Faces of Summer

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, part 5: The final installment

We've been home from the never-ending vacation for 4 days now, and my motivation to tell you every detail is waning. Be grateful.

Instead, here are slide shows that capture the gist of it.

After Oregon, we spent a week in Kirkwood (right next to Lake Tahoe, CA) with my dad.
A busy and fun filled week. Lots of hiking, swimming, and taking in the beauty of God's creation. Too many pictures for just ONE slide show....

Hiking in Kirkwood...

Carson City, NV/ Hike to waterfalls/ Silver Lake...

At Lake Tahoe...

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, part 4

Here goes with the rest of our Oregon adventures (because God bless you if you're still reading this vacation recap-- you might as well have taken the trip yourself in the amount of time it's taken to read about it. Admittedly, this version has a lot less screaming children as background noise, but hey, who's counting?).

So, we were "winging it" down the Oregon coast and based on the recommendation of the Raneys, we stopped in Pacific City, Oregon for the night. Cute little town. Great little beach.

Fast forward a few hundred miles, and we arrived at Crater Lake National Park. As I've said before, we love National Parks, and Bill specifically requested that Crater Lake be a stop on our summertime peregrination. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We enjoyed taking in the perfectly-blue lake and ended our visit with a peaceful hike through a meadow filled with wildflowers and babbling brooks. Picturesque.

After our fun-filled day at Crater Lake, we headed to Klamath Falls, OR, for the night. At the suggestion of our hotel personnel, we had the most delicious dinner at Red's Backwoods BBQ. Bill said they had the best BBQ sauce he'd ever tasted-- this from a Texan who knows his BBQ. So good, in fact, that we will be re-routing all future road-trips through Klamath Falls, no matter how out of the way it may be.

And one last cute one of the girls getting ready for the pool... They found a little nook in our hotel room just their size....

On to Lake Tahoe we go.....

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, part 1

To celebrate the end of summer school, we went to San Diego. My mom decided that she wanted to go to Sea World for her birthday, so off we went! Here are some pics... (More to follow from Grandma's camera.)

It was a long day (up till 11pm without a nap!), but the girls loved it, and Lexy is still shouting "Shamu! Shamu!" periodically throughout the day. And now every whale she sees is Shamu. :)

Immediately upon our return, Bill left to drive to Seattle!!
He took many scenic pictures along the way, which will eventually be posted in The Hughes Family Photo Album. The girls and I flew up to meet him the following day, and we spent a WONDERFUL week with our dear friends the Raneys.

Highlights of the trip: Fishing with Devon, BERRIES, BERRIES, BERRIES!, Fish & Chips on the water, black licorice ice cream (!), Expanding our vocabulary with Quiddler and a Scrabble dictionary, church and BBQ with Blake & family, throwing fish, Hurricane Ridge , Downtown Tacoma, and just hanging out with ALL of the Raneys.

Here are just a few of the pictures....

Lexy, Pam & Madrona in downtown Gig Harbor

Devon, Madrona & Sampson

Dave, Bill & Tori on Devon & Becca's boat

Showing off our ice cream-stained tongues!

The whole gang in front of the Chihuly Bridge of Glass in Tacoma, WA.

More vacation fun to follow soon.....

Fire Station 111

Lexy and some of her friends from Miss Stella's class visited a local fire station today....
Although she refused to smile for 90% of the pictures (typical 3 yr old), she redeemed herself right before her nap today when she said, "I liked the firefighters, Mom. And the firetruck."

Lexy Swimming

Thank goodness for Grandma's camera that likes our laptop.

The LONG-AWAITED video of Lexy Swimming:



I'll post more videos in The Hughes Family Photo Album.

And a few still shots from our fun time at Barb's house this afternoon...

Jumping off the diving board

First time using goggles--- she loved it!

And here they both are on the ride home....

Beating the heat

We've been spending a lot of time at the pool this week....
And thanks to the broken ankle, Mommy is more than happy to play photographer on the sidelines!

Just Hangin' out

Our little swimmer picking up sticks
(If we could only make our video camera be friends with the laptop, you'd get to see live action of Lexy swimming. For now, you'll have make do with a still shot.)

Look at me standing up all by myself!

Lexy swimming to Daddy, and Tori THRILLED to have her join them

Flying Tori