Summer Vacation in Utah and Yellowstone

Make a Smilebox slideshow

California Summer

I finally got around to putting together some pictures from our trip to California. It was so great to be with all my family and to see the kids playing together.

Stay tuned for pictures from our trip to Utah...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Utah

Last stop before getting back to real life was, of course, Utah to spend more time with Grammie and Grampie and our Uncles, Aunts, and cousins. We had a really great time, but it went by much too fast. Don't you think Logan and Ellie could be brother and sister in this picture?

Reunited and it feels so good...

(The title of this post is for you, Amy!) After Astoria, we all headed up to Washington to visit our dearest cousins Henry, Tenison, and Olivia. We really miss living close to these guys and had a great time hanging out in their beautiful new home. We went walking along Puget Sound, out to eat at an AMAZING sea food place, and did a lot of dancing. Mom, Amy, Olivia and I also went to see Becoming Jane with Anne Hathaway and we absolutely loved it. We went into Seattle for the day. Had a fabulous time at Pikes Peak (could have spent all day there!) and Alex fulfilled a lifelong dream by heading to the top of the space needle. This was the first time I had been to Seattle and I've got to say that from what I saw it would easily rank on my list of top ten US cities (if I had a list of top ten US cities). I couldn't resist adding one of my favorite pics of Alex and Olivia from Alex's 2nd birthday two and a half years ago! So cute!

Cannon Beach and Astoria

We met up with Jeff's parents in Cannon Beach, Oregon, but because the beach was soooo windy that day, we headed in town for some shopping. Laurel and I found an amazing antique boutique (and some very good fudge!) and the kids found a cute toy shop where they talked their grandpa into buying them lip whistles and a nose whistle - which is as gross as it sounds. We camped just outside of Astoria for a couple of nights and while none of us were overly impressed with the city itself we all loved our visit to the Astoria Column. The column was completed in 1926 and has beautiful scenes depicting local history. We climbed up the 164 steps of the column to an AMAZING view of the mouth of the Columbia river as it feeds into the Pacific Ocean (hello, power) and of the 4+ mile long Astoria-Megler bridge that spans that same river into Washington state. (Look really closely at the second picture to see the bridge. Better yet click on it to see the picture full size. The bridge was awesome!)

Oregon Coast

We had an amazing time driving up the Oregon coast. We took 4 days to do it and stopped whenever we saw something worth stopping for, which was about every 1.4 miles! The scenery is dramatic and the state and local communities have done a great job with overlooks, trails, and walkways so that visitors can really experience it. The kids loved the easy hikes to rocks, beaches, forests, bridges, hills, and especially to Devil's Churn, where waves come crashing into a narrow rocky inlet and the water literally churns, bubbles, and stews. It's really powerful.

Surf's up

The Gaskills love the beach. We took a couple of trips to South Padre Island, Texas while we were in Mexico that really got the kids hooked on the beach. So when we asked them what they wanted to do for home leave the answer was unanimous: The Beach! These first pictures are of us at the beaches in San Diego. Alex was fearless! He kept wading out and we had to keep calling him back. You might notice Ellie holding a bag of sliced apples. She carried that bag of apples around with her all day, taking one bite out of the center and leaving a big pile of half-eaten apples on Katie's towel. The last pictures are of us in Carpenteria - a beach just south of Santa Barbara. It was absolutely gorgeous as you can see by the misty mountains and clean sand. Cameron pulled Alex and Hugh around on the boogie board, which Alex loved until he fell off. And, best of all, we were swimming with dolphins! Not close enough to touch, but they were literally 50 yards from me and Katie and Cam while we swam in the ocean.

Sea World

We kicked off our month of home leave (read: paid vacation, baby) by driving to San Diego for a visit with my sister. Upon seeing Katie my children immediately forgot my existence. They wanted to sit on her lap and hold her hand and read stories with her and make her feed them and dress them and play with them. Katie gracefully declined a full time position in our household.