*warning: this is a LONG post with too many pictures.
Last week the three of us took a trip up to Oregon to visit Clark's brother Bruce, his wife Shannon, and their new baby, Colton.
First of all, Oregon is pretty.
Much prettier than Vegas, in my opinion.
Clark and I took this picture on a motorcycle ride up the mountains. The fresh air and lush, green hills were welcomed contrasts from our desert landscape.
At 10 weeks, Luke is already a seasoned traveller: he has been on a 9-hour road trip and three plane rides! This picture is from number two.
Colton was born 6 days after Luke. Neither of them will remember when they first met, but we parents sure enjoyed it! Hopefully one day they will be great friends.
While we were there, we must have been asked about 50 times if the two of them were twins.
Colton was blessed on Father's day, so both sets of grandparents were there for the weekend. Shannon's parents live here in Las Vegas, and we are staying in a house that they own. They have treated us so well and have taken good care of us while we have lived here, and we like to think of them as our Vegas parents (and Luke's Vegas grandparents).
On our way to see the coast, we stopped and walked through a redwood forest.
I have never seen redwoods up close before. They are huge. Beyond huge. The tallest redwood in the forest was over 300 feet tall!
This is the bottom of one of the trees that had fallen over. Crazy, huh?
Luke and Colton got to ride around in this little contraption.
I don't think they were too sure about it...
I think they might enjoy it a bit more when they are older.
It was about a 2.5 hour drive to the coast, but completely worth it. The water was freezing, but the Oregon coast is really beautiful.
Father and sons. You'd never guess they were related, would you? Just kidding.
Clark and his dad had a great time searching for all manner of sea life!
Some more coast pictures:
The three of us took a day trip up to Crater Lake. It is a giant lake that was made when the top of a volcano collapsed into itself after a massive eruption. A couple hundred years of rain and snow later, it is the deepest lake in North America. It has no inlets or outlets, so the water is perfectly still and is a beautiful, deep shade of blue. Very pretty.
Other activities to which we couldn't/didn't bring our camera included white water rafting, some motorcycle rides, mountain biking, and a trip to Ahsland, OR (aka hippie town, USA). If you ever find yourself passing through there, stop and walk around. Your inner granola will thank you. (:
Anyway (if you made it to the end of this post), we had a great trip! It was nice to come back to the 110 degree weather (not)--really, it was 110 degrees here yesterday. Today we are just relaxing a bit, because after such an eventful vacation...
we are POOPED!
