We recently drove to Oregon to visit my father. He is doing much better than I expected after the death of my mother in May. We took Laura and her 3 girls on this trip, and managed to do a little sight seeing.






We went to Crater Lake one afternoon. Russ and I were there in March and the snow was piled so high that we couldn't even see the lake.

This time we had a wonderful view and it was beautiful. The water was such a deep blue.

Everytime we looked around, Laura was pointing her camera at someone. Her girls love having their pictures taken and are very dramatic about posing.

We were surprised that there was still so much snow. We stopped to have a little snow ball fight.

We stopped at a fish hatchery and let the girls feed the fish. Kinsie was calling "Here fishy fishy". I said "Kinsie the fish can't hear you because they're under water." So then she said in a very loud voice "HERE FISHY FISHY" Everyone around us cracked up.

On the trip home we went to the Shasta caverns. You have to take a boat across the lake, then take a 15 minute bus ride on the side of the mountain....scary!!! Then you walk up and down over 600 steps. The caverns were beautiful inside.

Back at the ticket booth/store they had a playground and Laura still had enough energy to climb the rock wall (it was only about 6 feet tall).

On the drive up, Kourney made a list of things she wanted to do on the trip:

1. See a lily pad

2. See a forest with only a few trees

3. See a deer

etc.

We managed to do most of the things on her list. ALL 3 girls said they wanted to see a bear. As we were driving through the forest they kept watching out the window, especially Kinsie.

We found this stuffed bear at the visitor center at Shasta and Kinsie would not go within 10 feet of it.

We stopped in Sacramento for the night, then went to Old Town the next morning. The girls really loved the train museum.

It was a wonderful trip, but a very long drive.