After 11 long days we are finally home! We weren't planning on going to Oregon because we couldn't afford for Ray to not work that long and with my classes it just didn't seem like we could do it. Ray wasn't too excited about it either. But he surprised me by getting off work, it was my birthday present from him. I was so excited. But little did I know of what it would really entail. If I had, we probably wouldn't have gone. There were a lot of good parts and bad parts.
On the 6th (my b-day) Ray and I decided to pack up and go up north and spend a couple of days with his family before we left to Oregon. With this, I had to pack up everything and tidy the house before we left. Ray wasn't home to help, he was going through the process of selling our Subaru. This was also a big restraint for us, as our Dodge Neon is practically dead. I was really nervous to drive all the way up north with it and back. Although I was really happy to get rid of our Subaru, I didn't know what Ray was thinking selling it then. But Ralphy made it pretty good. We had to go 60mph the whole way (and without A.C. its more miserable than you think), but we made it ok.
My Mom, Kim, Aaron, Michael, Tiffany, and Breanne were up north already doing some shopping. So they took me and Ray out to eat for my b-day at the Golden Corral. While there, they had me open my presents, which was super embarrassing in front of everyone else who was there. My family had gotten me a sewing machine and some accessories and then a bouncer thing for Mady. I'm so excited to use both. I decided that now I have a reason to take a sewing class, since I only know the basics. Hopefully the school offers one. It was a pretty good b-day, even though we spent most of it driving, packing, and cleaning. It was actually the first b-day that I didn't get a cake. Crazy eh? Don't worry though, me and Ray bought some b-day cake ice cream to make up for it. It didn't feel like my b-day but I think everyone has to have one of those in their life. Maybe next year I'll make Ray do something extra special, like go on a vacation just by ourselves and combine our b-days together.
The next day after I spent hours studying and getting my homework done the the next two weeks, Leisl came up and went boating with our family. I was surprised at how good Mady did on the boat. She slept the whole time. I felt bad for Leisl though, it was really wavey and she got a little sick from it. Even though it was quite choppy, Ray went slalom skiing. I wish I had gotten some pictures, but we forgot our camera. Leisl stayed the night and we went shopping the next day, getting warm clothes for Mady for the trip. She left in the afternoon, which gave me more time to finish up some things for my classes. It was after 12 when I finally got it all done and went to bed. That morning we got up early and made sure everything was packed and ready to put in my parent's RV. By 8:30am we were on the road to our destination for that day: Boise, Idaho.
After only 3 hours of driving, our trailer that was hooked to the RV blew out.
We were an hour away from the nearest tire place. So my uncle drove his RV back to get one for us. So while we waited we played some cards. 
After two hours, we were back on the road again, Ray and I actually got to sleep! 
You see our RV doesn't have any A.C., so the windows are all down making it ridiculously loud. Not to mention my 6 siblings and Mady and all there loudness. Then a few hours after that we got another flat, this time on our RV. So my uncle and his crew, my g-parents and my aunt and her family, and our family all stopped in a po-dunk town in Idaho to get it fixed. We had to wait for over an hour for it to get fixed. Not our idea of a fun trip so far. Finally we drove into Boise at about 7-8 that night. My relatives, Dave and Sue Barkley were expecting us much earlier, but at least we made it to their place. They had a gorgeous ranch place. I only wish we had time to ride their horses, but it was too late, and we were leaving in the morning. Dave did however promise to take us all on an airplane ride before we left. He had his own private plane.
It was awesome! The view was absolutely gorgeous 
Ray loved it too. Although he was quite jealous that my sister Kim, who got to sit in front, got to drive the plane. I was very nervous. 
After everyone got a ride, we were off again. The whole day we just drove. Our destination was Portland, So it was a long day. Ray and Mady had a hard time sleeping while driving with the noise and everything, but I didn't. So when Mady would slumber off, I always took advantage of it. 
We spent the night somewhere stupid. So I didn't take any pictures. We got there late and then left that morning. We didn't sleep very good due to the cars on the highway right next to us and then trains coming through on the other side of us.The next day there was this gorgeous waterfall on the side of the freeway that we stopped by to stretch our legs and get some air.
