July - Part 2

We finally got to the coast after Spencer came back from high adventure. We only made it there once this year and that was a bummer, but we had a really good time. We spent our first afternoon at Neskowin. It was not warm. The marine layer was supposed to burn off around noon, but it never did. Boo.

When we were tired, we drove down to Lincoln City, checked into our hotel, and then went to dinner at Puerto Vallarta. After 16 years, we finally found a restaurant we really like in Lincoln City!! I had always avoided Mexican food there since it doesn't seem like the Oregon coast would have very authentic Mexican, but I was wrong. The food was delicious and the portions were huge! We all liked it and will definitely go back next time were in town.

The sun finally decided to peak out after dinner so we went to a beach close to our hotel. Alan and I just walked and the boys ran away from the waves. That's always a lovely way to spend an evening.

We decided to hike to Drift Creek Falls the next morning. Alan, Spencer, and I did that hike years ago before Mason was around. I remembered how windy the road was to get there and had everyone take Dramamine before starting out. That was a good choice! The hike is only about three miles round trip and is pretty easy. The only bad part is that you go downhill on the way in and so have to end coming back uphill. Mason wasn't a fan of that. ;) It was so pretty though and perfect weather for hiking.

The falls aren't anything super amazing, but the suspension bridge right at the end is fun and Mason loved scrabbling up the boulders to get close to the falls. The chipmunks were super friendly and came right up to us begging for snacks.

After the hike, we drove back to Lincoln City to check out this cool playground the Holdens had told us about. I can't believe we had never discovered it before! I was tired, but the boys had fun running around for awhile. 

Of course, no trip to Lincoln City is complete without a trip to Snack Attack for ice cream! I love this family of mine and the little adventures we go on so much!

Work is slower for Alan in the summer so he had time to fix our broken gate - hooray!

Alan's Aunt Teri and Uncle Jim's family was having a family reunion in July and they invited us to join them on a Bubble Run in Portland. We had never done anything like that and it definitely wasn't a "race," but still really fun. All of Teri and Jim's family was there and it was great to see them. They are such an awesome family!

Big Spencer and Little Spencer! Big Spencer was probably about 14 when Little Spencer was born. I have a cute picture of them together on Little Spencer's blessing day.

After the run, we met the Holden's at the Williamson's pool for swimming. It's super awesome that we get to use the pool for free since I am an employee!

First zucchini - on July 23rd! My garden was a huge fail this year and I'm not sure why. Very disappointing. 

Sunrises from morning runs. Summer was pretty hard mentally for me. It was relaxing with lots of downtime and it was great to get more sleep and to be able to exercise every day, but it also gave me too much time to dwell on an adoption that wasn't happening. Getting outside to run or walk at sunrise every morning was very therapeutic for me and was one of my favorite parts of the whole summer. 

Pretty flowers in our front yard:

Spencer got to go on Trek with the youth from our Stake right at the end of the month. They had planned to go to eastern Oregon and to borrow hand carts from a stake there, but had to totally change plans at the last minute to due predicted temperatures of 108-112 degrees and no shade! They really didn't want to cancel because this Trek had already been cancelled twice due to Covid, but I can't imagine the stress that the change caused. Our Stake YW President (Kristen Cichoski) told me that it was a true miracle how things fell into place at the new location by McMinnville and that they wound up exactly where they needed to be. I love hearing about tender mercies like that!

Our ward helped the youth make neck coolers soft seats for the 5-gallon buckets they kept their belongings in. Spencer didn't finish his neck cooler at the activity so he had to settle for my inadequate help at home. His neck cooler wasn't pretty, but it was functional. ;)

Trek wound up being a great experience for Spencer. He enjoyed his "family" and is in really good shape so the hiking wasn't very hard. Through some miraculous circumstances, out stake managed to find a few handcarts so they did the hike in two sessions to allow every family to push one. Spencer was in the afternoon group and it was still very hot (mid 90's I think), but there was shade and they drank a ton of water. The only thing he didn't like was that he had to wear pants for three days! Haha!

Alan and I tried hard to make those few days special and fun for Mason. We went to a couple of different splash pads and drove up to Washington to visit the Ape Caves lava tube. We had taken Spencer there before Mason was born and Mason REALLY wanted to go inside a cave this summer so this was the perfect time to go. It was hot in the parking lot, but you have to dress warm because the cave stays 42 degrees all year round. We took the lower route and walked about 3/4 of a mile down and then back out. Next time, we all need to bring head lamps so we can do the upper route and climb over boulders. It was a fun way to escape the heat for a bit and Mason was so happy to cross caves off our summer bucket list.

And last, we celebrated Harry Potter's birthday on July 31st with homemade butterbeer. I wasn't a fan, but everyone liked it. :) Happy birthday Harry!