After serving a 2 year mission for our church, my son finally came home. We were able to video call him once a week (which was a blessing) but we did not see him (or HUG him) for 2 very long years. I was barely holding it together at the airport. Seeing him and giving him a hug was one of the best feelings.

On the way home from the airport, our van broke down on the freeway. Since there were 6 of us, the tow truck could not give us a ride. We walked on the side of the freeway with all my son's luggage until the next off ramp. Then we walked another mile to the mechanic.

It didn't take long for the mechanic to figure out that our van was dead as a doornail. My favorite quote of the day was when he said "I have to say, you folks are taking this very well." I told him I had my son back after two years and that nothing was going to ruin our day.

We had planned months prior to go on a road trip as soon as he got home. Our other vehicles can't accommodate all 6 of us but we were able to borrow a vehicle from my sister and still go on our trip. We went to Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, and Mesa Verde National Park.

I've written about our experience at Arches before so I won't go into too much detail with that, but I wanted to share with you how amazing Mesa Verde is and why it should be added to your bucket list.

Visiting Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park is in the southwest corner of Colorado. It is home to many ancient sites of the Ancestral Puebloan people dating from about 500 AD to 1200 AD and includes the famous cliff dwellings.

The Ancestral Puebloan people first lived on the mesa tops where they farmed. At some point, they moved down into the cliffs. There are several examples of the mesa top villages you can explore (such as Far View Sites) as well as cliff dwellings. It was such a special place!

In order to go inside the cliff dwellings, you will need to purchase a ticket 2 weeks in advance. They are only sold online and they sell out FAST! I hopped on 2 weeks before we were going to be visiting and Balcony House sold out in 2 seconds. I kid you not. I hurried and clicked on Cliff Palace and barely got the last remaining tickets. I was able to go online the next day and get Balcony House. There is also Long House but since I had already spent about $100 on the other tickets, ($8 per person per house) we decided not to visit there.

Since we visited in the off season, there were only 3 cliff dwellings open for tours. But during peak season, there are a couple more options.

Our favorite part of Mesa Verde was visiting Balcony House. It was the most challenging to get to as you had to climb down a ton of stairs and then climb up a 32 foot ladder. It is more intimidating in person than the picture shows.

To exit the cliff dwelling, you have to climb through a 12 foot long tunnel. I am slightly claustrophobic and was very worried about this part. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

While you could see quite a bit of Mesa Verde in one day if you were smart with your time, I feel like 2 days was perfect. Fall was a BEAUTIFUL time to visit. There were less people and the weather was perfect. If you ever get the chance to visit that part of the US, you should take the time to got to Mesa Verde National Park.

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Things To Do At Bear Lake

Bear Lake sits on the border of Utah and Idaho. It is roughly 20 miles long. We were traveling from central Utah and drove through the beautiful Logan canyon to get there. We usually go in August, but this time we went in early June. There were wildflowers in bloom everywhere and the water was surprisingly warm.

Play In The Lake!

Whether you end up boating, paddle boarding, jet skiing or swimming, the lake is THE place to be. The water is turquoise and if often referred to as the Caribbean of the Rockies. The lake is shallow for quite a ways out which makes it perfect for kids to play and wade out in. Because of the lower water level, it also warms up faster too.

We have rented water craft in the past but chose to just paddleboard and swim this time.

In some places, you can just drive right up on the beach. We mostly played at the north beach.

An unexpected perk of going at the beginning of summer, was there were a lot less people. At certain times of the day we had a huge section of the beach all to ourselves. This is the first year they are implementing a reservation system at the north beach. Make sure to hop online before you visit and reserve a parking spot.

Adventure Park

Overlooking the lake, up on a hill, sits Bridgerland Adventure Park. The prices were very reasonable.

Since we had all week, it was kind of nice to break up days at the beach with a morning at the park. Check out my video for a tour and a list of all the activities!

Minnetonka Cave

Minnetonka cave is a short drive from the lake. There is a small entrance fee but it is well worth the cost. A tour guide will take you through the cave and it will take about an hour.

All of the stalagmite and stalactite formations were so cool! I have some great footage in the video below.

Raspberry Days

Garden City (a town right on the lake) is known for their raspberry days celebration each August.

Even if you don't visit the week of raspberry days, you can enjoy raspberry treats all summer long! Shake are our favorites. I didn't get a pic this trip, so enjoy this one from years ago. My boys were so little!

Camping

There are a plethora of AirBnb and Vrbo listings in the towns surrounding the lake, but if you want, there are also camping options. We have camped in a beautiful group site on the south shore with Shane's side of the family. I grew up camping at Bear Lake every year with my cousins. It is also a great way to enjoy time at the lake.

Please take the time to check out my video about visiting Bear Lake. It has more info and links to plan your visit!

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I have a video below that shows in more detail all the places and arches we saw and hiked to. There is a wide range of things for each level of ability. There are a lot of look out and drives, short trails, and longer more challenging hikes.

Tips for Visiting Arches National Park

*Pack lots of water! It gets hot and most hikes and trails are in full sun the whole way.

*Get a Reservation This is the first year they have tried a reservation system. More info below.

*Hike in the morning and Evenings It get hot!

*If possible, plan your visit for the Spring or Fall Summer is not only very hot, but it is the peak busy season. To avoid the crowds, go in the cooler months.

One of my favorite arches is the Landscape Arch. It is the longest natural arch in the world!

Double Arch was one of my son's & husband's favorites. It was so interesting up close. And standing inside gave such a fun perspective. It is only a short distance from the parking lot too.

Double O Arch (not to be confused with Double Arch above) was our family's favorite hike. It was 4.7 miles in total and a bit challenging. I am terrified of heights and the ridge we had to walk along scared me. But I think that is part of why I found this hike so rewarding. I was able to conquer my fears (as long as I could hold onto Shane with a death grip) and it felt good to look back and say "I did that!"

Double O Arch was one of the prettiest arches in the park. It was nice and shaded too, which was nice after a long hike.

All the red rock formations and red sand made it feel other worldly. My boys had a blast climbing and exploring.

