Oh Oregon! How do I love thee?

Look at that chubby little face! Look at that fuzzy stuff stuck on his lip. That's the batting on the underside of his car seat cover that he kept picking at the entire trip. There's a flap where the seat belt latch comes up between his legs and he's nearly picked it clean. I'm also fairly certain that he's eaten most of it because the kids caught him in the act more times than I can count.

Oregon sits on a pedestal for me. Not only is it beautiful year-round, it's also home to my Grandma Guptill. In my eyes, she's the epitome of what a Grandma looks like, sounds like, and smells like - and she's mine. I'm so lucky. And so are my kids! This is the only great-grandparent they have left and she's so worth the drive to come and see. If only we could do it WAY more often.




Among the many, many, MANY fond memories I have of my Grandma's house, there were a few we were able to share with the great-grandkids this time. Thanks to my Aunt Darlene that was already visiting there were loads and loads of homemade applesauce!! Seriously Darlene, I don't think we've thanked you enough for sharing such yummy goodness! I can't forget to mention the delicious jams she made too - raspberry and marionberry! Life was good.

The kids also found the lego bag that provided hours of entertainment (and a little drama) just like it did when I was a kid. I made the mistake of reminiscing with them about the big pyramid I used to make and I'm afraid it was more trouble than it was worth. But hey, it's all about the memories and in the end I'm pretty sure it was one of Quintin's favorite parts of the vacation.







Tillamook. Oh Tillamook. We couldn't drive all the way to Oregon and NOT go to Tillamook! We took a moment to pay our respects to the Tillamook Cow with a token picture and then we were off to see the factory in a whirlwind self-guided tour which was really just the long way to get the reason we were really there in the first place...


CHEESE! Cheese samples. And lots of 'em. But no doubt about it, the favorite for everyone is the curds - the squeaky cheese. We bought two bags, one of which was our lunch unless you count the ice cream...oh the ice cream!!

Oh. My. Goodness. Yummo!

Bob - Peanut Butter Chocolate

Julie - Udderly Chocolate

Quintin - Cookies and Cream

Brynnly - Rocky Road

Zack and Braxton shared with Mom and Dad

IS there anything better?! I think not. And my niece Tillie would have to agree.

Goodbye Tillamook. We love you.

We decided to make a day of it and head out to the coast, but this is Oregon, so we didn't intend on swimming. We drove out to Cape Meares to check out the Octopus Tree:

As well as the Lighthouse:

The fog was so thick you couldn't see past the rails at the lookout points, but that just made it more awesome to me. You could see the clouds rolling in around us. It felt very Twilight-esque.



On the way home we tried to visit Roloff Farm, but sadly it was closed. We drove up the lane a little ways to see if we could catch a glimpse of the house and along the drive there were signs posted saying, "Thank you for respecting our privacy" and "Keep Out" so we decided to turn around and go take a picture by the sign instead.

After a full day of ice-cream eating we headed out early the next day to go berry picking. I've actually never been berry picking so it was mainly just to have the experience more than anything.

I just love this picture of Lauren holding the berry-farm cat.

Off to the berry patch!

I was a little surprised at how much fun the kids had doing this. It's a little poky at times and they weren't supposed to eat the berries while we were picking, but they showed amazing self-control. The boys would shout jackpot whenever they found any berries and turns out they were right, we scored a lot more berries than I thought we would.

Raspberries and Marionberries - Yummo!

With this haul we were able to make 3 batches of jam and still had extra to eat. It was great!

And to make any summer vacation complete, we pulled out the slip n slide, Grandma's House style, complete with hose holder and an extra length of plastic.

Braxton and his fan club.

Thanks so much for letting us all come and stay Grandma, it was so much fun!! We miss you!!