Spring Break – Part 4 “High Desert Museum”

The last leg of our Spring Break Trip we headed home from Lakeview and stopped in Bend at the High Desert Museum for several hours!  I would definitely recommend this stop!  Ammon was really excited about taking Annie and Nathan to this museum and I have to say, the kids had a blast!  It was educational and even had many hands on exhibits that the kids loved.

The beautiful weather we had experienced our entire trip was changing and the dark clouds helped us to decide to view the outdoor exhibits first!  There were beautiful paved paths leading to fun viewing areas. Our first stop was the Otter den. The kids had a great time watching the very active otter swim from one end of the pool to the other…it was almost like he was playing games with the kids. Coming right up to the window and then back to the land on the other side. 

I sure wish I got better pictures of the amazing birds of prey they had at the museum! It’s amazing to me how enormous eagles are! There is something really majestic about these birds! They are amazing! My two kiddos decided to pose with silly faces in front of the exhibit.

Probably our family’s favorite part of the museum was the Old time settlement.  The cabin we are standing in front of was open. The kids got to see how people used to live in the 1800’s.

Nathan was especially concerned that the games they had to play were not electronic at all. No video games or TV in the 1800’s. “Jason” was a relative of the settlers that lived in this cabin and he showed the kids how to play a couple of old fashioned games that were common in the 1800’s for children their age. He was great and stayed in character the entire time. He answered all questions as if he were living in the late 1800’s. Very fun for the kids! 

Annie was eager to learn the first game (above).Nathan warmed up to the idea and tried the second game.  

Nathan loved watching the live bobcat (through the window of course).

The last part of our time at the High Desert Museum we went on a guided tour where our tour guide gave us lots of information and told stories of the pioneers that settled in Oregon. The tour guide was fabulous! Annie had fun showing off a little by answering some of his questions for the audience on the tour! Smarty pants!

Here is a picture of Annie in a Golden eagle dress up costume in the children’s climbing area! Rock climbing, slides in the rocks, puppets to play with, tunnels to climb through…the kids were in heaven!  It was perfect before they had to hop back in the van for the long drive home! Nathan found a spider under a sliding rock…as you can see…he wasn’t so sure about it! Ammon even had fun hiding from the kids!

Like I said at the beginning of Spring Break – Part 1…we had a great time! This vacation was a perfect mixture of visiting friends and having very fun and special family time!  I look forward to other fun trips like it in the future!

Spring Break – Part 3 “Oregon’s Mile High City”

The next leg of our Spring Break vacation took us to Lakeview!  There isn’t much in this mile high city…for those of you who don’t know where Lakeview is…it is in the far south east corner of Oregon and very close to the California border.  But the trip was more than worth the drive there.! We went to visit Matt, Susie, Mikaila, Sam, Lizzie and Ben…dear family friends that we have not seen for WAY too long. We figured out we hadn’t been to visit in almost 5 years! 

We had a great time hanging out together! The kids really got along well and had a lot of fun playing together. After the kids were in bed in the evenings Matt, Susie, Ammon and I had fun catching up and playing games together. We kept saying how we wished we could have more evenings like these (if we lived closer) and that we couldn’t wait so long to get together next time!

Ammon and the kids standing in front of the “Mile High Man”  the Lakeview town mascot.

We all took a walk around town together. The kids posed for a picture on the way! In the front: Sam, Nathan, Lizzie, Annie and Ben. The back row: Mikaila

 

Matt and Susie were great hosts! Fed us unbelievable meals all weekend!  Susie introduced me to German pancakes and this awesome homemade syrup! Awesome! I am definitely going to try the recipe at home!

Here are some pictures of us having ice cream sundaes! on Saturday night! Messy Ben!  But oh so cute!  He absolutely loved Ammon, but who doesn’t?  Mikaila and Ammon hanging out below! Boy how she has grown up! A beautiful girl with a sweet personality and a very kind friend to Annie! I remember when you were born Mikaila!Lizzie and Annie had fun together too. They especially loved hanging out in the huge playhouse in the backyard!

Nathan loved having an older boy around! These boys really loved playing Legos and video games together! I loved hearing Sam play his guitar for the kids a little bit, throughout the weekend. Nathan still talks about his friend Sam!

Our visit is over…but our friendship has grown deeper and we will look forward to another visit with our families in the future!