The hike to the most famous arch, Delicate Arch, was less fun. The 3 mile hike was almost all in full sun and wasn't exactly the most scenic or beautiful hike I have been on. Avoid this hike during the hottest part of the day and make sure tp take a lot of water. That being said, it is a must do hike. The arch at the end is totally worth it!

Reservations

This year was the first year they implemented a reservation system to even out the amount of visitors in the park. Typically everyone shows up at 7am and the wait time to get in the park can be up to 2-3 hours long. Having a designated time to show up ensured that you only waited about 10-15 minutes. It was so nice to have less crowds! Some trails we were the only ones hiking for most of it!

If you plan on visiting Arches National Park, make sure to hop on their website to get reservations. If the times are full, you can get on at 6pm every evening when they release more spots.

Please watch my latest YouTube video!

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Another favorite place of ours is Yellowstone. Check out my post about why we love it so much!

Visiting Yellowstone

There are so many things to do in and around Yellowstone. There are great shops and restaurants in both West Yellowstone and Jackson Hole (depending on which entrance you use to the park). There are hiking trails, fishing, campgrounds, thermal features, museums, and visitors centers.

The main reason for our (longer) second visit was for my boys to fly fish. They have really gotten into it in the last year or two. They really wanted to fish the many rivers in Yellowstone.

We only caught small fish, but my boys didn't care. They had so much fun trying out different spots.

We are already planning another trip for next year!

Watch my video below to see our unexpected campground visitor, and for my tips for visiting Yellowstone.

Consider subscribing to my channel. I will be posting weekly :)

Have you ever been to Yellowstone? I'd love to hear about your experience!

Sedona

Sedona is a small community in the Verde Valley about 2 hours north of the Phoenix area. It is known for its red rock formations. It is stunning! The town is charming with lots of darling shops and restaurants. Even in the winter the temperatures are decent (55-65 degrees) and we only had light jackets.

Bell Rock in Sedona

Sedona is also home to the only McDonalds in the world to have blue arches instead of the iconic yellow. Kind of a fun fact :)

We didn't eat there, but instead ate at Cafe José which was next door. It was amazing and I recommend it!

While we were there, we did a hike to Devil's bridge. It was an easy 2 mile hike. At the end of the hike, if you want to get really close to the actual arch, you do have to climb rocks a bit, but it wasn't too bad. You can walk out onto the bridge too! We did and it is a lot wider than it looks.

The hike is a super popular one so I would avoid it on the weekends. The parking lots will fill up fast and you will have to park along the road way farther down and walk up to an additional mile to get to the trail head. The perk about going in the winter time is that there are less people and it is not as hot. I got hot and had to take off my jacket at the beginning of the hike and it was only 55 that day. I can't imagine doing it on a 80+ degree day!

Indian Ruins

I knew my boys would eat up anything to do with American Indian history. Since my boys are very into bushcraft and learning survival skills (if you follow me on instagram you have seen the cabin my son built with only things he found in nature) they have such an appreciation of the Indians' way of life and history.

Because of time, we were not able to go to all of the sites in the area, but we did get to see Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well, and Tuzigoot. I really wanted to see Wupatki and Palatki so I am hoping we can go again sometime. There are SO MANY good hiking trails too that we had to skip due to not having enough time.

Montezuma Castle

The Montezuma Well location is a short drive from the castle. There are some ruins there as well. It was super interesting to hear about the formation and history of the well.

Montezuma Well

There was virtually no one there at the different sites. In fact, at Tuzigoot, we were the only ones visiting during the time we were there. They have a museum inside that visitor's center that was amazing! It was full of items they found at the site. My boys could have stayed there all day.

Going in the off season meant that we got the full attention of the guides. We learned so much from them! It was nice to feel like we were getting the VIP treatment.

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon has always been on my bucket list. I have seen Moab with its arches, Zions National Park, Bryce Canyon (which is sometimes called a mini Grand Canyon) so I was a little worried I would be underwhelmed. But it was spectacular!

I can only imagine how many visitors are there during peak times. The parking lots are ginormous! While we were far from the only people at this attraction, the visitors were sparse. We walked around a large chunk of the rim and maybe saw 100 people the whole day. It was easy to social distance and you didn't have to wait for your turn to get to the edge to see the views up-close.

Only the South Rim is open during the winter. I would like to go back and see the North Rim at some point.

I highly recommend staying until sunset! Holy moly. Those Arizona sunsets are pretty impressive anyway, but over the Grand Canyon it was quite the site to behold! The photos on my phone do not do it justice. It was worth the sudden drop in temperatures.

My boys said it was one of their favorite trips we have ever taken. I was glad we were able to end the year with a little vacation since 2020 had been kind of strange and limiting.

My sister lives in Arizona so we occasionally go to visit. I would love to hear about your favorite things to do there! Please share in the comments below :)

This post is sponsored by Ryobi Outdoor but all opinions and ideas are 100% my own :)

Why You Need A Battery Inverter While Camping

We camp every year. Mostly it is just up the canyon that is near us but we also love to explore other places like McCall, Idaho, Yellowstone, Bear Lake, and the Redwoods.

For years we just laid a blanket under our sleeping bag. But I'm getting older and even in a nice bed I "feel it" in the morning, so a few years ago we got this air mattress. Normally we had to blow it up using the van as power and then drag it to the tent. Then when we wanted to deflate it, we had to drag it back to the van. Such a pain! And it would get all dirty in the process. Especially since most of the spots we go, the parking is far from the tent site. Now we can do it right in our tent!

We go camping to unplug and take a break from the stresses of the world, however it is nice to have a phone. We really only use it as a camera but when hiking it is nice to have maps as well.

When I was a about 12 I started going camping with uncles and cousins. They had been doing a Fathers and Sons camp out and I thought it was only fair to have a Fathers and Daughters camp out too. One year they brought a big, heavy generator and we had an outdoor movie. I thought it was the coolest thing ever to be in the mountains, surrounded by trees, and watching a movie.

