For the second year in a row, the Lochheads and Swansons took a week to relax together in Sunriver, Oregon. What a great time we had! We rented a 4-bedroom house and spent the week outdoors on bikes, in the water, and under the sun.
Our
evenings looked a little like this... The house had a great open layout--kitchen, dining, living room--to just hang out in.
"G'ma Linda" and "G'pa Tom" (aka Slick and Twinkles...or Annie's parents) were the second set of grandparents who
spoiled Grace and Joshy. Linda brought Grace a dolly and a quilt for her birthday. Gracie named her dolly John-Jacob, after her favorite song. The doll even came with binkies and Grace entertained us during the week trying them out herself.
We all planned one dinner to make for everyone and Colleen was nice enough to kick off the week of amazing food with her grilled
salmon--lemon, onion, dill...yum!
...our kids LOVE Aunt
Annie...
This was probably some
binky-talk deciphering on Linda's part. We're trying to keep the binky for nap times and car rides, but on vacation we didn't fight it too much...
Probably our favorite day was spent up near Mt. Bachelor at
Elk Lake. Annie and Drew had camped here before we met them in Sunriver and led us to this great day-use spot right on the water. We just lounged around this little campsite and played in the lake for the better part of the day.
My handsome
husband and Brodie the Wonder-Pug in the background...Jeff loves the water, Brodie does not. :)
Joshy, quite
content with Papa Scott
Grace, picking some "flowers" at the campsite. She loved
exploring around the site.
Here is the
whole group. Wait, I think we're missing a Retriever...Lilly or Swede? My guess is Swede. He was LOVING all the new scents.
Mt. Bachelor in the distance. Drew and Annie climbed to the top a few days earlier. We kid-locked parents were jealous. :)
Who's having more
fun here?
Gracie loves the water! She was so excited to
splash Daddy and pick up every rock under the water and throw it to a new place in the lake.
Scott rented a
kayak while we were playing here for the day. He let us all take a turn.
Drew and Annie rented paddle boats that you stand on and row. They also let us
play around on them.
Gracie,
taking her turn with the paddle.
I love this picture. These two are the
water-lovers of our family. I have a "healthy respect" for the water :) and Josh was quite upset when we put his feet in. Something tells me he'll come around...we're not sure about me. :)
Gracie trying out the "boat." As soon as she got in she started
singing, "Row, row, row your boat..." She was so tired, missing her nap, that there were a few moments in the kayak when I think she was sleeping with her eyes open.
Colleen wasn't sure at first, but now she thinks she could have a bit of
fun in one of these...
And I even got to
try my hand at it. I could definitely float around the lake in one of these--with a life-jacket!
We played a couple of games...this is Quiddler. I forget who
won...nope, I remember. It was
me.
Josh was giving Annie some great card
advice.
Mavericks had an indoor
pool that Gracie tried out.
As soon as she saw this
slide she ran to get in line...
...and went down once before she realized that she was being
brave.
There was a great park that we biked to. I realize I didn't get any pictures of our bikes! This year Gracie had her own bike trailer--and again loved it!--and we rented another bike trailer for Josh b/c we had to put his car seat in it. He liked riding MOST of the time...there were a couple outings where people got out of the way when they heard us coming. :) Next year he'll be sitting up so they'll be able to share--won't that be fun!
Dinner out at a Mexican restaurant in Bend after we checked out the Farmers' Market. Gracie got to sit with Drew and Annie--lucky them?
Lucky her!
Love this picture. Joshy has
googly eyes for the good stuff already.
G'ma Colleen with her grandkids.
And
Papa Scott getting in for a picture, too. How fun to have vacation time with them.
On another day we went to the outdoor pool with Annie and Drew.
Look at that beard... Grizzly Adams.
...they say that it's soft, but I just want to throw out my brillo pad and scrub a sink with it...
SWEDEN! Gracie got along really well with the doggies. Our favorite quotes from the week were, "No Swede, that's mine." "No Brodie, that's not your toy." "Where's Silly Lilly?"
Even when she took a bath, she found two tupperware bowls to use for bath toys and she pretended that one was for Lilly to drink out of and one was Swede's. She also is very interested in the poop bags that were used to pick up after the dogs...
The other game we played was Carcassonne, and we're pointing at Colleen, the
winner of the game on her first attempt. She said it was beginner's luck, but I don't know...
It was so hard to pack up to go home, but one of the things that helped was knowing that we were going to stop in the Tri Cities to see
Auntie Julie and swim in her pool.
Gracie was amazing! Julie had her
jumping off the side of the pool and the ladder into the water--a first!
She even let Julie put her head
under water in one of her jumps.
Blowing
bubbles...I'm pretty sure she's asking Auntie to sing her a song.
We were so excited to meet Auntie Julie's new PUPPY,
Oliver. He's a Yorkshire Terrier--Jeff's first words were, "He's PUNTABLE!"
Look how
little he is! The dog, that is. Ollie will get to be the size of a size 7 boot. Right now he's just a fist-full. Oh, is he cute!!!
As we were getting ready to leave I spotted Oliver getting a hold of Joshy's car seat
toy. Too funny! Thanks for letting us stop, McInturffs! It was such a treat for us.
We had such a great week! Now we're at home, resting before our next adventure...camping! Gotta love being teachers in the month of July! :)
