Slickrock Waterfall

On Aug. 14, We didn’t have anything specific we had to do, so we decided to go on a hike. Nate looked up some info online and picked out a spot in Alpine. He told me it ended at a slickrock waterfall, which I thought would be a hike to a pretty waterfall to look at. We got up there and walked up a paved road for 95% of the “hike”, and ended at a waterfall that had slick rocks you could slide down. Nate convinced me I had to slide down it since we had made the trek up there. It actually didn’t look as intimidating from the top as it had from the bottom, but it was FREEZING cold!! There was a little pool of water at the bottom that you landed in, and it was just a total shock when you hit that little pool. It was really fun though. Here we are going down:

Haircut (from Aug 7)

We finally decided to cut Bennett’s hair a few weeks ago. The plan was to use scissors rather than clippers so it wouldn’t be too short, but that didn’t work very well – mostly due to my lackluster cutting skills (I cut Nate’s all the time, but Bennett’s is quite different). Bennett was great and sat still watching Lion King while we cut it. We were both a little sad to see it go and felt like he looked very different, but once we got used to it we decided it’s pretty cute.

Before:

During:

After:

Farmer’s Market

Last Saturday, we didn’t really have anything planned and I had seen a flyer in a magazine for a farmer’s market close to our house that had a free petting zoo and hay ride. I convinced Nate it would be fun for Bennett, and I always love getting fresh produce at a farmer’s market. We headed over there and Nate started laughing as we pulled up. There were only 3 booths – one with a little produce from the farm, one with craft-type stuff, and one with a whole bunch of used books. Bennett at least enjoyed riding on the 4-wheeler-pulled animal train. The petting zoo animals were all in a big pen, and we didn’t feel like walking through the manure-filled area in our flip-flops, so we observed them from a distance. It wasn’t quite as fun as we expected, but we did walk away with some new potatoes and a couple pictures to document our adventures. Nate looks pretty comfortable in the rooster car :)

Annual Coast Trip

I’ve put off posting about our trip to the coast with my family because we have so many pictures and it was hard to choose. Rather than telling you about what we did, I’ll just put captions under the pictures. It was so much fun - I loved being with all my family and being able to just hang out and relax on the beach all day!

We had a picnic lunch at the “Trees of Mystery” in Crescent City, where they have this giant Paul Bunyon that moves his head and waves and talks to the kids. I included the last picture so you could get an idea of how big he really is.

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Bennett loved sitting in the little kid camping chairs, although he did fall face first into the dirt about 10 minutes after we got to the campground. Fortunately, it didn’t prevent him from enjoying the little chairs the rest of the weekend. The second and third pictures are from our traditional walk down to the beach to see the sunset – and Nate and Camille on top of the rock they climbed up.

more from the sunset…

We weren’t sure how Bennett would do in the sand, since he usually doesn’t like his hands to be dirty, but he loved it, and sat for a long time filling up buckets

Bennett taking a nap with grandma, and the giant sandcastle

The view from our spot on the beach, and naptime for the littlest kids (with Kallie just being cute in the middle)

Landon buried standing up, and I love this shot Stacey took of Nate and Bennett with their arms around each other, watching the waves. Bennett actually seemed to like getting his feet in the water, although it was freezing cold.

My brother Dave had a huge tarp that the men spent a significant portion of the morning setting up with driftwood so we’d have a nice wind-free spot by the rock to hang out in. We had quite the set-up with our tarp shelter and all the chairs, gear, etc. for us and the kids

And finally, a family portrait. Bennett realized we were all wearing hats and wanted to switch them around – he wanted to wear Nate’s hat, then put my hat on Nate so we were all rotated.

We can’t wait to go back next year!

Baby James

One of the highlights of our trip to Oregon was that we got to meet a new nephew – my sister’s baby James. He was 3 weeks old, and so cute! Jess had me do a little quick photo shoot before we headed over to the coast. He unfortunately didn’t curl up in a ball and sleep the whole time, but he was still really good and didn’t seem to mind us moving him around. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the little guy (and a few with his brothers).

 

 

        

Oregon

The week before last, we made a trip to Oregon for the annual Morris family coast trip. We were able to go out a couple days early and spend time with my parents, little sister Camille, and nephews. We played in the kid pool in the backyard, played tennis, ate breakfast on the back deck, went to Crater Lake and the Natural Bridge (see pics & explanation below), and watched the city band in Lithia Park. Once the other siblings got there, we headed to the Coast on Friday – a separate post on that later.

My mom offered to watch Bennett while we went to Crater Lake so he wouldn’t have to make another long-ish drive with us. We thought Landon would have fun, so he was our kid for the day :) He was great – didn’t complain and kept us entertained on the drive up with how smart he was.

The lake was beautiful! It really is naturally the blue that’s in the pic on the right above (no photoshop). It looks like it has blue dye in it.

    

This is the “natural bridge”. The picture on the left is where the water goes into a lava tube, on the right is where it comes out (the pics aren’t great but hopefully you get the idea). Nate thought it should be called water tube or underground river or something because it’s not really a bridge, just an area where the river goes underground into a hollow lava tube.

Bennett sitting in Grandma’s cute chair watching the band, and clapping.