I recently bought a new projector so we tested it out on our last camp out :)

This 300-Watt inverter has one USB-A outlet, one USB-C outlet and one 120-Volt wall outlet. It also has an LED light and acts as a flashlight. It works with Ryobi's 40 volt batteries and is available at Home Depot.

This inverter is going to get some good use in our backyard as well. Since our yard is very deep, we have to use two of our very long extension cords and borrow one from the neighbor and we still can't quite get all the way back. This solves that problem! We also don't have any outlets one the outside of our house since our home was built in the 1930s.

We have talked about adding string lights to another place in our yard but it is too far from the house and we don't have a way to power it...until now! Since string lights are not used every day, we can just plug them into the inverter when we need to use them!

Giveaway

Ryobi has offered to give away one 300-Watt Battery Inverter :) Enter below using the Rafflecopter Widget. Email me if you run into any issues.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You must be at least 18 years old to enter. You must be a resident of the USA to enter. The giveaway will go from July 23, 2020 until July 30, 2020.  The winner will be chosen by random.org and will be notified by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner will be chosen. The shipping of the prize is the responsibility of the company, in this case Ryobi.

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Our Garden

Last year I planted our garden so late! I had spent most of the spring creating our new secret garden so by the time that was done and I could devote my time to the regular garden, it wasn't planted until the end of June. Even for Utah (which is known for late frosts) that is super late. This year since I had kids home from school and had extra help, we got it planted the third week of May. Normally the ideal time to plant is the second week of May for our area so not too bad!

Tilling in between rows and then hand weeding right around each plant has been the fastest way to get a clean looking garden. Once all the vegetable seeds have germinated and gotten established, I add Preen to keep weed seeds from growing.

I planted artichokes, beans, peppers, garlic, carrots, onions, peas, lettuce, three kinds of squash, cucumbers, white pumpkins, and tomatoes.

The plastic edging is new. I added it last year to help keep the edge from grass creeping in and making it look wonky. I was tired of edging it every year. I went with 8 inch deep edging but they have up to 12". I bought it from Gardener Supply.

The Attic So Far

The view from sitting on the love seat

This has by far been the slowest project ever. Between this year just being plain weird with lots of ups and downs, my ankle injury, and the HEAT, this project has been dragging along. We started by cleaning out the garage and removing the loose boards that were acting as the floor back in March. We hosed it out really well and got rid of the MANY hornets nests. We added stairs, a window, a floor, and water proofed the Swiss cheese roof. I added panels in between the roof trusses to hide all the black tar stuff and caulked along each one. I caulked any cracks in the tongue and groove boards on each end. So. Much. Caulking. I patched all the nail holes from hanging the panels and got it primed.  Whew! And that is where I am at as of today. I am hoping to get out there to paint today.

The view from the top of the stairs

The space is 17x21 feet but if you take away the area too low to sit or stand (and the stairway opening) it is about 10x18. A pretty decent size for a play area! The height tops out at 5 foot 8 inches. I can stand and my youngest two boys can but my husband and two oldest boys have to hunch over until they sit.

After I paint (a different color than originally planned!) we will be adding some cheap vinyl sheet flooring. I am using all furniture we already have since it is just a play room and because I may or may not have gone way over my original $500 budget :/

I am hoping to have the reveal up on the blog in a couple of weeks. The air conditioner came today so my working hours are not limited to early morning and evenings anymore. YAY!

The Beach

A year ago my siblings and I decided we were going to plan a trip. We had never gone on a vacation together! My mom had been to the Oregon coast before, but none of my siblings or their families had. I have a deep love for the Oregon coast and was so excited to share that with them. We booked an AirBnB house on a lake that was a short drive from the ocean. We started saving our pennies and anticipating the trip. Then all things started to fall apart with Covid and as the scheduled trip got closer we all started to get really worried. The rental company told us if we didn't come, we wouldn't get a refund. It was a lot of money but we also wanted to make sure and only go if things were okay for us to do so.

Last year when we booked everything we had picked the first week of June. I started watching all of the press conferences the Governor of Oregon had and watching the Health Department's website for the latest info. I even watched a county wide meeting with all the representatives from each coastal town. All 2 hours and 51 minutes of it. The overall consensus was that they not only wanted to open up the short term rentals and shops, but NEEDED to. The majority of their income comes from the tourism industry. So as of June 1st, short term rentals were open, shops were open, everything was open. Coincidentally, June 1st was the first day of our rental.

After having a family council, we decided to go ahead and go. We were going to be spending the majority of our time at the lake house with just a couple excursions to the beach. We packed coolers of food and cooked at the house.

Our house was located in Otis, Oregon. It was booked through Vrbo and the property management is Meredith Lodging - Property # 7523448ha

It was glorious. The lake house had kayaks and a large dock so my boys were either out paddling or on the dock fishing. We had a family talent show (variety show might be a better word) that was hilarious. The kids stayed up way too late playing in the game room and giggling.

We pretty much had the beach to ourselves. It was so relaxing and the air smelled amazing.

I am kind of sad we took this long to take a trip together. We are planning on doing it every couple of years.

Me with my mom, sisters, and brother

Family Update

Our school district has decided to go ahead and offer at school learning as well as give people the option to do at home learning. I am so excited to send my kids to school. They are so excited to go back to school. If for no other reason than their mental health, they need this. I never thought I would be buying masks as part of my back to school shopping, but here we are :)

My oldest son has decided to defer his college experience for a couple of years and serve a full time, 2 year mission for our church. He submitted his papers last week and now we wait to find out where he will be serving. It could be here in the states or anywhere in the world. He will leave sometime after November. Right now he is continuing to work and save to help pay for his mission. 100% of the cost is up to the family so we are hoping he can save at least half before he leaves. I am proud that he is choosing to serve and I know it will give him great life experiences and help him grow in the gospel.

Shane is still working from home and so we created a little work space in the office for him. We placed him so his computer screen faces the shelves. I was worried I would walk by without pants when he was on a conference call or something :0

I know this has been a year we will never forget will all the ups and lots of downs, but I hope you are all staying healthy and safe. I hope you have taken this time to do things you love, self reflect, get outside, and connect with others (even if only via Zoom).  I'll be back here very soon with several fun things to share!

