Living Lovely

Heidi from Mt. Hope Chronicles is featuring the theme Vacation this week with the series Living Lovely With Family.

Growing up, I had amazing experiences travelling for vacations. My grandparents owned a motorhome and took my brother and I a couple of times. 1990 and 1995 we teavelled several states and saw many campgrounds and touristy sites such as a show in Branson, 4 corners, and going into caves to participate in a family reunion [my grandmother's side of the family] that started on a farm in Wisconsin and then ended up at a lake in Michigian. It was incredible just to see the United States and I can't wait to show some of the states to my boys. We have started to make a list of things to see or do in various states such as sapphire mining in Montana.

I am taking the boys to their first family reunion this June in California and spending time in San Luis Obispo, California with my Dad and Brother as well as my Mom and Grandma in San Diego, California. I am very lucky that my family lives in southern California which is such a lovely place to visit weather and scenic wise and to have it affordable since we stay with family is just fabulous. The boys and I will leave Oregon June 8th and come home July 1st so we'll have plenty of time with family and being tourists.

We went to Disneyland every year with my Grandma from the time I was 5 until I was 9 years old- my three most favorite things are caves on the little island, Matterhorn ride, and Sleeping Beauty's Castle and now my mom wants to participate with the boys and I so hopefully in next two years we can make it happen.

My Dad took us camping a couple of times and even took his grandsons [I was there too] on their first camping trip when well now I can't exactly remember but I don't think Cyrus was walking yet so before he was 16 months old and my Dad bought a trailer that we tried out at a camping spot just north of Morro Bay. Grandpa again took us camping out at Ft. Stevens which is an awesome place that we'll visit again just south of Astoria, Oregon. Then following year we took a camping trip east of Oregon in Welches, Oregon. Solomon loves Volcanoes so I'll be working on building our camping supplies so we can camp and visit Mt. Helens.

Dan took us out to visit Multnomah Falls area for a family hike and we loved it that we'll be continuing that. We moved from being close to downtown Portland to being on the East side so now we're closer to Mt. Hood and we hope to make ski trips in our future. There is so much around us in the Portland area to explore and we're having fun doing it.

One of our special dates that we had while dating was at a Mariner's Baseball game in Seattle and we hope to take a train trip [I love to travel by train] up to Seattle with the boys to take in Seattle and a baseball game. For now we'll root for the Portland Beavers.

We occasionally have to go to Ft. Lewis, WA for Dan to get some supplies and we make a day or two trip out of it- there is a museum and all kinds of military vehicles to see when on post that makes it very exciting for everyone.

The beach is always a great place to visit whether we're in California, Oregon or Washington. I love to rent a house on the beach with some extended family members and enjoy a week together one summer.

One of my favorite trips was to Monterey Bay Aquarium and I love to go back when the boys are older so we can enjoy the Steinbeck aspects of the area in addition to the Aquarium.

Dan and I want to take the boys to Crater Lake and Mt.Shasta- the boys haven't been to Carter Lake and it has been years for me.

Beyond the United States we would love to take a family trip to: England and Ireland; Germany; Greece; Egypt; and Jordan for starters.