Vacation?

So we are back from our Oregon vacation. I enjoyed most every second of it. We had some moments, but I found a way to enjoy anyway. Here's a break down.

We left early on the morning of the 4th. We drove without problem to Bend for the Bostock family reunion. We set up the tent trailer in Aunt Missy and Uncle Doug's driveway and when Mom and Bob rolled up they hopped in the van with us and we headed to Aunt Kim and Uncle Paul's. That little drive between their homes is when we first noticed that our tranny was going out. Nice. We still had 10 days of vacation left. I was going to cut the bottom out of that van and flinstone foot it if I had too. I was not going home early.

Super Derrick figured out some tricks around keeping the van going while in Bend. While in Bend we were able to hang out with family and I loved every minute of it. They boys loved playing with cousins. They are in love with Braya, Jeron and Carsen. Both boys have asked to go back and play with Braya since we have been home... multiple times. Some of the Bend hilights:
♥ Hike to some great falls
♥Super cool candy cannon
♥Water balloon launcher
♥Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma Bostock
♥Family pictures... Michelle was so great
♥Watching Evan play in his championship baseball game and winning! I was so super impressed by his skills!
♥Dinner at Grandpa's
♥Seeing the Candland's
♥Fireworks on the 4th and playing with glow sticks
♥Meeting cousins I had never met before
♥BBQ at the park/church building and all of the goofy skits
♥Watching the boys play and laugh with all of their cousins
♥Watching Shadoe, Uncle Hank and Arco demonstrate how awesome trained police dogs are.

It was a bummer to say goodbye but goodbye we said and headed to Veneta to hang out with Derrick's sister Deborah and her husband Erik.
It wasn't a long drive there but we still were able to hit another snag in the vacation. We got rear ended. We had just a little damage to our tent trailer. The lady who hit has had one of her dogs hit the windshield and brake it, had the dogs bowl nail one of her daughters in the head and it took out one set of lights in the front of her car. ouch.
Once we got to Deb and Erik's we had a great time! We don't get to see them enough. The first night Uncle Erik and Aunt Deb took us to a local park where Rad and Cade took their radio controlled trucks into a neat skate park and drove like pros.
The next day Deb took us to the coolest GoodWill ever! It was in Eugene and I did the rest of my fall/winter shopping for all of the kids for just $70! I found jeans for the boys at a thrift store people! That's huge... it doesn't happen here in the Panhandle...ever.
Derrick and Deb and Shayli spent some quality time working on some really neat projects around Deb and Eriks house. Derrick and Deb are so much alike in so many ways. It was really neat to watch them together.

The car was still acting up, sometimes it would work, most the time it didn't and then the back door broke. So we had to climb through the van and pull the heavy suit cases out of the back. And of course with my leg being in a brace Shayli was my HUGE helper. We picked up Shayli's dirt bike while we were there. She is excited for our track to get done so that she can ride ride ride.

While in Veneta, we stayed in the tent trailer on the street. We loved it. The tent trailer is perfect for us. One night the boys were tired and wanted to sleep with Derrick and I. So Derrick and Rad took one bed and Cade and I took the other... the 3rd bed broke of course so Shayli slept inside in the guest bedroom. Anyway- that night I woke up to the saddest "Mom. Mommmmy. Mama." My first thought was Cade. But he was laying right next to me... mostly on top of me... dead asleep. Then I hear it again... "Mommy, Moooommmm, Mama." So I yell for Derrick to check on Rad. Rad wasn't there. He had rolled out of the crack between the canvas and the mattress and he and his rainbow sleeping bag landed in a heap on the cement under the glare of a ghetto street lamp. Horrible. He was okay, we were just all a little shook up. Too many what ifs if he hadn't woken up when he hit the ground ya know?

Derrick was able to fix the 3rd bed, Deb and Erik took us out to a great Thai Restaurant and then we were on our way in the super van, with the breaking tranny, broken door and dented trailer to our next adventure.

Next stop was North Bend. We camped at the Oregon Dunes KOA. It was super neat there. We wished that we would have had ATV's of our own there. But Derrick and the kids took a cool tour through the dunes in a big truck. We did some sight seeing. Combed some beaches and found some cool treasures. We went over to Coos Bay and watched a Monster Truck event that was so lame compared to the ones we have seen at home. All but 1 of the trucks broke down. The price to get in was more than half of what was advertised and then there was traffic trouble and it took us almost two hours to get out of the parking lot. Ugh. It was one of Rad's hilights of the trip though, so it wasn't such a bust.

From North Bend we headed to Lincoln City. Our experience at that KOA was a joke. We will never being staying there again. We did go see Brave together as a family and ate out at Mo's. We also hit up the Newport aquarium and that is where I took most of our pictures. I totally need a real camera so that I can start taking better photographs for documentation of our crazy adventures.

Heading home we just hoped to make it. The van was a stresser in itself. The air conditioning quit in the tri cities... hot hot hot. Then due to the elevation changes and the heat, a bottle of beer that Derrick had bought as a souvenier for his bff blew up and splattered from the back seat to the windshield in booze. AND it blew up, like bottle exploded with such force, that it blew a whole through both of the shirts that Shayli was wearing and sliced her in the ribs.

Seriously. Next time we fly.