Father's Day

If there has ever been a person worth celebrating, it's definitely Mark! He's always been the best dad to our two hooligans. He loves that our kids have gotten married, and added two more hooligans for him to be a dad to. He fills the roll naturally and effortlessly. I remember if I would leave for a weekend when Bailey was little, he could get her dressed and do her hair just as good as I could. All my friends would be amazed. He was the master of school projects, and I'm not sure that he's ever missed any of their events. He has always been 100% invested in all that they are and do. I hope my kids realize how lucky they are. 

We celebrated with his favorite dinner; pigs in a blanket and mac n cheese. He's pretty easy to please! 😂 He loves peanut butter, so Amanda made him a peanut butter poke cake for dessert. We face timed Bailey and Mason when it was present time. Bailey and Mason got him funny socks, and pistachios. Sawyer and Amanda got him two GIANT things of peanut butter. So funny! I got him a monocular, and a couple pairs of running shorts.

Happy Father's Day Mark!

He was a bit excited about this cake!

Noah-Mark-Jonnae-Sawyer-Amanda
Mason & Bailey (on the phone).

Boise Weekend

 I have a big race coming up, and while I was making my training program, I thought it would be fun to go visit Bailey and Mason, and do one of my long runs in Boise. I was just planning on part of the Bogus 50/50 course in the foothills, but Bailey and Mason found me and awesome trail up in the mountains. Good thing too, because it was a scorcher that day, and the foothills would have been hot and miserable. We did the Stack Rock and Mr. Big loops linked together. I loved these trails! Bailey had a 15 miler that day, so she ran the first loop with me. It was fun to have company. Mason rode his mountain bike while we ran.Once we were finished with the 15 miles, they went home and got things ready for us to float the river, and I finished my 27 miler. It's always fun to run in a new place.

Stack Rock Trail

We started early and caught the sun coming up.

Stack Rock!

Aren't they the cutest?!?

I wish we could run together all the time.

Lots of pretty flowers!

This is where Bailey finished, and I headed back out for lots more miles.

I loved this flower. I have no idea what it was, but so unique and pretty.

When I was done running, we headed out to float the Boise River. It was so fun! We started at Barbara Park and got out right at Bailey and Mason's apartment, about 4.5 miles later. The river was filled with people floating. I'm not even kidding; just a constant stream of groups going down in front of us and behind us. We had some hilarious moments when we got too close to the shore and ran into the tree branches hanging over the river. I'm amazed that the swan didn't pop, or Bailey didn't poke and eye out. So funny!

When I got back from running, I walked into the apartment with Bailey sitting like this. 😂

We somehow managed to get the three tubes into my car, but then realized we needed to fit Mason back there too. Hahaha, don't worry, we got it. 😆

The swan and the beaver were champs, even going over the little waterfalls.

Mason's birthday was in May, but we weren't together since before that. So that night I took them to a belated birthday dinner. Mason picked Big Jud's, and we enjoyed lots of food.

Now that's a burger!

Every time I go to Boise, it's a quick whirlwind trip, but always so fun! I'm glad we only live 4 hours apart, but I can't wait until they are done with school, and hopefully move back closer to us. Thanks for letting me crash on your couch for two nights guys!

Chukars Game

We got last minute tickets to a Chukars game through Mark's work. Walsh has awesome seats right behind home plate. It was a good game. The Chukars were losing most of the game, and came back to score 3 runs and win it in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was quite exciting! 

Amanda-Sawyer-Mark-Tricia

We didn't dress all in the same color on purpose.

Go Chukars!

Oregon Coast

 For Mother's Day and our anniversary, Mark got me a trip to the Oregon Coast! We had so much fun! We went years ago with the kids and drove the whole coastline from Astoria into the Redwoods in California. Since we had already done most of the touristy stuff on that trip, we wanted to explore the trails this time.

Our plane left on Friday and flew into Portland. By the time we drove to Seaside, it was time for lunch, so our first stop was to get fish and chips! Seaside was overcast, windy, and rainy, so we were a little worried. We changed our clothes in a beach bathroom, and headed out on our first adventure.

Oregon bound!

Fish n chips!

Seaside Promenade.

Lewis and Clark statue to signify the end of their route.

