Youth Campout

Our youth did the first young men and young women campout since I have been in young women's and it was so much fun. The young women and young men were still pretty seperate, but it helped them connect and help each other in such a fun and relaxed way. I would do a combined camp out every year. 

We camped at Onalaska at a property that one of our bishopric members know. It was so nice and had the most amazing outdoor kitchen and a nice bathroom. We got there early on Thursday and set up. It was funny that the young women all shared a tent and the young men all brought their own tents. It was the first time these girls have set up a tent on their own so it was a good experience for them. They had so much fun together with nightly bathroom parties doing hair and brushing their teeth and staying up late into the night playing card games. Since Nate had to work this weekend, I brought Baylor and McCall with me and they love camping too and being with the youth.

After we ate our lunches from home, we walked through the property for awhile and found the stream. A couple of the boys dunked themselves in the water and we found a crawdad.

Then we went to Ike Kinswa State Park for some lake swimming for the afternoon.

Then it was a relaxing evening, enjoying the fire and having a hot dog roast.

Then we did a chopped competition campfire edition. I let them pair up and their mystery ingredients that each team got were 4 marshmallows (so they had a few to work with), a small bag of teddy grahams, a bag of chopped strawberries, and a coookie & cream chocolate bar. I had a few staple ingredients that each team could use (chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, cheerios, and powdered sugar). Each team had to cook at least one item over the fire and were encouraged to be creative. They had lots of fun and a couple that are youth leaders got to try each one and be the judges. After we were done, the youth all got smores to enjoy before calling it a night.

We had an early start with breakfast and made the drive to the ape caves.

This amazing group of youth made it all the way through the caves. There were some challenges but they worked together, encouraged and helped each other, and some had more fun than others, but we did it. I was proud of myself for the fact that I did the whole thing with a baby on my back and lots of people helped me with tight places and getting over the 8 foot climbing wall. The young women were the sweetest with Baylor and helping her out every step of the way. It was a really good experience even with the challenges.

The youth were rewarded with a steak dinner that night! They got to cook their own steak and had lots of delicious sides for a meal fit for a group of youth that spent the day climbing and hiking.

Mikey's birthday was that evening so we enjoyed a little birthday party and then we did a ward family feud which was so fun and it kept the youth engaged for about 2 hours.

These two did so good sleeping in the tent with me. It was sweet seeing them sleeping each morning and McCall's sweet smile every morning when she woke up just melted me. I would go camping again with my little family!

Such a fun weekend with an amazing group of youth!

4th of July

We had a good majority of the Smith family gathered together for the 4th of July weekend and it was so much fun. The only not fun part was that Nate ended up getting a kidney stone so he was at home and out of commission the entire time. He still hasn't passed it, but the pain is starting to go down. Poor guy! And it was too bad that he missed out on all the 4th of July fun since it is his favorite holiday.

4th of July hair!

It was a hot day and so some of the cousins came over to cool off in the sprinkler.

Of course we did some traditional chalk coloring, but I'm not going to lie it is not the same without being able to do our own fireworks.

It was the perfect day though for lots of water balloon fun. All the kids loved it and we came up with all sorts of different games and activites to do with them.

This one was entertaining to watch. They lined up and everyone got a water balloon to throw at the person. The person could only move in between the two cones and would try to dodge as many as they could.

The crew that just wanted to watch. :) I took pictures of it all but then went last. I heard Aaron whispering stuff to Paige so I knew something sketchy was going to happen. I decided to lay on the ground with my head covered because I didn't want to get hit in the face. Paige (per Aaron's suggestion) took the bucekt of water and dumped it on my back! Lots of screaming and laughs on my part and it was an unexpected way to stay cool.

We skipped out on having a traditional BBQ and switched to tacos. You could have as many tacos as you wanted and we still had tons of leftover meat. The teenage boys were all trying to see how many they could eat. I heard Cade say he was up to 16 but I don't know who ended up getting the most.

Cute girls waiting for dinner.

