Family Vacation

For the past few years, Tommy has taken two weeks off of work in August. It is a slow time of the year at Microsoft since the company's fiscal year end is June 30th, plus the weather in August is outstanding... and we wait through a lot of dreary months for this weather.

Two years ago, we took the kids to Seabrook on the Washington coast and last year, we took the Victoria Clipper (boat) to Victoria on Vancouver Island. I have enjoyed using this annual August trip as a chance to explore the beautiful area in which we live. This year did not disappoint.

This year, we rented a home in Sunriver, which is about 20 minutes south of Bend in central Oregon. We spent five nights in Sunriver, then drove to Portland and spent a night with Tommy's high school buddy Jake and family. Then, we spent a night at Great Wolf Lodge as we worked our way back home. We came home on a Monday evening, unpacked, did laundry, repacked, and left again on Wednesday morning to drive up to Tommy's parents' beach house. Tommy and I snuck away for about 38 hours and took a ferry to San Juan Island. It was an amazing excursion! We returned home last Saturday after being gone for the better part of two weeks, and my parents arrived for a two-month visit on Sunday (more on that later).

Sunriver is my new happy place. I am pretty sure it is the kids' new happy place too. It was a six-hour drive from our house, but the kids did great in the car. We rented a lovely home that was complete with all the Sunriver essentials: adult cruiser bikes, hot tub, grill, and most importantly, a bunk bed room with mounted TV on the wall. The weather was perfect and there was plenty to do. The biggest highlight for the kids was riding bikes. We brought Taylor and Matty's bikes with us and rented a real "big boy" bike for Brayden (we brought his little toddler bike but it is clearly too small for him). Now that Taylor is riding her bike without training wheels, she could not wait to hit the bike trails. Sunriver has over 50 miles of trails! We biked to lunch, we biked to the aquatic center (called SHARC), we biked to the brewery for dinner, we biked to the lodge for an outdoor concert, we biked to get ice cream, we biked to the playground, etc. (get the picture?). The kids had a blast on the trails and really enjoyed their independence.

My friend Emily from business school was vacationing in Sunriver the same week we were there. She and her husband have a house there, so she was a great resource for us. One night, we joined Emily, her family, and two other families for a "Family Float" on the Deschutes River. We packed sandwiches for dinner, got into a six-person raft with a couple of oars, and literally floated on the river for a few hours. It was great. The kids had a ball and even got into the chilly waters. The float ended with s'mores and a cowboy sing-a-long. It was a great evening.

We also spent a morning at Mt. Bachelor. We took the ski lift up to the summit (well, not quite), hiked around in the snow, and enjoyed lunch at the over-priced restaurant on top. Brayden, our little man of amazing endurance, was quite upset with us that we did not want to hike more. He would have run up the mountain had we let him.

A father and his sons

B loved the rocky/ashy trails

See that dot in the middle? That is Brayden running up the trail. The picture does not do justice to the steep ledge to the right of the trail. Brady had us very nervous as he sprinted up ahead of us.

I breathed a sigh of relief when everyone was safely down.

We also spent a few hours at Elk Lake. Again, we had a connection in Emily's friend that lives in Bend, so she hooked us up with rafts and paddle boards. The atmosphere here was spectacular.

 

This is Taylor's collection of frogs she collected from the water.

My favorite part of the trip was simply being together as a family, with little to no agenda. We slept in, we stayed up late watching the Olympics, we did one or two things each day and relaxed when we needed (don't get me wrong, Tommy and I could have done a lot more relaxing, but there were more moments of relaxation than I've had on any other vacation with kids thus far). We will definitely go back.

Here are a few additional pictures from the trip:

Lunching at 10 Barrel Brewery in Bend on the way in to Sunriver.

View from the Lodge at Sunriver

Riding the train in the Village

One of many ice creams during our visit.

Tommy's beer sampler at Sunriver Brew Co.

More ice cream

Outdoor concert in the Village

Climbing wall

Bouncy slide

Yes, that is Taylor being catapulted into the air.

Waiting for another train ride.

Bumper cars

Miniature golf

Daddy and Matty catching the Yankees game (A-Rod's last game!) on the phone. Nevermind the cornhole, live concert, and food in the background!

Taylor with my friend Emily's girls: Nora (18 months) and Sadie (4 years)

Our cute little home (it is much nicer inside than it looks): 7 Pioneer Lane

We also enjoyed our time with Jake and Kiki and their children Gigi and Jack. It was so nice of them to open their home in Lake Oswego to our family of five for the night. We grilled flank steaks for dinner, drank fun cocktails, and made s'mores with the kids, but the best part of the night was putting the kids to bed and sitting out at the fire pit for hours. It is so rare to have uninterrupted adult time with other couples. We had a blast.

 

Three cute boys at brunch.

The kids all had fun on the rope swing - it went over a creek and made mom pretty nervous, but everyone had fun and no injuries were reported.

I will wrap up this novel of a blog post quickly, but I want to post a few pictures of Tommy and my trip to San Juan Island. Wow - it is sooooo beautiful in the San Juans. We took the ferry over on a Thursday morning and returned to the beach house on Friday evening, but I truly felt like I was in a foreign country for a day. The scenery was breathtaking. It was nice to spend time with Tommy alone - we had not been away from the kids for 8 months. Despite the glorious views, my favorite part of the getaway was sitting at an outdoor bar, looking at the water, having some drinks and chatting with T. We did not have anywhere we needed to be and the evening slipped away from us... and that was okay! I kept finding myself getting anxious about what was next/did the kids eat/what do we need to prep for tomorrow/did Brayden use the bathroom before bed/etc. It was nice to take a deep breath and order another drink. Ha!

 

Friday Harbor

Our perch/hangout

Watching the ferries come and go.

Roche Harbor - we brunched here on Friday.

Lime Kiln State Park - the lighthouse is used for whale research. Tommy and I learned way more about whales than we ever wanted to know, but it was all very fascinating. This point is the best place to whale watch (on land) in all of North America. 

Hiking by the American Camp down to Grandma's Cove

We found some shade and read for a bit. We had the beach to ourselves.

Tommy rockin' the Smartcar! It is like a golf cart with a hood, but it got us around the island for a day.

 

We are now home from vacation, my parents are settling into their rental, and we are gearing up for school to start soon. Taylor starts on 9/1, Matty starts on 9/7, and Brady starts on 9/13. We have had a GREAT summer, but it will be nice to get back into a routine. :)