Can you see us on the bridge?? 
Well if not, here's a better picture. 
That night we stayed at a better place. Except if you wanted a shower, you had to pay. So no showers for us. It did have this gorgeous trail that we we hiked. 
Can I just say how much I love how green it was!! Simply gorgeous
Getting ready to leave. Notice how old our RV looks? Ya its from the 70s. 
Mady was all smiles, except when she was hungry. She had all the kids attention all the time. Now that we're home and its just me and Ray, she's a horror due to the lack of attention. 
The next day was quite eventful. We went to the Tillamook cheese factory. Ray was so excited. Man does that boy love cheese. 
After the cheese factory, we went crabbing off a pier. The kids were quite excited. I was excited for Ray. He liked it as you can see. 
The rest of the kids were ecstatic about catching them. Even Kim and of course my Dad. 
I, however, didn't share the same enthusiasm. I wanted to hold a crab....but it took awhile for me to actually warm up to the idea. In this picture Nathan, my brother, was trying to get me to hold it. I tried to buck up....this is me bucking up, haha. 
Let me insert here why I am so scared of holding one. I had a traumatic experience the last time we were in Oregon crabbing. I was watching my dad and a few uncles and cousins picking up the crabs and measuring them. Then my dad picked up a crab and it grabbed a hold of my dad's thumb with its claw. There was blood everywhere. I was so scared that crab was going to kill my dad! I know stupid but hey I was like 7 or 8 or something. It was quite scary. So after a few times of trying to find the courage to hold one, we caught one without claws. So this is me holding one without claws, which I was still a bit scared about the other feet claw things it had, but I did hold it. 
But I couldn't leave Oregon without holding a real crab with claws. So I finally just did it. I only wanted to hold it long enough to take a picture and then throw it back into the ocean. But the stupid thing wouldn't let go! 
Finally, it let go. But then I dropped it cause I thought it was coming for me and broke one of its legs off, I kinda felt bad for that. Ray picked it back up for me and then I took it real quick for the picture and then threw it. I wish I could say that I was the one picking and throwing them back and I could actually smile while doing it...but no. I was freaking out the whole time, as you can see by my face. 
Now that I had held a "real" crab, I decided I had had enough and wanted to go walking along the beach for seashells. We didn't find any, so I just wrote in the sand and took kissing pictures. I know super cheesy, but I don't care. 
This is how Mady sleeps most of the time. Cute, I know. 
After we got done crabbing, we headed to Cape Lookout for our reunion. It was my Grandma's siblings and their families. The campground we stayed out was amazing. It was right next the this gorgeous beach! Ray, Mady, and me got to stay in a Yert. Its a tent like thing. Here's a picture. 
We spent 3 days at our reunion at the Cape. We loved it! Here's our sandcastle we built. It was pretty impressive I think. 
Other's thought it was pretty impressive too, so they took pictures in front of it. We had three families do this. I decided that it would be a good idea. Just get a picture in front of an awesome sandcastle so that when you go home you can show everyone what you made. These ppl are smart. 
This is the castle my dad, brothers and sisters built to connect to ours. 
While we were building, a huge wave came up and got all our things wet. They call them sneaker waves. The name fits them quite well. 
Then the tide came in and destroyed our cities. 
So we just sat and watched high tide. 
While at the beach Ray kept saying how much he wanted a skim board and how we should go into town and buy one. But I told him he should go find someone who has one and borrow it. So he did. Its harder than it looks. These are a few of the pictures where Ray is standing. He didn't stay up for long. Balancing is hard on these things. I did get some good biffing pictures though haha. But I think Ray wouldn't be too happy if I put those up. So here's the good ones. 
The water was freezing cold! I had forgotten how cold it is. It hurts until your numb then its pretty good. The only problem is that you can't feel anything. So you don't know if your clothes are still on or not. Haha yeah....not good to loose something like that. But despite the coldness, all my siblings got in. And I finally braved it and got in too.Kimberly
Michael
Aaron
Tiffany
One night we went on a walk down the beach to see this overhang where the starfish were. Along the way we saw some dead jellyfish. Back in the day when we went to Oregon I loved playing with the dead jellyfish, poking them with sticks and touching them. And well I still love too. 