Dinner Time

Then more water balloon fights

This little one is in berry heaven at Nona and Pop's house with straweberries, raspberries, and blueberries. If anyone wanted to hold her, they would just offer to take her to the garden to pick berries and she would willingly go. :)

Such an amazing group of people! I love being a part of this family!

Cuties!

Our last water balloon activity for the evening was another entertaing one to watch. We were using a slingshot launcher and launching water balloons into the cul de sac. The teenage boys were waiting out there trying to catch them. They got creative and had a baseball mit and even used a blanket to try and catch them.

The little girls stayed busy with Pop-its and this little cutie just wanted to play in the dust.

Baylor and Nona got the puzzle done!

We did our own sparklers and a few fun things while we waited for it to be dark enough for the fireworks at the lake.

 

I love the fireworks at the lake! They are so magestic and it truly is the perfect way to end the 4th of July. McCall's little "wows" were the cutest thing ever and Baylor pretty much fell asleep on me while we were watching. It was a sweet night with my girls and we were just missing daddy.

Lincoln City

Sharolyn invited us to join her family for their family vacation on the Oregon coast. We split the cost of the Airbnb and I'm so glad she invited us. We will always take the opportunity to go to the beach!

On Friday, we made a quick stop at the Vancouver Mission Office to see this awesome missionary. You don't always get to see your nephew on their mission and we were orginially going to stop in Winlock where he is serving, but he told us the morning of that he had to go to the mission office, but lucky for him and us, we were going through Vancouver. We weren't sure if we would see him since he was in meetings but as soon as we got there, we saw him in the hallway and gave him some treats to enjoy and had a quick visit.

Then we went to Fort Vancouver where we had a picnic and then spent a few hours wandering around and learning a little more about history.

We started off exploring the beautiful gardens.

Same post, 10 years later.

Then we explored the fort. They had a scavenger hunt for the girls and we learned all sorts of things from the volunteers.

All three girls completed the scavenger hunt together and got sworn in as junior rangers and got a little wooden badge.

Then after what felt like forever of driving, we made it to our house for the weekend in Lincoln City. It was just a few feet away from a gorgeous view of the ocean and it had old charm and was perfect for our two families. We made dinner that night and waited until Sharolyn and Tyler arrived and then we enjoyed the sunset on the beach. It got a bit chilly, but I'm glad we went out since all the other evenings we couldn't see the sunsets due to clouds or fog.

Truly our happy place and it was so sweet to be there with cousins.

McCall was a HANDFUL! She was so busy and would run straight for the water. She didn't mind getting wet but I was afraid she would get knocked over by a wave. I would catch her right before a wave would hit her and then take her back up to the dry sand and as soon as I put her down, right back towards the waves. It was pretty entertaining and she thought it was the best and most fun game ever. She can be so quick even with her tiny legs. She fell over once and got a face full of sand but that didn't stop her one bit.

Why is running away from the waves the most entertaining game ever? :)

Every evening and any down time we played lots of games and stayed up late visiting the first night. The last day we played an awesome game of hide and seek with everyone which was super fun. 

We got the girls to bed and then Nate and I walked back on the beach with McCall since she wasn't quite ready to go to sleep. We did this every night and I loved my evening walk and conversations with Nate.

The next day our first stop was Yaquina Head Lighthouse. It is a beautiful lighthouse that is super tall and has a magnificent view of the ocean.

We got a little extra treat there that I wasn't planning on- we were there when the tide was low and they had rangers handing out identification cards for the kids of all the creatures we could find in the tide pools. We loved exploring, poking sea anemones (Maggie wasn't a fan of touching anything!), touching bright purple sea urchins, finding little fish and crabs scammering about, and we even found some purple and orange starfish. 

Then we made our way down to Newport and went to a jetty to get a view of the bridge.

There was also some small but awesome sand dunes to jump down at the jetty. The beach there was gorgeous, but I wanted to get to our next stop at low tide and we still had to eat lunch so we didn't play at the beach here but just enjoyed the view.