Spring Break – Part 2 “Klamath Falls with friends, Swimming and visiting Crater Lake”

The end of day one of our vacation we stayed in Klamath Falls. That evening, we met up with friends we had met on a very special trip we took to Korea almost 5 years ago.  Joy and Ben picked up their son Dominick in Seoul, Korea from Holt International at the same time Ammon and I went to pick up Nathan. We spent some time shopping with them during the week and then shared our very long airplane ride home with them and our sons!  We have stayed in contact some over the past few years through Christmas cards and limited emails…but knowing we were heading south and through Klamath Falls to Lakeview, we decided to try and connect with them again. It was fun spending an evening together, sharing our Korea memories and just letting the kids play together. We hope that there will be more visits in the future. 

During our short visit, we learned that Dominick and Nathan were quite different in personality. Dominick is quite outgoing and energetic. Nathan was shy and stayed fairly close to mom and dad though he was happy to see his “friend from Korea” he met as a baby. Annie enjoyed meeting Lily and Riley, Dominick’s older sisters (who also stayed home with family while mom and dad went to Korea).

Ben and Dominick with Ammon and Nathan at pizza!

OK…so I couldn’t help from including a picture of Nathan (left) and Dominick (right) during our trip home from Korea.  It’s so hard to believe it was almost 5 years ago!

That night we stayed in Klamath Falls. We were all tired and crashed after getting back from pizza with Ben, Joy, Riley, Lily and Dominick.  However, the next morning the kids didn’t sleep long. Knowing that there was an indoor pool, they were up and ready to go! Unfortunately, Dad had forgotten his swimming attire so mom took Annie and Nathan swimming.  Both of the kids acted as fish for a good hour and we had a blast!

   

After eating our continental breakfast we were able to get on the road again by 10:30am!  It was a beautiful day and the roads to Crater Lake were dry the entire way…however there were walls of snow on each side of the road the entire way up to the crater.

About midway up to Crater Lake we parked and played in the snow for a while! Mommy came prepared with snow gear, however the weather was so nice we only pulled out the gloves and snow hats and those came off fairly quickly! Though the gloves stayed on long enough for each child to nail their parents with snowballs!

 

I don’t think Crater Lake has ever looked  more beautiful! This is the first time Ammon or I had been to the lake during the winter months!

 

Ammon captured this picture of the icicles melting…I just had to put it in! So cool!

 

Nathan and Annie were such good travelers!  Unfortunately we had to keep Annie medicated (with Dramamine for her motion sickness) which often caused her to fall asleep. I love this picture we got of her asleep with her lollipop in her mouth.

And so we drive on…east towards Lakeview!

Spring Break – Part 1 “Wildlife Safari”

I just love vacation and I have to say that this was one of the most fun vacations we have had together as a family! I am excited to share the pictures of our fun days in Southern/Eastern Oregon! However, I doubt the pictures will do justice to the incredible time we had together as a family this last week. Each day was so fun and the weather was better than we could have ever imagined (which is nice for a road trip).

Our first stop was Thursday, March 18th at the Wildlife Safari!  The kids were excited to see the live animals as we drove through the park. However, before we started the tour, I was able to capture a picture of the cutest animals in the entire park…

Both Annie and Nathan’s favorite animals were the “big cats.”  Unfortunately, all of the big cats were quite sleepy the morning we toured the Safari. Inside the Safari village there was a cage with a Cheetah you could see up close.  This was especially a highlight for Nathan who had been talking about seeing cheetahs from the minute he had found out we were going to go to Wildlife Safari.

Annie and Nathan enjoyed the novelty of being “unbuckled” and able to move from one side of the van to the other to see the best views of the wildlife!

 

   

We spent several hours in the morning and early afternoon hanging out with the animals. Then we crawled back into the van and headed down the road again to our next destination…Klamath Falls (see Spring Break - Part 2)

Uncle Erlin’s Birthday Celebration

March 14th was a fun weekend in Eugene with extended family. Ammon’s Uncle Erlin turned 75 and we went down to attend his surprise birthday party!  It was fun to see the Farris relatives and hang out for an afternoon of visiting and live music (thanks Cousins Debbie, Mick and their band). Uncle Erlin and Aunt Sharon spend their time split between Minnesota, Oregon and Arizona. It was fun to have the entire family together for this special day.

 

Top: Mick, Darren, Teresa, Erlin,Sharon,Deanna                                     Bottom: Vern and Debbie