On Thursday, July 23, we drove the rest of the way up to Oregon. On our way, we decided to stop at this very cool Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, called Wildlife Images, in Grants Pass. Its a place that takes in wounded or sick wildlife, cares for them, and releases them back to the wild, if possible. We were able to get up close to so many different kinds of wild animals!
Here's the first two wild animals we came across.... j/k
We got to see bald eagles, otters, wolves, a cougar, black bears, grizzly bears, owls, falcons, skunks, and so many more animals - some that we'd never heard of or seen before! Plus we learned a lot about these animals too!
Samuel standing in front of the wolf exhibit
The 900 pound grizzly bear stood up right in front of us!
Samuel with one of the black bears
Kendall and I next to the cougar
All in all, we are so glad we stopped there! It was very kid friendly and I don't think we will ever get to see or be that close to some of those kinds of wild animals ever again! So cool!
We finally made it to Florence, Oregon. It was close to a 16 hour drive from our house! (After the whole vacation was said & done, we put about 2,280 miles on our minivan!)
One of the first things we did was visit the beautiful Woahink Lake. The kids were so excited to splash & play in the water. As you can see...
Andrew had a blast water skiing every day
Samuel found this little pool, finished the border off and named it "Skeeter Lake." Then he & Andrew caught about 8 or 9 skeeters to fill it up.
If you look closely, you can see 2 of them in this photo.
Mommy had fun introducing Kendall to the lake!
The kids also had fun in the boat!
Then Andrew & I jumped the bridge twice!
Over at the sandbar, we found 3 little salamanders!
The kids all took turns holding the little sally's. Everyday after that, Kendall would walk around the lake calling out "sow-wee!" to see if she could find any more!
This baby's got an award-winning smile! Don't you think?
Any vacation with Daddy has got to include some golfing! One day the kids and I came to watch him play. They each had fun driving the golf cart!
Samuel loved playing too!
We found this local blueberry farm and lucky us, it was the season for blueberries!
Our little family had so much fun picking such delicious blueberries and eating them right off the bush!
They were priced at $2.00 for 1 pint. We picked about 4 pints and this was our whole lot of them!
The next morning I made some yummy blueberry muffins with them for breakfast!
On our last day at the lake, our Uncle Drake & Aunt Jeanne brought a 3-man tube over and everyone had a blast being pulled by the boat!
A trip to Oregon wouldn't be complete without eating pizza at Abby's. Legendary. Seriously, I think we ate there 4 times.
This is also one of the highlights of our trip - riding on Great Grandpa's scooters!
Florence has so many beautiful hydrangea bushes!
One afternoon we played tennis, then explored the beach. The water was sooooo cold!
The kids found this awesome driftwood fort! What a perfect spot for a family photo!
Andrew and I always love going to the Siuslaw Sporting Clays! This year I shot 18/50 and Andrew got 2nd place shooting 34/50!
Being in Oregon means we usually get to visit with our cousins from Washington! We are so thankful for wonderful family to play with!
We took one night to go out on a date. Its always a treat to take advantage of free babysitters (thanks Grammy & Grampy!). We had a nice dinner at the Waterfront Depot with an amazing view of the river & bridge into Florence!
Love these pretty pictures!
Anytime at the house was spent playing legos. These are the boys' creations!
On our way home, we pulled of the road to drive through this historical covered bridge near Sutherlin. Gorgeous!
And our last stop on the way home was to Bravo Farms in Traver, CA. We highly recommend this pit stop if you are ever on the 99! Lots of fun things to look at and do with the family!
For those of you who are still scrolling through - thanks for looking! :) Until next time!
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