Sunday, July 27, 2008

Oregon Camping

All righty, here I go...the Oregon half of our journey to the NW... WARNING: Many, many photos. But still not enough, know what I mean?? We had an amazing time! We flew to Medford, Oregon on a Monday, rented a minivan and drove 2 hours east-ish to Umpqua National Forest, where Z's family has been camping for many, many years. Since he was a little tyke, and that was quite a long time ago. It was an extended family gathering, the numbers varied around 60-ish. Oh yes...there were a LOT of us there, and it was so fun! Here are some pictures...(Hey, be glad I narrowed it down to ONLY 16! Gee whiz...)
Camping pics:

Bran and Jack, Rochelle's super-friendly, kid-tolerating-and-even-rather-enjoying dog.

Poppie and Nuala. Nuala with her constant camping companion (ha, almost a tongue twister!), a cup of cheerios. Poor child is going through cheerio withdrawals now...

Grrr...don't talk to me... this is what I look like in the mornings while camping. Especially when my husband is pointing a camera at me. And especially when the twins decide not to be good sleepers but still want to rise with the sun.

Mi'a, Mathias, Bran, and Nuala. The M&Ms are 2 years old (not twins, Mi'a is Maria's and Mathias is Sari's), and Bran and Nuala loved playing with them! For the most part, anyway... So fun to have them all together!

Bran and Mathias monster-ing each other. They're such boys!

Mi'a and Nuala taking a girl-chat break from acrobatics on the camper pole. See Nuala's cup of cheerios? An addict if ever I saw one.

Bran busting in on girl time, but Nuala knows how to take care of that.

This was so sad, but in a funny way! Mi'a would go to bed, but peek under the curtains at the rest of us still up and having a grand old time. We weren't allowed to look at the poor little prisoner ;) One of the early, early mornings when we were up already with the twins, she heard us around the campfire and did the same thing, so Bran went over and was "talking" to her. It totally reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, but in a non-romantic way, since they're cousins. I guess it was more of a prison-break type of conversation.

Nuala being treated to a little pampering by Auntie Maria. Green toenail polish is so in! She loved it.

River Pictures: Umpqua River has many different spots to play, with beaches, rapids, falls, etc. The water is clear and very cold! (NOTE: Z just read this and said that I'm the only one that thinks it's cold. Whatever, you Washingtonian!) Nuala and Bran were not too thrilled with the temperature, so even our water-lovin' Nuala didn't play as much in the water as we thought she would. Guess those warm Texas rivers spoiled her. We shoulda done the cold water first! It is SUCH a fun place!

Nuala loved holding the crawdads that the big kids caught. Didn't bother her one bit, our brave girl. Bran was not so welcoming to them. But he's still a brave boy, he just has different strengths.

N, B, and Me. Nuala almost fell asleep in this comfy tube.

Grandma Buttons corralling Nuala, Mathias, and Bran. They had so much fun with her!

Group shot! I think if you count (ha! like you would) there's only around 50 here. But we got our numbers above 60. Boy, that single outhouse was suffering!

A nice long tube train down the Dumont rapids. This is a great place to play! Nice beach area, short run of good little rapids, a rope swing nearby! Ahhh...bliss. Except for the coooold water, but we survived. I'm the caboose on this train. And if I remember correctly, no one flipped on this run! Probably because of the great anchor at the end. (ME.) haha.

Okay, this is from 2005, but we didn't get any pictures of the South Umpqua Falls and I wanted to show y'all how fun this spot is. This is Zachariah surfing down one of the slides. I've only done it this way once or twice, I always think I'm going to bonk my head and pass out and drown, but it's fun. Zachariah does not share this concern.

This is my favorite way to go down, backwards. It's soooo fun, sliding down, down, down the rock, and then just falling. This year the Falls (and the whole river) were higher/faster because there was a lot of snowmelt, it was still fun, but a little more dangerous, especially with all the kiddos. There's a really great area for playing with little ones at the Falls, too.

We had a blast camping! It was so fun to see everyone, even if I didn't get to visit as much as I would have liked, or gotten pics of everyone, it was still wonderful. Nuala and Bran loved it, and we can't wait till next year! Oh, also I wanted to mention that Nuala had a great time playing with cousin Greg's wife, Megan, and she has some cute pics up on their blog, right here.

Coming up...the Washington visit!...

12 comments:

Tara said...

Wow, it sounds like y'all had so much fun! I love Nuala's hair in pigtails! They are so cute with their little cousins. I have to agree with you on the ridiculously cold water - I went tubing when we were in Seattle last summer, and almost died from how cold the water was! I thought since it was the fourth of July it would be warm...Marc says the water there is so cold to keep them humble, since everything is so beautiful there! I'm glad y'all had fun, the water fall looks exciting!

Andrew said...

Great pics hmm now to recover and go again next year ahh the trouble the 4 some will get into!! sari

Rob and Erin said...

How fun!!! I love all the pictures! Nothing quite like cousin time :0) I love the "monstering" and the "girl talk" pictures! Also, is it really just a camping-morning Grrr face? Just kidding, way to anchor everyone on that awesome train. What a great family tradition going camping with everybody. Feel free to post more pictures!

Cara said...

Yea! Your back! What a long vacation! But it looks like it was so fun! Its great when all the family gets together! The pictures are beautiful! Can't wait to here about more of the trip!

Rochelle said...

I had a blast with all of you! The Twids are definitely very cute and very friendly.

Kurt said...

Holy cow!!! You guys are a wild bunch, especially Big Z 'surfing' done a waterfall?!?!?! Yikes. I'm like the biggest wimp ever... I thought my family get-togethers got crazy when someone pulled out the yard games! - Kurt

Carolyn said...

It looks like so much fun. It was fun to see Megan's account of the same events. There was very little repetition, if at all.

zachariah said...

You made such a good "Anchor", of course you forgot to mention all the poor souls that were lost in the rapids when you weren't anchor because you let go of their feet...

pauline said...

I am finally over my LOL.... at the pic of Nuala handling Bran's intrusion into girl-time! Ya must've heard me laughing down there in Montevideo :) Loved ALL the pics and the news....thanks for sharing! love, Dad & Mom xox

Gary Patrick Ricker said...

That is a lot of pictures. They're nice. Looks like you and the children had an enjoyable time...I was especially impressed by the picture of Nuala holding the crawdad...brave little kid.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous scenery! The river looks like a blast. Looks like your visits to be with your families have been so fun!

Megan and Greg said...

Once again, great post Fiona. Its too bad you didn't get a picture of Zac in the Michelin man suit though... Then again, I can't hold you accountable for that since you were manning the kiddos! By the way, Megan and I had SO much fun playing with Nuala and Bran--they are such a riot!

--Greg