July vacation

So sorry it has taken me a while to post about our vacation, but summer is such a busy time! The weather in the Pacific Northwest has finally turned and we are enjoying summer temperatures and the sun! It's been a long time coming, but we are spending as much time outside in it as we can before it decides to disappear again.

We took our annual 4th of July camping/riding trip a few weeks ago. 10 days at the Oregon coast doing one of the things we love most as a family. Riding our quads and hanging out with some of our besties. The weather was amazing for our whole trip, and except for some barking dogs camping right behind us our trip was pretty good. And the riding was amazing. Since I don't have a lot of time, I'll just post all the pictures of our vacation.

See the sandy trail in the middle of the photo? That's the trail to the beach. We actually saw people walking all the way to the beach from behind where this photo is taken. It's a good 2+ miles one way I'd say. We just ride our ATVs and get there in no time!

Some of our play area. You can see our tracks in the sand, plus other people playing at the bottom of the dune.

Here's most of our group for the week. Plus Nick's friend's Dad on my quad. He brought Riley down a couple days after we got here, and we just had to take him out on a ride with us!

Gabi loved jumping her quad. Look at that air she got! She wasn't so good on the hill climbs. Still needs some practice there, but she'll get it eventually.

Nick & our friend Larry trying to jump together. Great job guys!

Nick's friend Riley showing how NOT to land. Rear tires first bub! Luckily he stayed on his bike.

That's better!

Some silly person thought he could drive his 300M onto the sand to the beach. That's as far as he got. We found him sitting in his car waiting for a tow truck to pull him out. Not sure what he was thinking, but we had to snap some photos of it!

Nick & Riley wishing they could drive this and go pick up some girls. Never going to happen boys! Our friend's son & Fiance bought this just before the weekend and are so proud of their new toy. The only reason the boys got in there is because they happened to be gone at the time. And no, they didn't leave the keys behind!

The rightful owners of the Razer. It's a pretty cool toy. Goes anywhere our quads will, but sits 2 people. Fun fun fun!

So there are some highlights of our trip. It was a blast and we were so lucky to have great weather the entire trip. (minus 1 day) 10 days is a long time to be camping, but we just don't get a chance to get out and ride much anymore so we really enjoy the longer trips where we can relax and have some great family time. The kids are turning into such great riders and some of the skills they are learning should help them when they reach the driving age as well. As long as they don't try jumping my car we should be in good shape! LOL

Next post... The Wild Animal Park one of our favorite places on the Oregon Coast!

Camping - Memorial Day 2010

We went camping and riding in Florence for Memorial Day weekend. The weather turned out to be perfect for most of the weekend which was wonderful. We are so tired of the rain we were glad to get some much needed sunshine. Here are some highlights of our weekend:

Our group on the beach taking a break & enjoying the beautiful weather.

The water had such a beautiful blue-green color to it. Haven't seen the water so beautiful and calm in a long time. Almost felt like it wasn't the Oregon coast!

Climbing the hills are fun.

The little energizer bunny never stops. He doesn't back down from any challenge.

Sometimes climbing hills doesn't work out so well. He didn't quite make it up the hill and got himself wedged against a tree stump. Of course I took photos instead of helping get him unstuck. I'm helpful like that!

The energizer bunny up close. Such concentration on his face.

There is nothing the kids love more than jumping.

Nick's friend Riley is just as brave as Nick is.

Gabi is not to be outdone by the boys.

She shows no fear on a quad, but bicycles are scary. Go figure.

The boy can jump! Look at that air.

I love the little humps of sand all over covered by sand grasses. Very cool.

Love the yellow scotch bloom (or is that Scott's Bloom?) It was all over the place and blooming like crazy. Such a bright yellow. It was pretty.

We rode in the annual poker run which is always a blast. A poker run involves riding around trying to find different checkpoints. You then draw a card for every checkpoint you find and attempt to create a great poker hand from your cards. Prizes are awarded for highest hand and lowest hand. We never seem to draw very good hands, but we scored on the raffle drawing. We purchased 8 tickets and won 5 things. Not bad! 2 of our prizes were the matching yellow hats. We won them at different times. What are the odds of actually winning matching hats?

One of our favorite places to ride. There is a quiet secluded lake set back on some awesome trails. It is always so beautiful back there. We always mention how we'd like to go swimming there sometime. 

You can access the lake from a short hike at the campground too, but riding the quads there is so much more fun!

Nick almost went swimming here - quad and all. He hit some tracks when riding around the edge of the water (About halfway up on the photo) and they caused him to bounce and head straight for the water. He barely stopped in time. It was a little scary for my poor heart. It's fairly steep and I wasn't sure how we would have gotten him out of there, but luckily that boy has some serious skills and prevented a major catastrophe! You can see the tracks I'm talking about. They are on the right hand side of the photo in the upper 3rd of the photo. They look like 2 lines heading from the top straight down to the water. Then the little squiggly lines along side the water are from him taking off and getting out of there. I think we'll leave this area alone until some of the water disappears again!
 

This is Oz. The boxer who thinks he's a lap dog. He's pretty cute but seriously thinks he fits in your lap like he did when he was a puppy. Did I mention he weighs around 70 pounds? Good thing he's so cute!

Valentine's Day 2010

We went camping and riding for Valentine's/President's Day weekend. Had a great time and the weather actually cooperated with us for once! It only rained at night after we were in bed. The above picture is what it looked like on Monday. Just perfect weather! We had a great time hanging out with our quading family. Celebrated Erika's 18th birthday, had a great Valentine's dinner, and lots of great riding. Nick did have a bit of an accident and we got to visit the Florence emergency room for the first time in all the years we have be going there. Luckily it wasn't that bad, and he's healing very nicely now.

The kids quads. Nick's is the black one, and Gabi's new quad is the white one.

Gabi attempting to climb a hill on her bike. She made it up too!

Nick playing around on his bike.

Gabi loves her new bike. It was an early birthday present for her.

Larry was having issues with his bike, but there were lots of little helpers around if he needed the help! Nick and our friends Chad (on the right) & Craig (on the left) are supervising Larry as he deals with his chain issue.

Bryan riding my quad as he tried to fix it. It was a bit temperamental over the weekend and Bryan spent a whole day trying to fix it. He finally got it all worked out. Runs great now!

Here is Nick's injury. He was trying to pop a wheelie and didn't quite make it. Hit his head on the bars and ended up biting his tongue among other mouth injuries. He actually bruised his mouth too on both sides of his lips. Poor guy wouldn't talk for 3 days! He's healing fine now and should be back to normal in a few days.

All in all it was a great trip and as usual we can't wait for the next one!