Ecola State Park:

This was my favorite place! The trails were magical, the views were stunning, and the beaches were dreamy. If you only have a short time to spend on the coast, go here! I already want to go back! We covered a little over 10 miles, and did most of the trails in the park. We linked the Indian Beach Trail, Clatsop Loop, and Crescent Beach trails together for a perfect day! It was so windy in the parking lot when we started that we worried it was going to be miserable. Once we got in the trees, the wind and rain didn't touch us. It was awesome! We had a few windy spots when we would come to viewpoints of the coast along the trail, but as soon as we got back in the trees, it was perfect. 

This is a map of the trails we did. A lot of movies were filmed along here, so it was fun to read the signs along the way.

When I saw that this was the start of the trail, I knew I was going to LOVE running on the Oregon Coast! Heading to Indian Beach.

I kept telling mark that I felt like I was in Jurassic Park and I was waiting for the dinosaurs to come out and get us. Everything was so green and lush, and the plants were huge!

This was our first view of the coastline on this run. I love the eerie look of it when it's foggy.

Can you tell by my face how happy I was to be there? 😁

The coolest trail!

All the plants were giant! Get a load of the size of these leaves! The ferns were huge and amazing as well!

Made it down to Indian Beach!

Looking back at Indian Beach. This is where Jacob and Bella walked to their driftwood spot in Twilight.

It was too foggy at first to see Terrible Tilly off the coast, but on the way back it cleared up nicely.

Terrible Tilly Lighthouse.

A viewpoint on the way back.

I was loving every step!

Isn't he the cutest!

I love when the sea looks stormy like this.

Our view of Crescent Beach, our next destination.

This is how I felt about this beach!

We took our shoes off and just walked around the beach for awhile.

Crescent Beach

Gah, so pretty! We were the only ones there!

The prefect spot to end our first day!

Hug Point to Arcadia Beach:

On Saturday morning we started at Hug Point. We went here with the kids when the tide was up, and we had to run through the water just to be able to see Hug point. This time we wanted to make sure the tide was out so we could actually go around it. We went for 5 miles and went from Hug Point all the way to Arcadia Beach, exploring all the caves and tide pools. 

The waterfall just before hug Point.

Exploring caves on the beach.

Hug Point from the south side. You can see the 'road' carved into the side of the mountain. The wagons used to have to wait for low tide, and then take their wagons over the treacherous road to get around this point. 

More fun caves.

Hug Point was covered with sea anemones. 

Running toward Arcadia Beach. Every time i stepped outside, my hair grew three times it's normal size. 😂 

So many sand dollars along the beach.

We explored lots of tide pools. We were there at the perfect time.

Cute little starfish everywhere!

These ones must have been friends. 😁

Shadow people!

Love running on the beach!

So peaceful.

Looking back toward Hug Point from the north side.

Mark on the Hug Point road.

Haystack Rock:

Next we took a couple mile walk to and around haystack Rock. 

Haystack Rock at low tide.

Selfie! The water came up while we were taking this, so our feet got a bit wet. 😆

Before we left Cannon Beach, we had brunch at the cutest little cafe called The Lazy Susan. So good! We also found a great candy store and bought way too much salt water taffy. They had the best flavors!

The whip cream on this was sooo good!

Mmmmm!

Oswald State Park:

Cape Falcon/Short Sands Beach

We combined Cape Falcon and Short Sands Beach for an awesome 5.7 mile hike. The end of Cape Falcon was amazing. I'm glad we had a clear day for this one. We hung out on Short Sands Beach for awhile too. Such a fun place! So many people and dogs spending the day there. Lots of surfers too.

Another lush, beautiful trail.

Ferns everywhere!

A peak at the coast. The little cove is where Short Sands Beach is.

Some of the trail was a bit overgrown. 😀

Another viewpoint.

You can't really tell from the picture, but we were up pretty high right here, and we got way higher at the end of the cape.

Pretty clouds.

Cape Falcon.

We were up so high!

I love Mark's braced stance. He was a little bit freaked out. It doesn't look scary, but we were right on the edge of a very tall cliff.

Cheese!

Short Sands Beach in the coolest little cove!

