It's that time of year again, when we get all of Clyde's kids together for a weekend. This year our vacation destination was Sunriver in central Oregon and ALL of the kids and spouses were able to make it...and as an added bonus my folks were able to join us too!
This year we had a new addition to the family...
Meet baby Evelyn. Isn't she precious?
Needless to say, everyone wanted to hold her....mom
Corinna...
Ava...
June...
Poor Evelyn got a little fussy while June had her but June was "shhhh, shhhh, shhhhing" her.
And Corinna was nearby to help out
so Evy was quickly happy once more.
Now onto the activity portion of the vacation:
Ava and I went a little trail ride. It was Ava's very first time on a horse and she handled it like a pro, wasn't a bit nervous. She's on Missouri here, my horse (which I do not have a picture of) was named War Paint....imagine a wild bucking bronco and he was the exact opposite of that.
The littler girls got to go on a pony ride.
We did a bunch of bike riding, even mom got on a bike with us.
Notice the dark sky in this pic, there was a 6,000 acre fire burning nearby! Thankfully it wasn't TOO close to us, but we still saw some ash in the sky and could definitely smell the smoke.
A group selfie by Casse, we're so easily amused.
Another fine group pic.
Part of the goal for riding bikes was to wear out the kids but that totally backfired because there were no bikes with training wheels. So, notice the kids are getting pulled in the buggies, Fi & June behind Jesse and Ava behind Clyde.
Yea, it definitely did not tire the children...Ava looks nice and refreshed after the ride.
Although, there was still some screaming involved, Clyde is dangerous on a bike.
I love this picture of Jesse & Corinna holding hands on the bikes.
Now picture me trying to hold my balance and not crash while holding my camera when we came to a stop right after this. It was a close call.
We even rented canoes for a trip down the river, because it's really not a vacation until a canoe is involved.
Corinna was brave and rented a paddle board.
Here's our little fleet taking off.
Joe and Colm had Ava with them.
Once again, the kids are getting a free ride. I thinking she's telling her dad to paddle FASTER, FASTER.
My dad and I were together in another canoe. This worked out great for me, probably not so much for dad, he did the majority of the paddling and I took pictures. Or I just pretended to take pictures when my arms got tired. I'm clever like that.
Jesse and Casse had June with them. June channeled her inner Pocahontas and was belting out the theme song from the Disney movie. You could hear her singing "JUST AROUND THE RIVER BENNNDDDDD" from FAR away. Of course, we were all getting excited around every river bend "is this where we get out?" , "how about now?"
We even managed an "at sea transfer" of my camera (with only minimal crashing of the canoes) and Jesse took this pic of me and dad.
And finally we made it!
Corinna did awesome on the paddle board but six miles a LONG ways, especially on a paddle board!
Just one more activity to share. Sunriver has this great pool area/water park and it DID actually tire the kids out because there was a ton of stuff to do there. This is the view from the top of the slide before Clyde and I went down.
And guess who I saw when I got to the end of the slide and was taking a turn around the lazy river? Clyde's little cousin, Brandon, was right behind me on a tube. 250 miles from home I literally run into more family, totally unplanned. It's definitely a small world.
So, we got to catch up with more family! What a great surprise, you couldn't have planned it better if you tried.
We end this family vacation, like we do every one, with a group photo of Clyde's signature pose.
It's a whole lot of fun every year but a little bit hard to say goodbye, especially for the little ones. I was telling June that we had to leave to go home and she says "But Gramma Linda and I can stay here, right?"
We'll do it again next year and we even have the destination picked out!
