Hey all, Joni here. We have been home for a week now, but I'm determined to blog about our recent trip to Seattle and Oregon. It's a daunting(that's for you Joel, Erin, Maude) task because I took 952 pictures and I have to figure out which ones to put in here! The problem is, 952 pictures still couldn't capture the beauty of the area where we were lucky enough to stay. The first day Paul, Ellie and I drove up to Seattle to see our dear friends Mike, Jen, and baby Rose. It was pretty overcast and rainy in Seattle, this is the best picture we could manage in front of the Space Needle



We walked over to Pike market in downtown. I've never seen so many piles of fish, ice and tourists in my life. Okay, so the tourists weren't in the piles, but it was really crowded in there.



Here we are hanging out (eating delicious donuts) with the Barnes, introducing our girls who are soon to be BFFs. We weren't in Seattle long, but it was totally worth it to see our long lost CT friends. Ellie LOVED playing with Rose and looks like a giant sitting next to her!


That night we picked up Joel and Erin in Portland and headed over to Yachats. Our rental house could not have been in a more ideal location. The view of the ocean/beach/wildlife out the back windows was breath taking, and again, impossible to capture in a picture. These next shots were all taken within 100 feet of our back door.







I loved that blackberry bushes grew wild everywhere around the property! Our first day there we drove down the coast and saw some beautiful mountain chiasms where the waves churned and crashed into rocks. It was like nothing I have ever seen. We also hiked up to an old lighthouse.






The next day we headed the other way on the coast to another town to a whale watching spot. Joel snapped a picture of this big guy for me. The views from the whale watching area were spectacular!






While there we ate at a little cafe and I indulged my inner child on one of my favorite treats - carmel and cheese corn. Mmmm

Glen, Kendi and fam showed up the next day and we had a blast seeing more local sites, catching up, and doing secret handshakes :) Carter caught a giant crab that made all the locals jealous and they brought it home for us to try.


One day we went to the Lion caves and then to sand dunes... in this pic you can see the sea lions sunning on a huge rock.




Paul and Carter, Me and Bess in a "mini-me" situation that was totally unplanned and totally awesome.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was my running mountain. It's a tsunami evacuation route - basically a steep paved road of switch backs that wind up the side of a mountain. The view from the top was worth the daily trek to the top. If you look down you can see the houses down below... I loved it.

This is Bruno. He came to visit a few times on the sand bank right outside our back porch. This is the little guy I was chasing (for a picture) when I hurt my leg... totally worth it though. I miss him!

On our last day in Yachats we walked over to a Mushroom Festival downtown. I have never seen so many funky plants and people all in one spot. A bunch a fun guys. Ha.

All in all, the trip went by WAY too fast. We played games, laughed, saw beautiful places, and made some great memories. I can't wait to go back to Oregon some day. Phew! That was a LONG blog.
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P.S. Is it just me, or does Ellie have a Justin Beiber vibe going on with her hair?...

A couple of weeks ago we decided to head up to Estes Park since Joni hadn't been there before. Estes Park is a fun little town at the mouth of Rocky Mtn National Park, its also the home of the hotel from "Dumb and Dumber" and parts of "the Shining"...as well as some pretty good ice cream.We crammed in our little car with my Dad, Susan, Hannah, and the three of us thinking we'd save money because you have to pay by the carload. Turns out it was get into the park free day and Joni and Hannah had numb bums for nothing.
Joni and Hannah decided it would be a great idea to get wolf t-shirts, I was pretty skeptical about paying for something so cool...but the shirts actually DID turn out pretty sweet, Joni decided on an Elk...and she wonders why I never know how to shop for her.Ellie picking out a shirtHannah looking thoughtful

The park is pretty crowded, and the dumb mountain beatles are eating away the forest, but it's still beautiful up there.That same night we went to the Rockies/Giants game with Joel, Erin and Aleesha (sp?). The Rocks are always exciting to watch...if you didn't know I was referring to a baseball team that might sound strange.Joni's family also paid us a visit for Gayle and JoAnn's bdays, at least the female half (BJ, Gayle, JoAnn, Andrea, + Dilly, Joni and Ellie made me feel outnumbered). I decided I'd make the most of it and play bachelor by sleeping in a tent. When I was putting it up Joni and Andrea thought it looked fun so they ended up crashing my bachelor party. I gave them the good mattresses and ended up sleeping (sort of) on a giant tree root. Funny thing is sleep or no sleep it was still fun and was a great weekend.Dilly and Ellie boxing it outOrange cone leg, and pinching the moon were some of the 2am sister activities while I was trying to sleep.Ellie is a crawling feind now, she gets everywhere so fast, and she still loves to flirt and immitate different voices. I love to walk around outside with her and touch the different leaves and tell her what everything is. Whenever we go outside she just soaks it all in. She loves to be read to, and she loves to snuggle and giggle. She truly is a loving, happy, social, and friendly little thing. Sometimes I just catch myself staring at her and think about how much I love her.We are super excited to be taking a vacation next week to the Oregon Coast to see my mom and some of the fam on my side. We are also planning a quick stop to Seattle to see our good friends the Barnes, I love taking Joni to new places she's never been. Hope you all have a wonderful week.