Adventure #6

This was by far our biggest adventure of the summer! We spent 9 days in Washington and Oregon. We drove up for Shaun's brother's wedding, and made a vacation out of it. That is the farthest I have ever driven (my parents were not into driving on long trips when I was at home). It wasn't too bad though, and travelling with only 2 people, who are both adults, is pretty easy.

Somehow we didn't wee a drop of rain the whole time we were there! The weather was a constant 75. It was so perfect. It was hard to come back to 90 degree weather in Logan.

We bought Seattle City Passes, which are a great deal. Any time you take a vacation to a big city, they are definitely worth checking out. We saved 50% off ticket prices of the top 6 attractions in Seattle, plus skipped waiting in line since we already had our tickets. The website also gives you lots of detailed info, like parking, least crowded times to visit, etc. I will try to wittle down our hundreds of pictures to a bearable post.

Our VERY packed vehicle. We hauled a bed frame and a bunch of wedding gifts up there, bedsides all of our luggage and camping equipment.

We saw this place called Big Jud's on the show Man vs. Food about a year ago. Since we were going through Boise anyway, we stopped to get their largest burger. It had 2 lbs of hamburger, plus bacon, and all the normal toppings. It was good, but we never did finish it, even after taking the leftovers and working on it for a few days.

We stayed at a KOA in Pendleton the first night. Shaun thought it was so funny to pretend to pee on the "P". :)
The night before the wedding we were at Emily's parents' house. (Emily is Nate's fiance/wife). There were TONS of the itty bitty frogs all over in the grass and we had fun catching them.
Look how tiny they are!!!!
Shaun and Isaiah - Emily's son (and now Nate's too!)
Grandma Iris did NOT want me to take her picture - she's shaking her cane at me!! We love her so much! I told her I just needed a picture of Shaun holding her purse, and she tried to walk out of the picture, lol.
Emily and Nathan
The Experience Music Project, which was combine with the SciFi museum......random.
View from the top of the Space Needle
Us at the top of the space needle

We saved a lot of money on this trip by camping, eating cereal and peanut butter sandwiches almost every day. But we decided we had to have seafood while we were on the coast, so we splurged at Elliott's one night. It was delicious! We spent $80 on one appetizer and one meal!

I was queen of pulling out whole pieces of crab meat :)

At the Seattle Aquarium they had dive shows going on all the time. Scuba divers would actually get into the tanks with the fish and feed them and stuff. They even had microphones inside their masks and could talk to us while they were underwater!

The touch pools were so cool! We got to touch starfish, anenomes, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers.

This was on a ship that we took an hour long harbor tour near the Space Needle.

Woodland Park Zoo. So much different than Hogle Zoo. It was more of a sanctuary. The animals had such huge, pretty habitats. Not as good for viewing, because sometimes they were so far away from us, but good for the animals.

The orangutans were beings so cute while we were there. There was a smaller one with a blanket that was wearing it like a cape and covering its face, and then it would keep peeking out at us.

We paid to feed an elephant. I'm not sure it was worth it, we were still a lot farther away from them than we thought we'd get to be. Oh well, it was still another experience.

The penguins were our absolute favorite animals to see. They had a TON of penguins. And they were so interactive, they would swim up to the glass to see you.

After the zoo we headed to Portland, OR. We stopped at Powell's Book Store. It takes up a whole block. Inside there are like 8 different colored rooms and each room has a different theme. It was pretty crazy. I don't think we were there long enough to really grasp the hugeness of it.

Portland temple. There were so many trees that you couldn't take a picture of the whole temple, because if you got far enough away fit the whole temple in the picture, there would be too many trees between you and the temple!

We went to the International Rose Test Garden. It wasn't as impressive as I was imagining. But there were way more types of roses than I ever thought there could be.

Multnomah Falls

It was a steep 1 1/4 mile hike to the top.

Us at the top. The hike took you to a platform that was seriously right at the top of the waterfall. We were so close to it that you couldn't really even see it, it was right underneath us.

We went to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery and Dam. This is Herman the Sturgeon. He is about 70 years old and 11 feet long!