It is a resort town so there are plenty of hotels, shopping, and outdoor activities. We love camping so we stayed at the Ponderosa campground. It was right on the lake and had plenty of docks for my boys to fish off of.

My favorite thing we did was go canoeing. I LOVE canoeing. Only a couple of my boys had been before so it was fun to teach them. The water is crystal clear. We went up the river that feeds into the lake. My boys thought it was cool to be able to see the fish swimming around. We rented our canoes from a place called Backwoods Adventures. They also had kayaks and stand-up paddle boards. My kids liked the paddleboards as well.

While there are several good beaches along the lake's shore, our favorite was the North Beach. It is a beautiful drive (about 20 minutes from the campground). There was plenty of shade and was shallow enough for the kids to swim out pretty far.

The boys skimmed boarded, floated on tubes, body boarded, and dove to look for "treasure".

They also took turns burying each other in the sand.

There's a trail near the campground where you can go to pick huckleberries. If you have never had fresh huckleberries, you are missing out!

The campground was also covered in this beautiful moss. I brought some home to use for an upcoming project.

Speaking of upcoming projects, I have gotten behind on sharing the things I did this summer. I will get these posted as soon as I can write up the tutorials. I have had a hard time getting back into the groove of blogging after summer break. But the kids are back in school and I plan on buckling down and getting caught up!

This is also canning season so I will be balancing my time between bottling and blogging. I'll be sharing a Canning 101 blog post too!

Tell me about your summer and the upcoming projects you have planned! If you have any projects you want me to tackle or any questions about canning, let me know!

We drove to the LA area the first day and stayed in Ventura that night. Shane had served a 2 year mission in that area before we were married and we were able to meet up with some people he met back then. It was so nice to go out to dinner and chat! We also had to pick up some oranges while we were there.

We stopped at the Ventura Pier . This was our first beach we came to and the kids had been in the car all day. They didn't even care that it was foggy and they were not in their swim suits.

We had a bit of car trouble but found a good mechanic that had us back on the road in no time. What's a road trip without a hiccup or two, right? While we were waiting for our van to be fixed, we headed to El Capitán beach. It was our boys' first time swimming in a southern California ocean where the water was warm. They had so much fun body boarding and skim boarding. It was a great beach complete with bathroom and a wash station.

We got to explore Santa Barbra and I fell in love with all the homes up in the hills, especially the landscaping. I wish I had more pictures. The roads are so narrow and winding and there aren't any places to pull over aside from driveways. Most pictures I got from from the window as we drove by turned out blurry. Luckily, the photo of one of the most interesting things I saw turned out. A long fence around a large estate had a fence made out of logs all stacked up. It was such a huge fence that I can't even imagine how many logs and branches it took to construct!

Santa Barbara was gorgeous and is a must see if you are in the area.

We traveled to the San Louis Obisbo and Morro Bay area next. We went out on a boat for a whale watching tour. We saw a hump back whale which was amazing. My kids were also fascinated with the neon blue jellyfish we could see around the boat and of course the playful seal lions. It was a successful trip, even if I did upchuck off the back of the boat.

My rock collecting boys were excited about a place I had read about online called Jade Cove. It was our next stop along the way. When we got there however, we could not find where the access to the cove was. We asked locals and they acted funny about it. We finally asked the camp host at a campground that was across the road from where the GPS was telling me that Jade Cove was. He, after we chatted for a bit, confided in me that the locals don't want people to know about it. They have removed the signs and won't give people correct directions. He told us how to get there but by the time we got there it was high tide and didn't look very safe.

We opted to go to Sand Dollar Beach which was within walking distance of Jade Cove. Luckily, my previously disappointed rock hounds, found some small pieces of jade at this beach. All ended well :) Plus, the beach was beautiful!

On the way to our next hotel we drove through The Big Sur which was gorgeous. Places that we missed (because it took so long to find Jade Cove) in this area that we wanted to see were Point Lobos, Shark Fin Cove, and Monterrey.

That night we stayed just outside of San Francisco. Since we spent a couple of days there the last time we came to California, and we were trying to explore new places, we didn't go into the city. It was Sunday so we went to church and then found a beach to have a picnic on.

We went to the town of Moss Beach and found a beach called Seal Cove. On one side of the rocks there are harbor seals that lounge on the beach. You can not go to that part of the beach but there is a look out above that gives you a great view. If you continue on the trail after viewing the seals, it takes you to a little ranger station with all sorts of things to see that come from the ocean. We spent most of the day at the beach on the other side of the seals. It was one of our favorite beaches because there were so many treasures and shells to find here and it was not filled with people like the other beaches. At one point we had the whole beach to ourselves.

The trail to the lookout was surrounded by a forest of cypress trees and it was quite striking.

Places of interest along the way that we didn't have time for were Stinson beach, Agate Beach Park, and Point Reyes lighthouse.

That night we stayed in Mendocino. It was a darling little town and our hotel looked like an old house with smaller homes around it. The landscaping was beautiful. We woke up early and went on the Skunk train that is in nearby Fort Bragg. I really wanted to go to the Mendocino Botanical Gardens but it was pricey and my kids were not super excited about the idea. I kind of wish I would have had Shane take the kids somewhere so I could have gone by myself. If you have been, let me know in the comments if it was worth the ticket price!

The Skunk train was worth it for the facet that my kids loved it and the price wasn't too bad. I didn't admit this to my kids, but I was a bit disappointed. The views were not as great as I thought they would be and it didn't go very far. But overall, I was happy with it because my kids liked it.

After the train we ate lunch and headed to Glass Beach, also in Fort Bragg. This was one of the few thing we repeated from last time. You can read a more detailed blurb about it in my other post.

As we headed to our next hotel, we drove through part of the Redwoods. In Legget, CA there is a drive through tree. Even though we drove through it last time, we did it again since our youngest doesn't remember it very well. We drove through the Avenue of the Giants which is a little detour off the main road that goes past some really big trees. It eventually connects back to the main road. Along the Avenue of the Giants there are some hollow trees that have been turned into little houses. It is fun to stand inside them!