This is the hangover. Except there were no starfish. But there were a lot of muscles. I wanted to get a picture of me, my dad, and brother, so while Ray was taking the picture the tide started coming in and a huge wave got us soaked! 
When we were walking back the sun was setting, so I took these gorgeous pictures. Pretty eh? 
So Ray and I decided to build our family out of sand. I did Ray and Mady, and Ray did me. What do you think? 
While we weren't at the beach, we were playing cards, eating, or sleeping. For one of the nights for dinner, we had a Hawaiian luau. Here's some pictures of it.
Mady really enjoyed the beach. She loved watching the waves roll in and the sound they made. She also loves her grandpa's! She was spoiled rotten with all the attention she got. 
We had one gorgeous day that wasn't overcast. The sun was shining, it was beautiful! 
Mady got into this schedule of sleeping from 10pm to 6am. She'll go back to sleep as long as she sleeps by us. SO I had to get a picture of her in our huge sleeping bag. Haha love it! 
We were sad to leave Cape Lookout. We weren't looking forward to the drive. It was easier to sleep because it was quite cool in Oregon. Ray didn't sleep much, but he was willing to hold me and Mady while we did. 
Our next stop was at an aquarium. We got to see an octopus. It was awesome. The sea anemones were so cool to touch. I loved the colors. We also got to see jellyfish! 
Our next destination was the Redwoods National Park. We followed the cost all the way down. It was gorgeous. Here's some pictures of the view. 
We also stopped to see some tidal pools. It was amazing! We also got to see some seals. 
I wanted to get a picture of all the muscles, so Ray decided to show his too haha. 
While traveling to the Redwoods, we got another flat tire. So it took us even longer to get to the Redwoods. We finally made it though. We dropped the kids off at our campsite with my family and then Ray, me, and my dad went into town to get a new tire. Ray and I had plans to go to a nice restaurant for his birthday. After eating, we had to wait for my parents to come back and pick us up, which took 2 hours. So me and Ray walked through town seeing if there was somewhere we could stop and kill some time. We found this World Sea place. Their gift shop was still opened so we bummed around there. They had these huge seals in front so we took pictures of them. They also had this surfboard that you could take pictures on. 
When we got into the Redwoods, we stopped at the visitors center. It was right on the beach. 
That was our last time being on the beach. We were a little bit depressed if you can't tell. 
After hearing so much about the Redwoods and having them be talked up, I didn't find them all that impressive. But here are some noteworthy pictures. We first stopped at this place that had these cute tree houses. They had two stories. I would love one for Mady, but I'll just have to make the old fashion kind. There was also a tree that you could drive through. I don't think I would ever drive through it after seeing someone else do it. They also had this tree that you could walk through. It was pretty intense let me tell ya :).
The second place we went to, I liked better. Well at least the tree that you could drive through was wider, so I think I would drive my car through this one. 
The drive home was awful. At one gas station, the bugs were so awful. Check this out. We decided that since we had no A.C., we would try and drive through the night to get through the Salt Flats when it was cool. But of course that planned fell through when we blew another tire. We could only go 40mph. So instead of going through the Salt Flats at night, we were going during the middle of the day at 114 degrees. Oh it was awful. We tried stopping by each town to get a tire, but nothing was open because it was Sunday. So we were traveling on a prayer, God was definitely behind us. That evening we made it to Salt Lake City. But that was as far as we could go. We had Ray's brother come get Ray, Mady and me, because Ray had work that next day. So we stayed the night at Ray's parent's house and then headed home that morning. And since we sold our car, the Lord again helped our little neon make it home...without A.C. Man I never knew I could sweat so much. It felt so good to be home though and to actually sleep in my own bed. Awww pure bliss. The only bad part is that now, Mady is thrown off her schedule, not to mention she thinks she needs attention 24/7 since she has had it the past two weeks. Hopefully things will get better though.So all in all, it was a good trip. But I don't think we will be doing anything like it anytime soon.
