Family Reunion in Oregon - Blogged by JME

At the end of July, N8 and I were able to go to Oregon for N8's family reunion. Oregon was great! I've never been there before but it was beautiful and reminded me a little of Germany.

We started out our trip by stopping at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We were able to take a tour and watch them make cheese. We had lunch there (which was very good) and got to taste some of their cheese. Then we had some really yummy ice cream for dessert.





We stayed on the coast in Pacific City at Cape Kiwanda. It was 20 minutes south of Tillamook and 20 minutes north of Lincoln. We stayed in a little cabin near the beach.



The beach was beautiful!





The first morning after we arrived, N8 and I went on a run along the beach. It was so cool. We are used to being about 4300 feet above sea level and so running at sea level was so easy for us. I could have run all day long. After our run, we looked through the tide pools and saw so many star fish, crabs, and fish. Then we went looking for sand dollars and found about 25 of them intact. They made fun souvenirs to bring home to our family and friends.





That night, we had a big bonfire on the beach and did a talent show. Each family had to tell a story, sing a song, or do something. I recited, "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service, which is special to me because it is a poem my dad used to recite to my sister and I often when we were kids. N8 recited "The Purple Cow" by Gelett Burgess, which is the first poem he ever memorized.



The next day, N8 and I went to see the Cape Meares lighthouse.





We used the timer feature on our camera for the first time, so no one armed pictures! Yay!!!



N8 was really excited because we saw the coastguard helicopter checking the coast and it flew real close to us.



Then we saw the Octopus Tree that is up by the lighthouse.





Later, we had a family kite flying contest on the beach. It was fun to see about 12-15 kites flying all together. N8 won for the longest kite tail.





That night we had the traditional family potluck and auction. Some of the family had gone fishing that morning and brought back crab and fish that we were able to eat during the potluck. It was so good. N8 and I had fun playing with our crab claws.



We really enjoyed seeing some of our family we don't get to see that often. This is N8's great aunt and one of my very favorite people.



The day that we left, we went to the Portland Temple on our way back to the airport. The temple was closed for cleaning so we weren't able to go in and do a session, but it was really nice to see it. I thought it was very beautiful.