Eureka was our next stop. We stayed in a hotel close to a laundromat because by this point in our road trip, we needed clean clothes! We visited two beaches in this area that we really liked. Moonstone Beach and Hidden Beach. Moonstone beach was our first stop in the morning and it was not very busy. We were able to find a ton of sand dollars. It is a long beach and we enjoyed just walking along it most of the morning. At one end there is a cave you can go in. We met a local who said that some years it is easy to get into the "back room" of the cave and some years the sand is higher and you have to crawl. My boys had fun going in the back room but since it was a high sand year.

Hidden Beach was, well, hidden! We had to ask the people who work at Trees of Mystery (the place with the giant statue of Paul Bunion and Babe the blue ox) where to find it. Just beyond Paul and Babe is a pull off that has bathrooms. I just thought it was a rest stop. The trail head is there. It was a 1 mile hike to the beach. It was the prettiest hike I have ever been on! It led to a beautiful beach that was not very busy. We had the beach to ourselves most of the time.

We stayed in Crescent City that night and visited the Battery Point lighthouse in the morning. We were going to be meeting up with Shane's family later that day but decided to go to another beach while we waited. Enderts Beach also had a small hike to get there but it was less than half a mile. All along Enderts Beach road and along the hike there were blackberries. My kids loved picking them and eating them as we went.

The reason we took this trip, was because of a family reunion with Shane's side of the family. We obviously extended the trip for a bit with just us, but the main reason was to hang out with a whole bunch of Risenmays :) We camped in the Redwood National Forrest. In.The.Redwood.Forrest. How cool is that?! The campground was stunning! Lush, green, and filled with giant redwoods. Moss and ferns were everywhere and I was in heaven. There are only a few places where you can camp in the Redwoods. We stayed at the Millcreek campground in Del Monte. The other campground near that area was the Jedediah Smith campground.

We visited the Jedediah Smith part of the National Park because they have some of the biggest trees. There is a scenic drive that goes through the park that was a must. It is a dirt road and is very narrow but you get to see some huge trees. One was hollow and the kids went inside. They claimed that it was so big that we could all fit inside. We put them to the test and over 20 people (mostly teens and adults) fit inside with more room to spare. We had lunch on the banks of the Jedediah Smith River. It was the most colorful and clearest river I have ever seen! Sometimes it looked turquoise and sometimes a dark green. The boys skipped rocks and caught tadpoles.

Our second day with Shane's family was spent exploring some tide pools near Battery Point Lighthouse, went to Ocean World (I wrote about that in more detail in this post) and played at Crescent City beach.

It was so nice to get to spend so much time with family, whether we were exploring or hanging out at camp.

On a side note, I get asked how we can go on such a long vacation on a little budget. I have a few tips to make a vacation more cost effective.

How to Vacation on a Budget

*If possible, travel during the off season. My favorite time to go on a vacation is from mid May into the first part of June. Hotels are so much cheaper and the places you are visiting are less crowded.

*Don't eat out for every meal. We always have a big cooler in our van and eat most meals from that. Even when we flew last time and rented a van, we bought a cooler and when grocery shopping when we got there. We do eat a restaurants here and there. Maybe once a day. But picnics with sandwiches work for us, especially when they are on the beach!

*Plan ahead. You can get better deals (especially on hotel rooms) if you book ahead instead of last minute. Shop around for flights if you are not going to drive there. I was able to get round trip flights for around 100 per person last time. That's not always the case, but if you plan ahead far enough you can start keeping your eye out for deals.

*Don't stay in expensive hotels. That kind of seems like a no brainier but it is tempting to book the nicest hotel loaded with amenities. We have always stayed at cheap hotels. Little one off "mom and pop" places right off HWY 101. First of all, they can be darling in their own right and most are right near the beach. Second of all, if you are vacationing right, you will only be at the hotel long enough to sleep and shower before starting another adventure the next morning. As long as it is clean, I am good. If I were staying in one spot the whole time I may consider upping the quality a bit but since we stayed in a different hotel each night, I wasn't worried about settling in and getting too comfortable.

I use to use the excuse that we didn't have the money to go on vacation, and while Shane was unemployed, that certainly was the case. But as my kids started to get older and I realized that we didn't have very many summers left with all of them at home, we made it more of a priority to save for vacations.

I am curious, where is your favorite place to vacation?

Here are the highlights from the trip. I took over 3,000 photos and we stopped at so many places. But here are the main ones.

After we spent the last day in San Francisco, we drove to Fort Bragg, CA and stayed in a little hotel there. We woke up early in the morning hoping to go to the tide pools at MacKerricher State Park. We weren't clear on exactly where it was and thought we had gone too far when we really hadn't gone far enough. So we stopped at the beach where we were and just played there.

In the past when we went to the Oregon coast, the tide pools were visible EARLY in the morning when the tide was the lowest. Being from Utah (and nowhere near an ocean) we didn't understand how the tide schedule worked. We thought low tide was always in the morning. I looked it up online and found out that it varied depending on the time of year and the time of the month. A few weeks before we got there the low tide WAS in the morning. But while we were there low tide was actually in the afternoon. You can look up low tide schedules here if you are planning a trip. It will possibly save you from having to wake up super early or potentially missing them all together.

Glass Beach

The other thing on our list to do here was see Glass Beach. Basically, it use to be a landfill. In the 1940s clear until the 1960s people dumped their garbage there. Then they wised up and moved the landfill inland. Mother nature has since cleaned up the shore and it is a safe place to go. But because of all the glass that had been dumped in the ocean for all those years, the beach is now COVERED in sea glass!

There ended up being tide pools at this beach as well so we didn't miss out after all. My little guy was convinced that is he whispered "Come here crab" that the crabs would just come out of their hiding places.

There are two sections of beach. One of them (not pictured here) has even more glass. It is park of a state park and you can not take the glass. We went to another section where you can take a little with you. For more information about it (and a map) visit the county's site.

