, and then during the Easter egg hunt, made a bee-line to it ... good thing Uncle Scott hid an egg in the car - at least she found one egg.
After church, we spent most of the day outdoors ...
We all love that they live right next to a fun playground...

We came back to the house and the boys rolled around in the hammock (literally, doing rolls - oh, I don't know how that poor hammock is still hanging), I got to garden with Corrin and snuggle with cutie little 7 month old Hudson, and even help Julia make a fabulous grilled lamb dinner - yum!!
Thanks for having us Scott & Julia (and kids) - a great place to take our first road trip in quite some time!