We went to Newport Cafe for lunch and I thought the food was delicious. On our way to the cafe, there was a large group of older people with signs supporting Biden and then there was this one guy on the other side of the street supporting Trump. We happen to stop at the light there, and the joy on this guy's face every time he got a honk was the best thing ever. It was so entertaining to watch.

Our next stop was the Devil's Punchbowl. It is this large rock formation that you can only go inside at a low tide. It is covered in water otherwise. Paige was not a fan and it made me a little nervous about being aware of the water but being inside of it was super cool. 

Then Sharolyn and Tyler left and made their way back home but our little family decided to stay back and enjoy this beach since it had more rocks than the one where we were staying and the girls and Nate were in agate hunting heaven. We found some great ones and I followed McCall around as she explored the beach and got in the water. (She went through quite a few clothes in a day, since she loved the water and kept getting wet wherever we went.) :)

McCall loved this stream that led to the ocean and it was the perfect place for her to play so I didn't have to worry about the waves. Some of the pictures she has pants on and eventully her pants were soaking wet, so I just took them off.... another outfit soaking wet. :)

Then we made our way up to Cape Foulweather for an amazing lookout point. 

Here's a few artistic shots courtesy of Baylor.

The gift shop was about to close but they kept it open for us which was super nice. The girls each got a postcard and they had a penny stamping maching which the girls always love and that is what they look for whenever we go places and have quite the collection. Both Nate and Paige really enjoyed the sign on that was posted on the gift shop (Picture on bottom).

Just a few snapshots from the evening. Picture on the left: Baylor pretending to be a kitty with her water after dinner. :) Picture on the right: We had to watch McCall because if she ever got out of the house, she would head right for these stairs to go get in the water (our way to the ocean.)

Nate and I's evening walk with a little girl that wasn't ready for bed. We got to enjoy a little bit of a sunset in between a few clouds.

The next day Sharoly and Tyler wanted to stay at the house so we did something on my bucket list which was to see D River, the shortest river in the world. This river led straight into the ocean so once we saw the river, we stayed and played at that beach for awhile. Paige and Nate spent the time agate hunting and I was with the other two as they chase seagulls and played in the water.

Then we got home for lunch and I put McCall down for a nap and stayed at the house and cleaned up while the rest went to play in the ocean at low tide. They found some rocks with some creatures to touch and then played in the water.

Lots of jellyfish were washed ashore (dead ones but cool to touch) and Baylor and Maggie spent a lot of time collecting them and throwing them back into the ocean.

Lots of fun times spent playing with cousins, digging in the sand, and running away from waves.

Then Nate and I switched places and I got to enjoy the foggy weather. It was warm but it was crazy how foggy it was. You could hardly see the ocean except a wave or two. Sharolyn, Tyler, Emmett, and Grant went on a walk so I stayed back with Paige, Baylor, and Maggie and they had lots of fun playing in the sand.

Paige spent a good 20 minutes making them both into mermaids. They loved it but it was a little crushing to Paige at how fast they destroyed her beautiful creations.

Then it was time for lots of tricks and gymnastics on the beach.

Then more digging and playing in the sand.

Nate brought McCall down once she woke up and she was more content with playing in the sand this time than the water which was a little more relaxing.

The kids also loved playing tag and having endless amounts of space to run around. It was a beautiful afternoon spent at the beach!

The next morning we said our goodbyes and checked out. We drove up the coast which took a little longer but I'm glad we did. Our first stop was Short Sand Beach. There is this beautiful trail that takes you out to this cove that has a river and a gorgeous view of the ocean. The weather was not ideal and we got sprinkled on but we made the most of it. I'm going to keep this place on my bucket list to go to when it is warm out.

Paige was not a fan and was done at this point so she sat on a log while the rest of us did some exploring.

Such a cute little face!

Then we enjoyed some lunch at Seaside and one last stop at the ocean before heading home.

We always love our time at the ocean! Thanks Sharolyn and Tyler for the invite!