We loved Glass Beach. I have boys who are totally into finding "treasures" so the thought of a whole beach full of jewel like sea glass was amazing. We packed our cooler there and had lunch. We watched the crabs, little fish, and hermit crabs in the tide pools. And my little guy had a melt down at some point. And I may or may not have had a melt down due to his melt down. Just keepin' it real :) It was a family vacation after all.

If the thought of hanging out at a beach covered in sea glass excites you (or your kids) I totally recommend stopping.  It is not the most gorgeous stretch of beach in the world (which is probably why they selected it for a landfill) but it is truly unique!

 We finally found MacKerricher State Park on our way up the 101. At the entrance there is a gray whale skeleton on display. I didn't get a picture with the whole skeleton because it was field trip day at the park and a couple of elementary school classes were inspecting the tail. We had to wait 30 minutes just to get this pic. So we decided to not go through the rest of the park. We had already seen tide pools that day anyway.

There is also the  Mendocino Botanical Garden that I really wanted to see but we decided we didn't have time. It had good reviews so if you love pretty gardens, it might be worth the time to check it out. There is also a train you can ride called the Skunk Train. We opted not to do this because we were saving our money to splurge on a whale watching trip later on. But if money had not been such an issue, we would have taken the kids on the train trip.

Redwoods

When we left the Fort Bragg area, we were driving on HWY 1 instead of the 101. Where the 1 connects back to the 101, there is a drive through tree. I have ALWAYS wanted to drive through a redwood tree! I think the first time I had heard of it was on a cartoon as a kid. This was a highlight for all of us. I know it is cheesy and touristy, but we loved it.

We were halfway through the tree when I remembered "Duh! I want a picture of the car in the tree!". I had my husband pull up enough so I could get out of the car. But there is a concrete wall and I couldn't get the van door open. So I crawled out the window. I was not graceful and I am pretty sure my chubby 34 year old rear end is on a blog somewhere since tourists were snapping pictures. But I got the shot :)

After the drive through tree, we traveled along the 101 until we got to the Avenue of the Giants. It is a road that will take you off the HWY 101 for a bit. You will drive through part of the Redwood forrest that has some HUGE trees! It was worth the little extra time for sure. For more information you can check out their site.

Along the Avenue of the Giants there are fun places to stop like the Living Chimney Tree and you can go inside. There were three trees that had been made into "homes" that you can check out. They were pretty cool!

It was so silent and so awe inspiring when you were deep in the redwoods. It was a spiritual experience. At one point we pulled over and read scriptures. We talked about how the tree are reaching toward the sun and growing upward and related that to us. We need to look for and reach toward the "son" and the light. It was the perfect backdrop for an impromptu lesson :)

Sorry for some of the pictures being blurry iphone pictures!

Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Preserve

I have a son who is obsessed with birds. One of the few things he asked for for Christmas a couple of years ago was a bird book. He had packed his bird book for this trip so he could identify birds we saw. Because of this, we decided to stop at the Arcata Marsh. If we did not have a son in love with birds, I doubt we would have stopped. It was nice, but not something I would say is a must see. And if you do go, don't take a 4 year old little boy who has been cooped up in a van or else he might run around being noisy and scare away the birds. P.S. I apologize to anyone who may have been there at the same time as we were.....

The wildlife preserve includes freshwater marshes, salt marshes, tidal sloughs, grassy uplands, mudflats, and brackish marshes. It covers 307 acres and has over 5 miles of trails. They have over 300 bird species.

Ocean World

I knew that Ocean World was on the 101 because of the research I did before the trip. I had NO intention of stopping there. We were trying to save money and we have been to aquariums before. I figured we didn't need to go to another one. BUT, by the time we got to Crecent City we were all in need of a potty stop and a "walk around" break. I saw the sign talking about a seal and sea lion show and decided to have my husband run in and check the prices out. I told him if it was less than $50 for our whole family, I wanted to do it. It was!

My take on if it is worth it......

If you are going just for an aquarium experience then no. It is not a big aquarium. They focus on what is in the ocean in that part of California. When you first get there they take you to an area with tidepool animals. Then you go to another area with animals from the shallow waters, then an area with deeper waters, and then even deeper. It is a guided tour so you get all sorts of information. We liked it, but keep in mind it does not have exotic fish and creatures you may see at another type of aquarium.

BUT if you want to laugh your head off and be super impressed with how intelligent seals and sea lions are, then YES! The show was amazing. It was only about 30 minutes but it was one of my favorite things of the whole trip. They were adorable.

We traveled to the city of Gold Beach, OR that evening and stayed in a little place close to the beach.  We ate dinner on the beach that night and got to bed early so we could get up bright and early the next day.

One of my favorite things about the drive up the HWY 101 is that once second your view is of trees and the next, the ocean!

Arizona Beach

In my research before the trip I had heard of a place called Arizona beach. They call it that because it is sheltered by two rocky areas and is the warmest stretch of beach on the entire Oregon coast. It said it was a good place for families with children. It is only about ¾ of a mile long. There are tide pools on both ends. And there were tons of agates as well.

The tide pool area on the right side of the beach

We have visited several tide pools and these were among the best we have seen. We found so many different types of creatures!

Just a side note, if you visit tide pools please be careful where you and your kids step. There are living creatures everywhere, even in the kelp and seaweed. We have a family rule that you can only step on sand and bare rock (rock with nothing growing or attached to it). Sorry, just my little Public Service Announcement.

This was the only day my kids actually swam in the water. The water was still pretty cold, but it was only a bit breezy and not at all windy like all of the other beaches. It really was very warm!

I think this was my favorite day. We spent almost the whole day here. We ate lunch, played in the water, saw tide pools, found treasure like shells and agates, and just relaxed. I sat back and just watched my kids be kids. I walked along the beach hand in hand with my husband. And as much fun as all the other sites were, this FELT like a real vacation.

Little guy looks kind of red but it is because of the cold water, not a sunburn. We were lucky and all the slathering of sunscreen worked because we didn't get burned on our trip.

