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!

So it's been a while

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and that's because we've been really busy! Not only did we take a great vacation to San Diego for Spring Break, but we also started some house projects, and Nick broke his wrist in the middle of everything too. Just more craziness in the Geddis Household. So here are some photos of what we have been up to. I will try to get back to more regular postings as we have some big house projects on the near horizon!

The sunset from our Hotel window

The fam at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad. Beautiful Ranunculus flowers as far as the eye could see!

Crazy boy!

Our new teenager! Can't believe she's 13 already!

What a sweet couple!

Overlooking the San Diego Wild Animal Park - These are the lions.

Took the tram tour to see most of the animals in more natural habitats.

He's really yawning. But I love this picture!

Flamingos were everywhere it seemed!

The cheetah was purring the entire time he was out. Didn't get to pet him. Kinda like my arms the way they are, but we were really really close to him!

All of us at the Wild Animal Park.

This statue is awesome! Huge and way cool!

The Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. We toured most of it. Took us over 3 hours! But a very cool thing to see.

Here are Nick, Gabi & Bryan in the sleeping bunks on the midway, pretending to be sailors.

Sea World was cool!

Fed the dolphins at Sea World

Watched the Shamu Show. Way cool! Such amazing animals!

The Sea Lion show was also very funny & entertaining.

The San Diego zoo was way too amazing for words, but I'll sum it up with this: PANDAS!

They were so adorable! Loved finally being able to see pandas first hand.

There were other animals too - like baby giraffes!

And baby Orangutans. Oh wait. That was mom posing as one!

I have so many more great photos and video of our trip, but I think that's a pretty good over view for you guys. Don't want to bore you too much with our vacation photos.

All in all it was an amazing trip. The weather was great, the food was amazing and the company was pretty great too. So many great memories from that trip. Can't wait to go back! Maybe when Nick doesn't have a broken arm so maybe the kids can learn to surf. Cause what trip to San Diego doesn't include a little ocean time?

Next post will be an update of the house and the newest project we are working on!

Happy Birthday!

  
We made the trek down to California for Memorial Day weekend and had a great time! It was my aunt's 50th birthday on Saturday so we drove down to surprise her. Needless to say on the way down on Friday she called me very suspicious that we were on the way down there. Apparently my email I sent before I left made her suspicious. I still maintain it was a normal email and she's just too damn clever for her own good! (I just re-read the message I sent and see nothing out of the ordinary in it!)

  

We stayed in a really cool and funky beach house in Rio Del Mar overlooking the beach. (it's the house on the left in the top picture.)  It was a very pretty spot with an awesome view of the town and the beach.

Mom and Dad ended up surprising us by showing up late Friday night. Bryan and I thought they might be arriving for the big event, but when they weren't there when we got there and weren't there by the time we went to bed we thought we must have been wrong. That was a fun surprise. We spent Saturday playing on the beach which the kids loved and then went to the party at this yummy restaurant for the party.

    

On Sunday mom and I took over the kitchen and cooked dinner for 18 people! We had Dad (aka "Top Chef") BBQ chicken and then we made Grilled Corn Salad, a green salad, Mac & Cheese & Chile Cheese Rice. We finished the meal with fresh strawberries and watermelon. (We were in strawberry country after all!) I love going to the produce market when we are there and seeing what yummy fresh vegetables they have there. Their fruits and tomatoes always were better than what I can find at home. I am pleased to say however that with all the Farmer's Markets available here in Portland that our fresh local produce is starting to be as good as what we an find in California. However finding yummy fresh local tomatoes for 87 cents a pound right now is unheard of here! 

All in all we had a great trip. It was WAY too short, and the drive was WAY too long (11 hours), but it was an easy drive and our books on tape (cd actually) made the time pass faster. It was great to see family we haven't seen in forever again, even if my aunt's kids are all taller than I am now! 

Now it's back to the real world for most of us. Gabi left today for the rest of the week at outdoor school. She should have a great time and I think her brother is glad for some time away from her for a while. At least the weather is supposed to hold so she should have a great time at the coast. 

Oh yeah, and when we got home my peonies are blooming so I'll have to take some pictures of them and post them for all to see. My hanging pots are in full bloom too so I'll post them tomorrow so you can see how pretty the front yard looks now!