WOW!! I am once again far behind on my posts. The last month has been filled with so many exciting things, but unfortunately it leaves me with no time to be on the blog. I will try to hit the important things right now and fill in with others as I find time.
On April 22, Jared and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary. We had talked for the last year about going on a week long "honeymoon". A year ago we started making arrangements to go to Hawaii to celebrate. As we were looking at the cost and what we wanted to do we decided a trip to Hawaii was out of the question. So, after long talks about where we wanted to go we decided to make no arrangements at all and to just go. We had the days set to be gone and arrangements made with my Grandma for the kids.
We left early morning on Friday, April 16th. We drove through southern Wyoming and made it to Ogden, Utah the first night. We were both amazed at the view.
The next day we got up and headed for Idaho. We still didn't have an exact plan of where we wanted to end up. We weren't in a hurry, but just cruising a long.
We stopped along the Snake river in Idaho and walked a little. Of course Jared found me a rock to bring home. After leaving this area we stopped to grab something to snack on and a drink. As we were pulling in we saw this bar across the street and I had to get a picture...
We made it to Baker City, Oregon that night. We found a little Oregon Trail museum there, so we drove up and took a look.
By this time we were finding all kinds of cool things we wanted to show the kids. We agreed that Luke would really like the Oregon Trail stuff.
From Baker City we took off hoping to make it to the ocean. We had to choose between going to Washington State or the ocean and Jared was determined to show me the ocean for the first time. I must say this was my favorite day. The drive from Baker City to Lincoln City, Oregon was AMAZING!!! We both really loved Oregon. Here are a few pictures from our drive...
This is another little stop with history on the Oregon Trail. The story on it was pretty cool. Across the river is Washington. So, we could have swam over there just to say we had been there, but I really didn't want to get wet! :)
I stood on a rock in this stream to get the next picture...
There was also a small cave across the stream, but I couldn't find anymore rocks to step on, so I didn't go over there.
This waterfall was pretty big. It was the biggest we saw on our trip. I couldn't get it all in the picture. It was a very pretty area. We found so many little places to stop we didn't know which ones to stop at and which ones to continue on. Over all I am very happy with our choices. I think we could have spent 2 weeks in Oregon just exploring everything. That same day, after many stops we drove into Oceanside, Oregon. That was the moment I got to see the ocean for the first time!!
It was COLD!!
We found a really tiny hotel there, but decided to keep on driving to see what else we could find. After driving for about another hour we drove into Lincoln City, Oregon and found an ocean front hotel with every room having an ocean view. We were excited. We were even more excited when we found out that it was the cheapest rate for a hotel room yet!!
This rock sat in front of our hotel room. We could sit on the balcony and watch the waves hitting it. It was pretty cool when a huge wave would come in.
I had to spend a little time running around making a fool of myself. It was awesome! I'm pretty sure everyone could tell it was my first time there.
The next morning I refused to leave before I got down on the beach to find some sea shells and sand dollars. We ended up talking to a guy and finding some agates. I was really surprised by how nice and friendly everyone was. We spent over an hour just walking along the beach and finding different rocks and shells.
The following are some scenic pictures we took. From Lincoln City we went down Highway 101 into Northern California. The drive was beautiful. We had an ocean or mountain view through all of it. I just have to say one thing about it though, they don't believe in guard rails like we do. There were a few times I was holding on for dear life hoping Jared didn't get to close the side of the road.
I almost forgot. We stopped to see the Sea Lion cave. It was pretty awesome. I couldn't get pictures of the cave because we couldn't use flash down there, but there were a ton of sea lions down there. It was cool to watch them. I must say- they stunk though and they were a noisy bunch. From the sea lion cave I managed to get the following pictures...
A very cool lighthouse.
You can see a sea lion or two in this picture if you look hard.
Some more scenic pictures...
Reminders of our kids were everywhere!!
I took so many pictures of just amazing scenes. Most of them were through the pickup windshield because there was no way to stop for a picture at each one. The main thing I walked away with was just how beautiful it all was.
We made one more stop to walk on the beach because we didn't know if we would be able to stop again.
There was no one else around, so we were able to just walk and explore without anyone looking at us strangely. I will say it was REALLY windy. I was looking for sea shells and turned my back on the ocean. Well, a sneaker wave came up soaked my feet, jeans and my butt. It was so funny. Jared was laughing pretty hard at that one. We decided to get back on the road after that.
The trees in Northern California are HUGE!! I kept taking pictures of them and finally told Jared there was just no way to really tell by looking at the pictures how big they really were. So, I managed to get a car in this picture. I am pretty sure you could get 5-6 guys behind one and not be able to see anyone behind it. The drive was very pretty. That night we stayed at Arcata, California. We started out early the next day because everyone kept talking about the storm coming in and the weather changing. We were very lucky up to this point to have beautiful weather. We knew we had to do a lot of mountain driving as we were heading back east to start our way back home. Here are a few stops we made...
Ice and snow on the mountain top.
I had to take a picture of where we were so I wouldn't forget.
The first part of the day the weather was ok. It sprinkled on us a little bit, but nothing major. After driving on some insane roads that gave me motion sickness for the first time in my life we started going up in elevation again and then the weather quickly changed. We drove through snow and nearly white out conditions for about 2 hours.
That night we made it to Reno, Nevada. We looked for a mall to do some shopping for Abby's birthday. After an hour of looking we gave up and called it a day.
Nevada was a lot different than any where else we had been. It was very obvious that gambling was important to the state. We drove from Reno to Park City, Utah the next day.
Coming off a hill and seeing the view of a desert. The big building in the town below was just one HUGE casino in a town smaller than McCook. I think we counted 5 total there. I'm not sure on that number, but it was a lot for such a little town.
The desert was surprisingly wet. Very wet. There are rocks out there and they all say something different. We had planned on staying in Salt Lake City that night. We were told that Salt Lake could be a little tricky so we decided to see if we could make it to the east end of the city and stay somewhere on I-80. If we got lost then we would just get a hotel room where we were and mapquest directions for the next morning. Well, we got through Salt Lake perfectly and before we knew it we were completely through it. We came to Park City and decided to stay there. We were not disappointed. It was a really nice ski resort town and the ski resorts had shut down the weekend before. So, we got an awesome rate on an awesome room. We were also a block from a huge shopping center. We went over and got Abby some clothes for her birthday. It was even more exciting when they all had awesome sales at Carters and Oshkosh.
The next day we headed to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We stayed there one night and then headed home the next day. I don't have very many pictures of Wyoming.
When we got to Wyoming it started to snow again. We ended up having to call 911 for an accident on the side of the road. It was icy and we had two trucks behind us so we couldn't stop. Luckily I could see everyone getting up and walking so that was a relief. We made it home one week after we left and we were so excited to see the kids. It was an amazing trip. I just want to say "thank you" to Jared for taking me on the adventure! It was truly something I will never forget. Also a huge "thank you" to Grandma Elaine for staying with the kids and keeping things from exploding back home. Thank you to Grandma Joyce and Mom for giving my Grandma a break and spending time with the kids. Also, thank you to Dad for keeping the business going while we were gone. We truly are thankful to all of you!! It was so nice to just be away from it all- TOGETHER for a little while. Next time, we are taking the kids though!