Because we went in May, it was not quite the tourist season yet. We had the whole beach to ourselves the entire day. Right when we were leaving a couple of cars came. But we felt pretty lucky to have had such a private moment as a family.

I highly recommend going to this beach. You exit off HWY 101 on the right side (look for the sign) and drive through a campground and back under the 101 to get to the beach. It is totally worth it :)

Darlingtonia State Park

Our next hotel was in Yachats, OR. Along the way there is a carnivorous plant park I had read about on (I think) tripadvisor. It had great reviews. People raved about it. I have little boys and I thought seeing a whole park of plants that eat bugs would be a fabulous idea.

Meh.

I think it is like when you hear a movie review that makes a movie sound incredible and you go see it and are disappointed because it is just "alright'. If I had not read the reviews I might have thought is was pretty cool. But I had higher expectations. There is one type of plant here. The built walkways and fences to protect them and turned it into a "park". It is small and took all of 2 minutes to see. And my boys were not happy that they didn't actually get to see one eat a bug. So if you happen to need to stop for a potty break around the time you are driving by, maybe stop and see it. But I don't think you need to go out of your way and plan your day around it like we did.

Strawberry Hill and Neptune Beaches

We stayed in a cute little motel type place right on the beach in Yachats. We played on the beach for a bit before getting ready for bed. In the morning we went to Strawberry Hill and Neptune beach. This was the only day that was rainy and a bit foggy. But since these beaches are more rocky and because we had already had so many days in the sun, we didn't mind at all. In fact, the mist and fog made everything look more magical to my boys.

These two beaches have very small tide pools but not many types of creatures. The reason we came was not for the tide pools but for the seals. They can been seen here almost all of the time. This day they were not lounging on the rocks, but were swimming near them. It was fun to watch them.

Mother Nature rocks. This pattern on the sand that looked like a tree was created because the fresh water from near the road was running down the beach toward the ocean. The darker sand from near the road was also mixing with the beach sand.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

Because it was foggy, the pictures are not super clear. But the red and white lighthouse was stunning against the greenery! There is a hiking trail called the Hobbit Trail that leads to the lighthouse. I can't remember why we chose to not do it, but we parked in the parking lot and hiked the shorter trail up to see the lighthouse.

There were giant slugs and snails along the way and my bug lovin' boys were in heaven.

I think this is worth the stop. Even if you don't want to tour the lighthouse itself, there are places to stop along the road to take pictures.

Whale Watching Boat Tour

We traveled up to Depoe Bay later that day. It is the whale watching center of all of Oregon because some of the gray whales that use to travel up to Alaska after giving birth in South America, decided to just stay in Depoe Bay. This area of shoreline has a big enough food source that they do not need to travel to Alaska to feed. There are about 200 summer resident whales. They begin to arrive in late May.

I researched which whale watching company to go with and found that Carrie Newell was the best. Six people (plus the captain) can fit on the boat which was perfect. It was just our family :)

We were able to find a whale within the first 10 minutes which meant we had almost the whole hour to watch him. He was in the surf eating so we could only get about 20 feet from him. Normally they can get the boat closer. But 20 feet was close enough to see details. It was INCREDIBLE! Because he was in shallower water, he didn't fluke (show his whole tail). They have to be in deep water to do that. But he did poke his head up 3 times! And we saw his body too many times to count. And when he went down on his side to feed, we could see half of his tail which looks like a shark fin. I filmed the whole time and didn't take pictures so the pic above is a screenshot of one of the times his head poked up. The iphone footage looks like he was farther away that he was. If we ever do this again, I hope to have a better video camera option.

We asked Captain Kevin to take a picture of us on the boat when we got back. When he was done, he took a selfie! He was a hoot :)

Lincoln City

For the last couple of days we stayed in Lincoln City. We met up with my husband's side of the family. His parents are going to be serving a mission for our church and we wanted to make the effort to get all six of his siblings and their families together before they leave. We rented a large beach house together. I don't have a ton of pictures because at this point I was so exhausted and I just wanted to hang out and chat with everyone. We spent a lot of time in the sand, staying up laughing, and checking out the local sites. We headed to an airplane museum and the cheese factory in Tillamook. It was so nice to have everyone under one roof!

There are some good tidepools at a place called Devil's Punchbowl. There are a lot of places with the name "devil" in it so make sure it is punchbowl.

If you ever have the chance to drive up or down the coast on HWY 101 take it! It was a trip of a lifetime for our family. And I want to move to Oregon now.

I used this mile by mile PDF to plan our trip. It was very helpful for the Oregon part of the trip. I had to research California on my own.

If you have made this trip, tell me what your favorite things were!

I fell madly in love with San Francisco. I hope I have a reason to go there again someday. It was colorful, eclectic, breezy, and stunning. If you have never been there before and are wanting to go I have one piece of advice....

Wear good walking shoes.

Holy hills Batman! I knew Lombard street was steep but no one told me the entire city is made up of hills. And there is basically no parking so we walked and rode the cable cars across the city. But we mostly walked.

We flew in to San Francisco Saturday evening. I have flown with a couple of my kids when they were tiny (and free). But none of them have any memories and some hadn't even flown at all. So the flight in and of itself was amazing for them. We got our rental car, found our hotel (which was a HOLE and didn't look a thing like the picture online!), got some dinner, and then went to bed. We switched hotels the next day and it was SO much nicer.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. We also found a grocery store and bought a cheap cooler. We filled it with groceries, drinks, and ice. This is what we do to help save money when we travel. We eat breakfast at the hotel (free) and then most lunches and dinners we have sandwiches, fruit, string cheese, etc. We picked a few meals to eat out at restaurants over the course of the trip. Doing that saved us money (and calories!).

Day One

The first real day in the city was Sunday. We went to church and then walked around looking at all the amazing homes. I took a billion pictures of houses. My husband and I were loving it! We also decided this would be a good day to walk up the famous Lombard street. Do you want to test how in shape (or out of shape) you are? Walk up Lombard street. There was an old little grandma in front of us that was booking it. Do you want to feel like you have "let yourself go"? Walk up Lombard street behind a grandma.

