July 4

We spent the 4th of July in Great Falls again this year.  We went to the parade downtown, watched the boaters go by on the river all afternoon, and watched fireworks after dark.  The Wetzels were visiting (Matt's parents, Kevyn's family, Stephen, and the twins). 

 

It was a hot day.  The parade was good.  It wasn't my favorite, but it had lots of vehicles (fire trucks, air force trucks, old cars, etc.) and lots of candy so the kids were happy.

 

 

In every picture, my kids are either plugging their ears or eating candy.  Cute little blondies!  I love these faces.

 

 

 

Here are the kids... minus Zedick (Kevyn's baby). 

Reuel is into flags (and sprinklers) these days so he loved getting free flags.  Happy 4th!!!

Portland

We spent our last night and day in Portland.  Matt has been to Portland several times, but this was my first visit.  It's a beautiful city.  It was clear so we could see Mt. Hood looming over the city.

 

Matt's friend from high school, Thomas, lives in Portland.  We spent the day with him.  Thomas and his wife met us for breakfast at a hip spot in the city.  The food was so so good.  Great Falls is definitely lacking in the restaurant department.  Plus we rarely eat out in our day to day lives.  So I love getting to try new restaurants when we travel.  After breakfast, we went to Washington Park.  It's 400 acres and has several attractions.  We visited the Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden.

Portland Rose Garden

 



 

 

The roses were beautiful.  The views of the city were beautiful.  But I was very aware of the crowds.  After living a year in Montana, I have gotten used to very little traffic and a low population.  Portland and the gardens we visited seemed very crowded.  I would go back to Portland to visit in a heartbeat, but I think at heart I like living in a small city.   

 

 

 

Portland Japanese Garden 

 

 

Thomas got us in free to the Japanese Gardens which is why we picked it over the zoo.  The gardens were very pretty and felt very "Japanese."  We were supposed to be quiet and almost reverent.  Our kids were pretty good.  We did run into an annoyed grandpa a few times though.

 

 

 

I liked all the fountains and the zen rock gardens. 

Willa liked the scavenger hunt, and the boys liked the koi fish.

 

 

 

Our flight wasn't until 6 so we spent the rest of the day catching up with Thomas at his house. 

 

Our travel day to Portland was uneventful.  This travel day was the opposite.  We returned the rental car and took the shuttle back to the airport.  While we were checking in at the airport, Oliver disappeared.  Talk about scary.  We found him within a few minutes and he was standing with another family just around a corner, but those 3 or 4 minutes seemed like 30 when Matt and I were frantically running around trying to find him.  Our second flight was a little delayed.  We didn't land in Great Falls until after midnight.  None of our kids had slept much all day.  We were all exhausted and looking forward to getting home.  When we got back to our car, it wouldn't start.  One of our kids had left a dome light on.  We flagged someone down and he tried to jump the van.  No luck.  It was in some sort of security mode and instead of starting up, the horn started blaring and the lights started flashing.  We couldn't get the car to start.  We ended up calling a friend to come and pick us up and left the van behind.  It was after 1 am when we finally got home.  We were able to get the van started the next day after a little google search.  Vacations are awesome.  Traveling sucks though.

Oregon Coast - Redwoods

Brookings is less than 30 minutes from the California border and a grove of big, beautiful old growth redwood trees.  How could we pass that up?  So after two nights in Brookings, we hit the road yet again and headed further down the coast into Cali.  I was sad as we were driving away from the coast.  I wanted to stay longer.  I thought I made a mistake.  But as soon as we saw our first giant tree, we were in awe and were happy we left the coast (and the cold and wind) behind.

 

Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park, California

 

 

We hiked a trail in the Stout Grove.  The hike is pretty flat and less than 2 miles including the two spur trails.  I wasn't sure how long it would keep our attention.  We ended up spending over two hours in the grove.  It was majestic.

 

 

It was a busy summer day, but we were the noisiest people there so it was very peaceful. 

The grove has a cathedral-like feel... quiet, towering canopies, and light filtering through the leaves almost like stained glass.

Clarky looks so little

 

 

Another hiker showed my kids an edible plant - Redwood Sorrel.  It tasted like lemon.  Matt and I each tried a leaf or two.  Willa had 20 or so.  Oliver refrained.  Clark ate handfuls and handfuls.  He's not a big salad eater, but he got a kick out of eating these leaves.  It cracked me up. 

 

 

 

 

We climbed off the trail to a little stream.  Matt found frogs and banana slugs for the kids.  This was my first encounter with a banana slug.  They are pretty cool little creatures.

 

 

 

 

The Smith River runs through the park.  It's a gorgeous river - clear and rocky with pine trees and towering cliffs.  We took a spur trial to see it, and we drove along it for an hour later in the day.  If we ever return here, we might just have to kayak down this river.  Definitely somewhere to visit again.

 

 

 

 

We ate a picnic lunch after hiking and then hit the road for our 5 hour drive back to Portland.  Willa and Clark have grown into good little travelers.  Oliver isn't quite two years old and is NOT a reliable traveler yet. He still cries in the car at times.  Thankfully he was good on this drive.  He slept a little and had to be entertained a little.  We stopped an hour out of Portland and ate our first fast food of the trip at a neighborhood park for dinner.  We made it to Portland around 9 and checked into our pricelined hotel - the Hilton Portland and Executive Towers.  It was great.