Elk Flats/Devil's Cauldron

Next we took a 3.3 mile hike called Elk Flats and Devil's Cauldron. Great views!

We took a little detour on the Elk Flats Trail to a viewpoint that wasn't listed on the map, and it was my favorite spot.

Our unplanned viewpoint.

I'm not sure what these flowers are, but love them.

Devil's Cauldron. It might not look like much from the picture, but to hear the force of the water crash into the cliffs makes you realize how powerful it is.

Tree tunnel.

Back to the hotel to rest up for our last day!

Sunday was our last full day, and we planned some fun stuff. It rained all night, and all day! 

Old Growth Cedar Preserve

This was a short one mile hike to see some of the old growth cedar trees. It took us to one of the oldest cedar trees along the coast.

By 8:00 in the morning, we already looked like drowned rats.

Huge plants again.

This trail was super cool.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but this tree was huge!

Couldn't get a picture all the way to the top of it.

This path was fun, but we hit some pretty good mud and puddles. It's nothing compared to what awaited us though. 😂

Next we walked down the longest pier on the Oregon coast. 700 feet long. We saw a bunch of people out clamming too.

The longest pier.

We skipped The Tillamook Cheese Factory and went to the Blue Heron Cheese & Wine instead. They had miniature donkeys we could feed. I stood out in the rain and fed them for awhile. So cute!

The main plan for Sunday was to do the three Capes Scenic Drive. We started with Cape Meares, but took a detour to find Lost Boy Beach and Cave. It didn't take us long to find Short Beach which was the best access point to the cave. We found the cave, but even with a fairly low tide, we couldn't get in. The tide has to be -1.5 or lower to go in, and we didn't have one that low while we were there.

Short Beach

Lost Boy Cave

It was raining and the seas were pretty rough. We had to climb a lot of slippery rocks to get to the cave.

We took a couple of pictures of us by the cave and then high tailed it out of there. The waves crashing against the rocks behind us freaked us out.

We were pretty much soaking wet all day. But it was a nice drizzly rain; the good kind.

A fun little waterfall on Short Beach.

The beach looked eerie in the storm.

Cape Meares

We saw the Cape Meares Light House, which is the shortest one on the coast. Then we hiked out to the Octopus Tree, and Oregon's largest Sitka Spruce.

Cape Meares Lighthouse.

The fog was getting thicker and thicker. That outcropping of rocks in the picture is where we were earlier at Short Beach and the cave. this is the view from Cape Meares.

Octopus Tree

Again, the picture doesn't do this tree justice! It was a beast!

Tree selfie!

Cape Lookout

The trail out to Cape Lookout had been closed due to a big storm and mudslides. We realized the part that we wanted to do was opened back up, so we decided to run out to the end of the cape and take a look. It was only 5 miles, so we figured if we ran, we could bust it out pretty fast. This whole experience was hilarious! It could possibly be my favorite part of the whole trip. I'll tell the story in my pictures.

This is what the start of the trail looked like. Beautiful and easy running. As we were going down, I called out to Mark, "If the trail is like this the whole way, we're gonna bust this out fast." Hahaha, famous last words! The trail did not, in fact, stay like this.

The trail ended up being covered in giant roots.

There were big puddles the whole way....did I mention that our fun drizzle turned to outright rain?

Ankle deep puddles.

Soul sucking mud!

The ocean was right there. Do you see it? We didn't either.

This was our beautiful ocean view at the end of the cape. So funny! This is probably my favorite picture of the whole trip. 😂

That quick jaunt ended up taking us two hours, and we were huge, wet, muddy messes at the end. I loved it!

On the way back up to our hotel, we stopped at Munson Creek Falls. It's the highest waterfall along the coast. 

The short hike out to the falls was crazy! Moss covered trees like this everywhere.

We didn't get a very good picture of the falls, but they were stunning. We both rounded the corner and saw it and went, "Whoa!"

The rain stopped just long enough that night for Mark to run out to the beach from our room and take a picture of the sunset. I'm glad the ocean and sky put on a show for us on our last night there.

Monday morning we caught our flight back to Idaho Falls.

These sweet girls were beyond excited to have us home.

Such a fun, jam packed trip! I can't wait until our next one. I already have something in the works.