Summer Vacation Update - Our US visit in photos

As many of you know, this summer has been an interesting one. Firstly, our vacation got off to an early start this year due to Andrea and Eric's wedding. They had a beautiful ceremony at a great location on a wonderful day, and we were very lucky to be a part of it - Kevin as a ring bearer and I as a bridesmaid.

Leaving before the official end of the school year meant behind the scenes manouvering for the last 6 months to get permission from Kevin's School (the easy part) the School Board and the ultimately the city hall/council. Our offical permisson came through at the beginning of May, which might have been after the airlines tickets were already purchased........

Two days before we were due to leave, I got called into the office and was greeted with awful news - I wouldn't have a job when we came back from vacation. It cast a pallor over the final preparations and there was a lot of pressure to get things sorted out for myself in the less than 48 we had before we caught our flight to the US.

We arrived on Wednesday night after almost 24 hours of door to door travel. Once there, the first few days were a whirlwind of pre-wedding activity - final fittings, secuirty tags on the ring bearer suit that were missed in a post christmas clearance sale and now needed to be remomved.....a rehearsal dinner to meet the rest of the wedding party and see the location - which while beautiful, was a little remote and took a lot of back and forth driving......

....and before we knew it it was Saturday, the day of the wedding. I can't wait to have some pictures to share, becuase it really was beautiful in every way. Saturday night we all had the opportunity to stay at the venue and not travel back to Roseburg until Sunday.

The week following the wedding we tried to fill with family excursions....We got to catch up with Holly, there was the Enchanted Forest trip, the visit and small hike to Toketee Falls to see the impressive 120 foot waterfall as well as Crater Lake on the Friday before the 4th of July weekend. We did as much of the rim drive as was open, and even in early July we got hit with a snow/hale/ice storm during our picnic lunch at approx 7,000 feet up.





We wrapped up our visit with fireworks and a small birthday gathering on the 5th before it was time to pack up and hit the road before 7am on Wedensday morning to catch our flight back home out of Portland.

Even though it was two weeks and you think before you leave home you'll have enough time to do all the things you want, and see everyone you want, there will still items left on both the to do and to see list this time. It was such a whirlwind of activity our whole visit - it went by so fast!

Summer Travels & 5 year old logic

Little Man has been looking forward to getting on an airplane and going to 'Amerika' for months. Exactly why the prospect of such a long plane ride would be so thrilling, I'm not exactly sure. So, a few days before we flew, I finally asked him and he told me it was because he could watch all the movies he wanted to - plus he wanted to sit at the window and look outside while we were really high up.

So, when we flew on the 23rd of June, I let him sit at the window in the row of 2 where we were seated. As soon as we'd leveled off, he looked out the window - and he didn't like what he saw at all! He declared we were too high up, and he was scared...Mom had to lean over and shut his window shade - and so it remained for the rest of the flight.

For the next 10 hours or so, he would occasionally sneak a peek, only to lower the shade again........By the time of our return flight 2 weeks later, the idea of being on a plane for 10 hours was no longer exciting. Welcome to how the rest of us feel, Little Man!

Over the next few posts, I'll be posting pics and sharing stories from our visit -we covered a lot of ground this time!

• Andrea's Wedding @ The Big K Ranch, Elkton


• Visit with Holly and Robbie (and a girls nite!)


• Feeding the ducks at the duck pond (by Fred Meyer, of course!)


• Trip to the Enchanted Forest (Salem)


• Walk to Toktee Falls


• Visit to Crater Lake


• 4th of July


• My 32nd B-day (complete with sunflower cake!)

This has to be the earliest summer vacation I've had since my own wedding, and it feels a bit strange to come back and still have the whole summer ahead......but looking forward to it, and hopefully some extra time with Little Man during his 6 week vacation that started Friday afternoon.

I hope everyone else is having a great summer!