Vacation 2010

So it begins.....Our vacation took us to 3 states, what felt like 1000 miles of driving and to lots of cool places. Our first stop was Crater Lake in Oregon. It is the deepest natural lake, it is the middle of an old volcano. It is the bluest natural water in a lake. It is beautiful!! This is my Father in law Trent at the beach. I think this is a cool picture!!

Taelor was getting very mad because everytime she would put a marshmellow on the stick it would fall in the sand. You can see her anger!!

Trying not to get swept out from the waves. Taelor was not so lucky and got and ear full of sand plus sand in places no one wants sand!!!

It is not everyday you see a road sign with a unique name like Dawson!!

This was on a bridge going to a trail to see Redwood trees. I told them all to stop and lean out.....not sure why Shane and Trent are holding hands. Hmmmm?

Dawson was tired of seeing 'dumb trees' because he wanted to go back to the beach!! The other two were showing their excitement for the trees!

One of the nice days!!

One huge TREE!! Be a tree hugger!!

Dawson and Taelor's feet in the sand

We hiked up so many many rocks and found a million starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and we even saw whales way out in the distance!! Awesome!!

My boys!!

Dawson loved loved looking for washed up jellyfish. Everyone was afraid to touch them thinking they would get stung. Well I was not afraid and I knew (from watching an episode of Friends) that if I did get stung someone would have to pee on my hand. So I touched one and alas no sting!!

My three musketeers

One of the days we were on the beach a seagull 'happened' to drop a bottle holding a treasure map and we followed it only to find a treasure box full of goodies!!

Being adorable as always when a camera is out!!Dawson and Braedon found lots of little animals and were catching them hoping to bring them home.

This is the house we rented on the beach. It was in California but 50 feet from the Oregon border.

This was a GIANT ( like 60-70feet) statue of Paul Bunyon and his blue ox Babe. He talked to you when you would go up to the gift shop. He said Hi to Taelor and scared her half to death. It was really funny!!

All my kids like slugs since they are a novelty around home. So when we saw this big yellow banana slug we picked it up.....but

it left Dawson a present!

After many more hours of driving we made it to San Francisco. It was fun and freezing!!! Apparently October is the time to go there as it is warm!! July is the coldest.......now they tell us!!
More driving led us to..... a house called the Winchester house. It is an incredibly odd house. The woman who owned it was married to the man who was the President of the Winchester Rifle Company. Well when he died a psychic told her to move out west and buy a house and build and build and never stop, otherwise everyone that the rifles ever killed would come back and haunt her. So she did just that. She bought a house and started adding to it, making doors that open to walls, stairs that only go to the ceiling, windows in the middle of the hallway. All sorts of crazy things. It was 24/7 365 construction for 32 years!!! It is on 6 acres and has 160 rooms!!Shane's mom and his niece Larissa also were on vacation with us. It was alot of fun.

Next year I am hoping for a warm vacation though!!!