Thursday, July 16, 2009

Newport Family Vacation

Well, we made it! We decided to go to Newport for our family vacation this year. We had originally wanted to go to Utah so Mike and Brooke could meet Gordon and we could visit our friends and family there, but we just didn't have enough money to get there, so we decided to take a trip to Newport and visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium instead. I posted a slide show of the aquarium pictures. You can notice that Celeste was "floating" with the animals and fish in some of the pictures!

This is a picture of camp at Seal Rock. We didn't get many pictures, so you get several of Grim, but it was gorgeous and the perfect spot to camp.

On Monday we went to Newport and walked along the waterfront where all of the shops and boats are. We watched the boats come in from fishing and cleaning fish. The kids complained about the smell. We couldn't see the sea lions very well without paying a lot of money, so we zoomed in the camera and got a kind of fuzzy picture of a sea lion lying on the rocks. It ended up being a beautiful day, so we went to Nye Beach on a whim and let the kids and dog play. They were soaked and sandy and loved every minute of it! They actually didn't want to leave, but we finally pulled them away to go back to camp and make a fire for dinner.

Kyle also took pictures of the kids for the aquarium in case we lost one of them. He took pictures of Gordon so he wouldn't feel left out also, but these are the pictures of Celeste and Eddie. So, if we ever lose one of the kids somewhere, we have current pictures!!



Sunday, July 5, 2009

4th of July Festivities

Well, the Hunters had a great day today. We started by going to Corbett for a pancake breakfast. We were afraid that it would be really crazy/busy and it would be a long wait for breakfast, but not for us!! We got there and got in right away and had an amazing breakfast.

After that Corbett had an old fashioned parade. Our ward extends into Corbett and some of the members of our ward live right on the parade route, so we parked at their house and watched from the base of their property on the highway. It started with the classic car show driving through throwing candy for all of the kids and then the parade of kids on horses and tractors and all sorts of atv's coming through throwing candy for the kids yet again. I don't have a picture of the candy, but let's just say that the kids have candy for the next year and Winco must LOVE the Corbett parade because we have a lot of their candy in our home now!!










After the parade we made our way over to the Corbett School grounds for a FULL day of playing. Kyle entered a pie eating contest and Celeste enjoyed the blow up toys all day long. She kept going and going and going all day long. Every once in a while she would come back for something to eat or drink and then she was off again. However, I forgot to bring new batteries and my camera died, so I didn't get pictures of the day. Casey recorded Kyle in the pie eating contest though, so I will post that soon. Kyle didn't win, but he sure had fun and enjoyed trying!

They also have a mole contest because moles are such a problem up in Corbett. They give prizes for the largest, the best dressed and all sorts of other prizes. It was quite strange, but fun to see at the same time. I couldn't do anything but laugh and the silly things that go on in small towns!

The fireworks were great as well. I tried to capture them as best I could. The batteries held out just long enough to get a few pictures before the camera had no power what so ever!

Over all, it was an extremely wonderful day. We've decided that we wouldn't mind at all doing it again next year. We set up s0me canopies and played games and just had fun all day long. Some of us got a little more sun than we had planned and we are all horribly exhausted, but what a fun way to celebrate the 4th for July. Happy 4th everyone!!