Once you get to the top of the hill, the street curves back and forth. This part of the street is nicknamed "crooked street". It was fascinating to watch the cars go down it. Some of the prettiest homes were along this street but I don't think I could live there because you would basically have tourists on your front step everyday.

This is the view when we were standing at the top of the hill on Lombard street.

These homes! I just couldn't get enough. We went down all sorts of streets all over town just to snap pictures of houses. My husband being in the architecture field and me loving design so much..... we were in heaven.

What I loved the most was that there were so many styles of homes all bunched up together. One second there would be a mediterranean style home, then a modern contemporary one, and then a victorian mansion.

I loved how most buildings and homes had planters or flower boxes in windows. Everything was landscaped so beautifully. It really is a gorgeous city.

And there were so many fun details. Eye candy.

At some point we went back to the hotel and changed out of our church clothes. We packed up a beach bag full of food and headed to a nearby park. There are so many parks there but this one had a fun playground for kids. It was called Lafayette Park. And I didn't get a single picture because at that point I had food in my hands and blisters on my feet. I just sat. I have no idea how the kids had any energy left to run around. It was two blocks east of HWY 101/Van Ness on Washington. I am sure all the parks are nice, but the playground here was awesome! And there were some gorgeous, HUGE homes across the street. Sorry no pics. I was limping home at this point, people. Limping. And the kids slept very well that night ;)

This is one of my favorite memories. My little guy sat here looking out our hotel room window every possible second. He would say "Mom! I can see the WHOLE world!" He was in such awe. I love seeing things through the eyes of my children.

Day Two

We woke up and ate at the hotel. Even though we checked out and would be leaving that night to go to the next city on our list, the hotel agreed to let us park there all day for free. Luckily we stayed in a hotel close to Fisherman's Wharf so we could walk. Along the way we stopped at Ghirardelli Square. There is nothing wrong with icecream at 10 am when on vacation, right? It was a fun little place but other than eating icecream and buying chocolate, I didn't see much to do. Maybe we missed something. So after we ate we decided to move onto the wharf.

My boys would have been happy to play in the sand right there near the piers. But since we had 7 more days (most of which would be at the beach) we made them move on to the shops and sights along the bay.

Because of time, we decided not to do the tour out to Alcatraz. Surprisingly my kids didn't seemed too excited about it which made the decision easier. I have heard that while it takes a good chunk of time, it is pretty fascinating. We were planning on doing a whale watching boat tour later on in our trip so to save money we opted not to do a boat tour here. It would have been fun to go out under the Golden Gate bridge. Maybe next time :)

The seals were cute even if they were stinky. There were street performers that were pretty fun. We decided to have one of our restaurant meals be dinner that night. It was pricey and not very good. But the view was amazing! We were at a seafood restaurant and of course they order Mac and Cheese.....

The cable car station was near here. I had always thought the cable cars were called trolleys. But the other public transportation cars are called trolleys and what you think of when you think of riding a trolley are the cable cars. We almost bought the wrong tickets. Don't worry, my husband embarrassed the kids by singing the Rice-A-Roni jingle the whole time and I may have sang them the theme song to Full House.

We rode them down to Market street and then from there walked to the Pinterest offices. If you missed my behind the scenes post you can read it and get caught up.

Market street was kind of nuts. It was the part of town that most reminded me of New York City. It had tons of shopping and lots of crazy people.

So the first part of the day was at the Wharf and then we rode the cable cars to Pinterest, and then rode them back up to the pier to eat dinner and shop a bit more. After all of that we walked back to the hotel and got the rental van.

We missed seeing the painted ladies. It would have been fun to see those iconic homes. But other than those homes I think we did everything we expected to do while we were there. If there is a next time, we will explore Golden Gate Park, play at the beach below the Golden Gate Bridge, tour Alcatraz, and do a boat tour that goes under the bridge.

We drove to our next destination which was Fort Bragg, CA. While we drove, we past vineyards. It was such a pretty drive!

My next post will cover the whole rest of the trip. I only separated San Francisco because it felt like a vacation in and of itself.

We stayed in the following cities along the iconic HWY 101:

Fort Bragg, CA

Arcata, CA

Gold Beach, OR

Yachats, OR

Lincoln City, OR

I can't wait to share!

I needed a break. I needed to slow down even if it was just temporary. The opportunity came when it was time for our annual camping trip with my husband's family. And luckily for us, it was close to home which meant it was within our budget. We have had to miss the last two years.

We went to Bear Lake!

*My littlest forgot his pale and shovel so we stopped at a store on the way. All they had were plastic gardening trowels. He was thrilled and NEVER put it down

*My three oldest eating breakfast. Pancakes with homemade huckleberry syrup, hash browns, eggs, and ham :)

* The boys skipping rocks with their boy cousins. I showed them how and the most we got was 12 skips!

*The days were in the 80's (PERFECT!) but the nights and early mornings were cold. Snuggling helped.

*They couldn't decided if the sand was more fun or the water.

*I love this picture! It has been awhile since I saw him this relaxed. He needed this trip every bit as much as I did. Maybe even more.

*Early morning scripture reading on the shore.

* It's the little things.... Like holding hands with your sweetheart while watching your children play. And your first soda in months!

*The tubes were a huge hit :)

There were 35 of us total. It was the first time in 3 years that every single member of his family was together. Look at that sunrise!!!

Looking for shells

I grew up going to Bear Lake almost every year for a long time. Garden City is famous for their raspberries. There are places everywhere selling raspberry shakes. And they all say they are "the best". It made me want to yell "Congratulations! You did it!" like Buddy the Elf :P

The lake is so blue! Most of the time it looks turquoise but sometimes it looks more true blue. It is the clearest water I have EVER seen. You can be in the middle of the lake and see as clear as can be all the way to the bottom. It was incredible. We felt more like we were at the beach than we were at a lake.

We were only gone a few days but it helped so much. A break from reality, time with loved ones, and fun in the sun. And now that my husband has a job (We just got the first paycheck yesterday!) I am hoping things can slow down for me.

And then I came home to all the laundry............ :)