This creepy thing was swimming up the fish ladder along with the salmon. It is called a lamprey, and they rest by sucking onto rocks (or windows). Check out those teeth!

Our last night. We stayed at the Cascade Locks KOA while we were in Oregon. It was a really nice one. We were so tired the last night that we built the fire to cook our hotdogs before it even got dark, and then went to bed.

Adventure #5

July 29-31 we went up to visit our friends Randy and Lindsey at their cabin near Christmas Meadows. They have been living there for the summer, so we missed them, and their cute little boy, and it was really fun to see them. We went fishing, played games, watched a movie, and made S'mores. It was beautiful up there!

Adventure #4

So, we are using the term "adventure" here very loosely. Camping is not a new and unusual experience for us by any means, but the point of going on an adventure every week is just to make sure we are getting out and doing something fun with our summer, other than working! Since we both enjoy camping, and spending time with friends and family, some of our adventures are just that!

We went camping with my family up Temple Fork in Logan Canyon July 21-23. My parents brought all of their dogs (3) which they don't usually do. Jamie and Russell were only able to come up for one day, but at least they made it!

I don't know why group shots always wait till the last day, when we're our dirtiest. At least pictures don't capture smell!

Maylie decided she needed Brooke's attention more than Brooke's book did.

Brooke was supposed to be making the same face as Jamie and I....but apparently she just thinks we're weird.Pringles!!

Brooke, Mom, Carly, Dad

Maylie doesn't really like water, so we kept coaxing her out into the shallow part and she kept getting braver and braver. It was REALLY cold though - like make your feet ache kind of cold. Then Shaun decided to drop her in a part where she couldn't touch to force her to swim. She can swim, but she was mad at Shaun for awhile.

Koda and Briley with my dad. They love him. They are his duck hunting retrievers. Briley has retired from hunting. Poor girl loves retrieving so much she just wore herself out and was so sore for most of the trip that she had trouble walking. Koda is Briley's pup and is becoming Dad's new duck hunting buddy.

Adventure #3

Adventure Time!

Shaun and I realized the other day that it is halfway through the summer, and we have been working way more than playing. Our plan this summer was to work as little as possible, and play a lot. :D Obviously, that is not always realistic. But we felt like summer was beginning to slip away from us, so we decided we are going to go on at least one adventure per week for the rest of the summer. So far, we're doing good!

Netflix

When we signed up for Netflix I never imagined how much I would love it! I had no idea how many shows are on there. We have cable, but no DVR or anything, so I don't get to watch a lot of shows when they actually air because I forget they're on or whatever. So Netflix is AWESOME because I can watch whenever I want, and I can watch 4 episodes a day instead of one per week! Some of the shows I love lately:

I heard about this show from a friend, and it sounded so weird. But I checked it out, and I love it. It is different and quirky. It is about a guy who can bring people back from the dead for 1 minute, so he solves murders by brining murder victims back to life and asking them questions. There are only 2 seasons, so it won't take me too long to get through them all, but that is fine because I love finding new shows!

I just started watching Drop Dead Diva this past weekend, even though I'm not done with Pushing Daisies (I do the same things with books. I get so excited about the next one I want to read that I start it before I finish the last one and I end up reading 3 books at once!!) Drop Dead Diva is about a size-2 model who dies and comes back to life in a size-16 lawyer's body. I think that Pushing Daisies and Drop Dead Diva are both considered "dramedies" (drama/comedies).

This one Shaun introduced to me. He has tons of time to watch Netflix on his graveyard shifts (that's originally how we justified signing up for Netflix. He has a legit reason to spend time watching tons of Netflix, to pass the time while he has to be awake all night. I don't, but I do it anyway). This show is crazy! These people in Louisiana hunt alligators for a living. They catch them on a line and hook and then pull them up to the boat and shoot them. Sometimes it is pretty intense! Their cajun accents are hilarious. Some of them need closed captioning even though they are speaking English. And their clothes are great too - check out the guy on the left! These guys are people I thought were only in stories, but they're real!