How We Spent Our Summer Vacation - Part 5

Paul had never been to or seen a redwood forest let alone a redwood tree before, so we took the long way from Utah and back up to Oregon so I could show him places along the west coast that are dear to my memory. I'd say he loved it.

 We drove along Avenue of the Giants and stopped in at Founder's Grove. If you haven't been here before, put it on your bucket list folks because this place is magical.

 Aside from our giddy silliness, it is places like this that still provoke an immense sense of awe and reverence for the Master artist.

 Do you see the little boy chillin' in the roots?

 Do you see Paul in this picture below?

 On our way up to Klamath Falls, Oregon we passed through Eureka where my dad lived when I was younger and we drove through Crescent City. My sister and I would spend half the summer there under the fog and overcast skies in the smelly coastal towns and roll down sand dunes and pet cows and dream about horses while I collected scrap lumber on my dad's construction sites. I hadn't been through there in years and it brought a smile to my face to smell the smells and feel the coolness of the little coastal towns.

We made a very spontaneous decision to jump out of the car near Humbug and frolic in the ocean. I'm so glad we did! What a glorious journey!

We finally reached my mom's house up near Lake of the Woods in Oregon. We met up with Ron's daughter Mariah and her family too for some food and games!

 Here's mom and Ron being all cute and old together.

 Here's me being a total babe.

 Here's everyone else NOT going in the water.

 But I guess it was a nice afternoon for sitting.

 One of the Oregon highlights included seeing Brett and Kimberly and Company (my brother's family) and singing karaoke in his living room. Bust out the Wham!

 He makes these GORGEOUS cedar chests perfect for anyone's daughter or son or wife or husband and they make fantastic life-long gifts. And they smell soooo good!

 This is Malachi.

 These are all my cute niephews. We missed Christian!

 My mom's house is great because it's surrounded by pine trees and little colorful birds and these terrible squirrels that squawk when the sun rises and wake you up so you go outside to throw pine cones at them hoping a hawk will swoop down and eat them. She also has a pair of cats and Princess loves to swing on the hammock.

 The best day was when we went to the lake again and we all went swimming. Such cool refreshment!

 We BBQ'd shish-kabobs and corn on the cob! SOOO GOOD!

 

 The funniest thing ever was when Paul shaved one day and left a small mustache of hair as a joke, but I LOVED it so he kept it the whole time we were in Oregon for 2 weeks. So awesome.

His mustache soon had a name. But only a name suggesting bravery and intense heat would do.
Thus, Magnum was born. 

I just love looking at his face! And even more so with this new "charisma caterpillar" across his upper lip.

I wanted to give him a Camero for his birthday and a pack of Marlboro Lights and that's when we knew it was getting out of hand.

 It was really hot the whole time in Oregon but one day we were hit with a spontaneous hail storm. A BIG hail storm!

 We loved spending time with Mom and Ron and all their little critters in the pine trees but Paul and I had to reach our destination of Seattle before he started work on August 9th. So we packed up Buster (our Mazda) and headed back to the coast so Paul could see the REAL Oregon coast.

This is my home.

Canon Beach is awesome!