This is how much salt Zach likes with his popcorn. He dumped out the whole can of salt.
He actually did a pretty good job of painting his toes and not getting it on the floor when I wasn't watching of course.
When the girls wen to horse camp this summer he got ready to go along with.
We come home from our 2.5 week trip to find a tree had fallen. We were blessed that it missed the house and anything else of importance (swing set and shed by inches)
It took Byron half a day on Sat to cut up the tree it was so big and heavy that he could hang on it and it wouldn't even budge.
We left Bandon friday am to go and pick blueberries, but never found the place after 1.5 hrs of driving so we went back up the coast to Florence where we were staying the night some old friends of ours growing up. They have a beautiful house on a huge lake so Byron took each kid for a little kayaking. As you can see Buddy loved it...he kept crying for his turn while Kenzie and Mikayla were out. 
Florence is known for its HUGE sand dunes...so we went dunebuggying on them. These dunes are like 15ft tall and they slide down the side of them in the dunebuggies. Kenzie and I were starting to get sick from all the jerking around. Mikayla and Byron loved them though. They went on a dunebuggy that seated 12 people. The top picture has us with the goggles on so the sand doesn't get in your eyes.
Linsey, Kenzie and Amber
We also went to the largest sea cave in the world. It also houses tons of sea lions, and you take an elevator 200ft down to get to it. We also lucked out to see a whale spouting. Florence was our last stop. The next day we drove back to Portland and spent the night in a scary hotel that was suppose to be a 3 star, but was more like a 2 star, in the ghetto. Then woke up Sunday am at 5:20 to get on a 8.5hr plane ride home with no layovers! We sure were glad to be home, until we looked in the backyard to see the tree that fell while we were gone.
Buddy was sooo tired that he fell asleep on the drive back to Bandon, pantless becuz he got wet in the river.
Byron started taking pics of the view on the way back while I was driving. This is what you see on one side of the highway....
and this is what you see on the other side of the highway!
there was this awesome river, shallow for the kids and with lots of critters and rocks to skip at the park where we had a picnic by the redwood trail with Byrons family.
Mikayla found a salamander and snake
and a crawfish
Amber carrying buddy on the trail
we played dominos and the kids made bead necklaces
This is the family inside of a redwood tree trunk!
We left Bandon and traveled 2.5 hrs south to Brookings OR and a redwood trail to meet up with all but 2 of Byrons siblings and their families(7 total) Byron and Buddy next to a redwood tree on the 1 mile beautiful hike.
All but 2 of the grandkids
all but 2 sisters, 1 dad and 3 in law husbands and 2 grandkids
Zach inside a redwood tree
We (buddy)held possoms
Buddy and Mikayla petted donkeys, llama, reindeer, goats and sheep
baby racoons (kenzie and Mikayla)
We went to a Wild Animal Park in Bandon. Yes that is a real 4 wk old lion cub Kenzie is touching.
We were able to go into a little fenced area and play with the lion cub
We (Buddy and Kenzie) were able to hold and pet a REAL baby leopard cub
and feed some mini deer
Kenzie with a REAL peacock
Kenzie touching sea anenomes.
Mikayla climbing a huge rock
kids with starfish and sea anenomes in the tidepool in the background
lots of rock caves also abound at low tide. girls with gpa
While in Bandon we took family pics
gma brought bubbles you could eat..so the kids are trying to catch them with their mouths
maaa look i caught one!
Byron and Buddy hung out while we climb a lighthouse
climbing a lighthouse (Amber's bro and mom)
They had awesome touch tanks for the kids at both places with starfish, stingrays, sharks, sea anemones, sea urchins, and other fish. They just kept running from one tank to the next. We also got some super yummy fudge for only $3 (They have cheap good fudge almost everywhere in OR). We then met up with Ambers family and went to the nice 2 bedroom beach front Inn. Mikayla woke up in the middle of the night throwing up.
The next morning we went whale watching with our own personal marine biologist! Only 6 seats on the boat so Byron stayed behind with sick Mikayla and Buddy. We found one whale that came so close to the boat that we smelt its awful breath when it spouted! It almost made me puke! it smelled like raw sewage! The whale came within 6-12 feet at one point. We also saw sea lions and seals. Kenzie did not like the boat ride very much. She just wanted to go back cuz it was making her sick. It was quite rocky when we were just sitting in the big waves watching for the whale to spout.
The same day as whale watching we went to tide pools (this is a tide pool at extremely low tide, all the brown stuff is slippery seaweed.). The kids saw tons of starfish and sea anemones
Amber's sister Linsey watched buddy while we walked over really slippery rocks to find starfish. Buddy had fun throwing these lava round rocks which made up the beach there.
