Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

The first part of our road trip found us in Lava visiting my Dad and stepmom. This might actually be the last visit there. Because they told us after we arrived, they plan on selling their house and then moving to Tucson, AZ.
We were only there for one evening and one full day. We did pizza out, ice cream, ridding and driving the rhino, swimming,

enjoying the horses and just visiting.

It was nice to see them, and enjoy their place possibly one last time.

14 yrs.

Griffin celebrated his 14th birthday. He decided he also wanted to go to Top Golf, so that's what we did. In the evening, he finally decided on Burgerville for dinner, then cake and ice cream at home. He got a long board and shark wheels.
Happy birthday Maximus!

Lavander festival

I decided to take the kids to the lavender festival a few weeks ago. It was small compared to what they had in NM, but cute. Reminded me of our old front yard. I took a bunch of pictures while we were there. A few days later, I heard they were having a photography contest. I decided to enter, and I won!  I got a prize bag with some goodies. Kinda fun. Made me feel like I'd done something cool.

Cape Meares

Frost we took a family hike to see the cape meares lighthouse and surrounding area.  It was stunningly beautiful. We saw the octopus tree first which was pretty neat. Afterwards, we had a picnic lunch before heading over to see the lighthouse.  Although it's a smaller lighthouse, it was still pretty neat to see. We were able to go up inside of the lighthouse. After the lighthouse, we hiked down to the beach. We enjoyed exploring the tidepools.  There were all kinds of neat sea creatures. I could have stayed all day!  We had a really great time hanging at the beach.  The hike back up was hard, but we survived. We stopped in Tillamook for treats on the way home. Such a fun day out!

Making some money

The boys have recently gotten into recycling. Here in Oregon, you get $0.10 for every can or bottle that you redeem. They've been going out bottle collecting usually two times a day, and  filling our garage with all kinds of crap!  I think I have taken them to the recycle center a total of four times so far. They have made a total of about $140 which isn't too bad. It's not a full-time job obviously, but hey it's a little summer fun money. It's amazing how much money you can get just from recycling cans and bottles.