We kicked off Summer Vacation 2019 with a Weekend trip to Black Butte. One of our favorite places close to home. 69/70 degrees with sun and cool evenings. We did some swimming, biking and exploring. Our first evening - we celebrated the summer solstice with dinner at the main pool.
Some pictures from the rest of the weekend.
We are celebrating the first day and first official weekend of summer in Black Butte Ranch, Oregon
Fun day to celebrate being out for summer holidays and Holly’s first lake day (Suttle Lake)
Abbie had a dance competition in Portland. Normally Kelly takes Abbie to her competitions but I went this weekend, and we had a great time not only at the competition winning some medals but also doing some explorations. We were near the Portland airport but instead of heading into the city, we decided to see what was the other direction so went to the little town of Troutdale just east of Portland and then spent the rest of the day at McMennamins Edgefield.
This year for Mothers day we went out exploring as a family along with Pat and Sue who were visiting. Our first stop was the head of the Metolius river. The Metolius river runs for about 30 miles and starts just west of Sisters where the water bubbles out of a hillside and turns into a river. Its a beautiful spot and a short walk to get there. We took the kids their once way back when we first moved to bend in 2011.
Since it was in the same general area we then headed to the 'head of the Jack' - the start of another small river/creek that springs from the ground. Lesser known of the two but still a fun little hike. The kids and I all drank the cool fresh water coming out of the hillside.
For Hunter's birthday and Pat's birthday (April) we got them both a ticket to fly on a ford Tri-motor from the 1920's. Its probably one of the last ones of its kind to fly. You may remember seeing it in Indiana Jones movies. It was an amazing experience.
After finishing a marathon at his school the day before Noah ran another race today to raise money for Africa - a 'short' 6k race but he told Kelly in the morning he was going to win... and he did beating out a 21 year old.
We had a birthday dinner for Hunter the evening before and donuts the morning of the 3rd.
Holly’s big fluffy hair is cute but needs maintenance. Since she has never been groomed we were noticing a lot of matted fur so wanted to take her in to the groomer. Turns out the matting was worse than we thought and the only solution is to trim lower than the matting. The groomer said the fur came off like sheep’s wool. Also the matting actually causes bruising because it pulls on her skin so she needed a reset. The groomer said she would not go short like this again but we have to go for regular grooming so that her hair doesn't matte again like that. She went from fluff dog to naked dog.
