Co-workers (pic is missing some other great co-workers)
Nancy and I (she is truly an amazing woman!)
Jennifer, Liane, and I (going away party for Jennifer)
Travel Nurses!
I am saying all this now because I had an awesome time camping at Detroit Lake last week with co-workers and their family. No, Detroit Lake is not in Detroit! It is about 3.5-4 hrs southeast of Seaside. It is gorgeous down there! The weather was perfect. Hot during the day so the water felt great and warm enough at night to not get cold. In Seaside, we have not had too many sunny days and only one really warm day, but it hasn't bothered me too much just because I have been able to go East of the coast and enjoy the nicer weather. Most of the time, literally all you have to do is drive 15 minutes east and you are in the sun! It is so weird! The clouds and colder weather just get bogged in right on the water.
I ended up getting to go to the lake a day early, not for good reasons though. I had some problems with my company last week and lets just say I got a longer stretch of days off than I was supposed to. But no worries, things are worked out now and good to go after some big frustrations. Life is so annoying sometimes in things that could be so easy, but are made so complicated. But that is part of living life I guess, learning to deal with frustrations that come up and moving on.
The first day at the lake we found our campsite and set up camp. Myself and two others went a day early before the rest of the family arrived so we could get set up. It felt so good down there. Got in the lake then had dinner and hung out at the campfire. The next day I woke up early and went on a hike by myself. Even though the temperature was great for hiking, I was still sweating it up, of course! At the top of the hike, I was a little confused because I didn't get to anything momentous. You know, a lake, incredible view, something like that. I ran into someone at the top and asked him if there was something down the other trail and he said it just went to the other trailhead you can park at. