An Evening Drive

Today was a beautiful day in Oregon. After Matt got home from work we decided to take a drive to look at some mountains that are pretty close to us. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening together as a family sightseeing.

Matt took Jewell out of the car to look outside. I quickly snapped this picture. I hope to frame it.

Weekend at Home

We are currently at the end of rainy season in Oregon. Which means, it's STILL raining every day. So instead of going out exploring this weekend, we spent the weekend unpacking and family time at home. I must say, time at home can be quite fun now that we have 2 kiddos that are absolutely adorable.

Jefferson "enjoyed" tummy time.

I introduced him to the bumbo. He's not quite sure about it here.

He practiced "walking :)" with Daddy.

You can barely see it, but we couldn't find Jefferson's paci. So we kept saying, "where is his paci?" Jewell is handing it to Daddy in this picture. She is so cute!

Jewell enjoyed some Daddy/Daughter time while learning how to use the Wii remote :).

She also loved climbing on the boxes.

I made blueberry muffins for breakfast. Jewell thoroughly enjoyed them.

I finally got the courage to introduce a bottle to Jefferson. He took it right away!

Jewell was very curious. She was even a little jealous :).

We had a great weekend as a family. Hopefully next weekend we can go out explore!

The Coast

The first weekend we were in Oregon we were still living in a motel. So, we decided to venture out to Crescent City, California. Little did I know, we'd be traveling through snow covered mountains, then the Redwood National Forest, and then finally to the ocean. I think it was the neatest day trip we have taken since we've been married. And it only took us about 2 hours to get there :). Jewell wasn't quite as excited though. She ended up crying the entire way back! Oh well. Such is the life of a toddler. I also learned that California has funny rules about fruit. They have a check point at the state line asking if you brought any fruit. They take it if you did! Fortunately, I had already finished my orange :). It was a California orange though so I'm sure I would have been safe. Enjoy the pictures.

I'm sure to get into trouble for posting some of these since my husband probably wanted to do some crazy editing to them :).

We stopped at this cute little cafe right outside the Redwood National Forest.

Someone suggested going through this Redwood Park on the way to the ocean. It was amazing.

You must forgive the Mom hair.

And we finally made it to the coast! It was super cold so I stayed in the car with Jefferson while Matt took Jewell out. Then we switched :).

Jewell wasn't quite so excited. For some reason, she didn't seem to think driving in the car for that long was worth going to a cold beach. :)

Sadly, the coast was hit with about 35 million dollars worth of damage 2 weeks later when the tsunami hit. Houses were not hurt, but the State doesn't have the funds to fix everything right away. According to the news, it will take several years before it looks the same. I'm sure it's still gorgeous though. I believe the ports are what they are most concerned about. A lot of fishermen lost their boats as well. I'm so glad we were able to enjoy the beauty before the tsunami!

The Grand Journey

Wow, it's been a month! I can't believe it. In fact, the pictures I'm posting today are from February 24th :). We went out on a bit of an adventure because we got bored.

Let me begin by explaining the plane trip. We left Charlotte, NC around 11:00 EST. I held Jefferson on my lap, and Matt held Jewell on his. We then flew to Atlanta for a 3 hour layover. That was definitely a crazy layover. We did meet another little girl that enjoyed playing with Jewell, but they were all over the place.

Once we finally boarded we figured out we'd have to be separated by the aisle this time. Oh well. I sat by some nice ladies that loved Jefferson. This was a 6 hour flight and Jewell was exhausted. She had to sit on Matt's lap. Fortunately, we had some Benedryl. We gave her just a bit and she dosed for about 2 hours. She then ate tons of snacks and watched the DVD player. She only got fussy at the end. Praise the Lord!

After the 6 hour flight we were delayed in Portland. I then realized I hadn't eaten in a very long time and I got pretty sick. I could barely walk actually. We got food, but I was still sick. We finally took off from Portland and we landed in Medford at 10:30 PST. Now, my daughter typically sleeps for 12 hours. She was definitely exhausted! Oh, on a side note. They only offered beer and wine to drink on that flight. Welcome to wine country!

We had a taxi take us to our little motel. I immediately fell on the bed. I was sick and exhausted. Jewell had to sleep on the floor that night on a little bed we made her. I figured she'd sleep late. I was wrong, very wrong. She slept until a whopping 5 AM! We went to bed at midnight which was 3 AM EST. I about died. Oh well.

The next day we got our rental car and picked up some things to borrow from Matt's boss. He let us borrow their pack and play and many toys. It was such a blessing. We had to stay in the motel for 8 days. Jewell ended up sleeping in the bathroom :). Fortunately, once Matt started work that Monday I was able to go to his bosses house and let Jewell play with his little girl. I was only stranded in the motel for a few days.

That brings us to our first adventure :). I will talk more about our living arrangements later. For our first adventure. We headed out to Grants Pass to do some exploring, and then went into Ashland (where Matt actually works). Most of these pictures were taken from in the car so please forgive the quality. Grants Pass is about 30 minutes North of us and Ashland is about 20 minutes South.

Here is a picture of our little motel.

On the way to Grants Pass.

Driving up a mountain in Grants Pass (Matt was so excited).

Exhausted Jewell didn't seem to care for the great views!

Off to Ashland! We were driving around in some of the neighborhoods and we saw these deer crossing the road! I had never been so close to deer before.

Here is a snap shot of Ashland. It's not the best picture...I'll be sure to post better in the future.

That night we put Jewell to bed in the pack and play in the bathroom at 7. She slept past 7! We both fell asleep at 8:30. That was Jefferson's best night. He slept in a drawer :). Don't worry, I kept it open!

I hope you enjoyed reading about our journey and first adventure. Next up? Our trip to the coast (pre-tsunami)