We left Sun River Sunday morning to begin our road trip down to San Diego.  We gave ourselves 3 days to go 15 hours with the idea we could drive 5 hours a day and fit in an adventure as well. 

Which is how we found ourselves on a boat headed to a bus, headed to the Shasta Caverns.

Piper has taken it to heart that Mama is rarely in photos, so she’s taken upon herself to be 2nd in Command Family Photographer!

Shasta is a beautiful, beautiful area.  My  first loyalty is to my Western Washington, but almost 2 weeks of driving around California makes my allegiance waver a bit.

My phone camera can’t keep up with dark caves, but we had fun exploring in our group.

Luckily, the bear wanted to be photographed in regular light. 

 

I really like the HDM, and drag the fam there each time we are in Sun River. 

[Just play along with Mama, kids.  She likes this place.]

As always, we spent time in the living history farmstead, where Wesley and I worked on perfecting our circle tossing…

…and Kyla washed and hung someone’s unmentionables…

…while Piper took pictures of .

I had to add my own picture of .

Tee hee!

The best part was having cousins Parker and Cecily there, too!

We dragged my parents down to Bend for a bit of sight-seeing and play, though until I spied these bikes, I didn’t know what form that would take. 

Why am I so charmed by these 1-speed bike limos?  It’s probably because I was enchanted preemptively by Old Mill area, with all it’s parks and the Deschutes running through it.  We chugged our way over bridges and through tunnels and over Wesley’s whining.  And Mom/Grandma sprang for ice cream afterward.

Does Wesley look like a boy who’d whine?  Yes. Yes, he does.   

Uh, oh.  The kids are quiet and out of sight. Up to something?

Yep!  They are all going to become “famous for being dirty”!  I love it. 

Julie really captured the mischief in the top photo.

What did everyone else think of their success?

We love lazing around with BFFs!

These kids are STRONG….

COURAGEOUS…

and cute.

I’m in love with them all.

Strong!

Courageous!

And Cute.

And mostly delighted to be kids at the cabin. I love these guys!

We had to drop the car off for about 5 hours for new tires and brakes before the Big Road Trip, so we played around our ‘hood a bit (and bought all our school supplies).  Bassett Hounds are “our” thing here…which pleases Piper!

Dwayne’s group hasn’t done a family picnic in years, but my kids still remember the free cotton candy.  So let’s just say they were eager to go to this year’s event.

They started with games…

…went on to face painting…

…and then rock climbing….

…before winning watermelon-eating contests (while losing our face paint).

There’s lots of benefits to Dwayne’s job!

Piper not only considers herself an artist, but actually practices her craft in whatever medium comes before here.

Which made me think of our time in Tacoma,  when she used spit, charcoal, and a quill to create a drift wood painting and temporary tattoos.

And when she found a few markers on a long car trip, not far from a Wesley as bored as she was, well, it’s become A Thing they do now in the car.

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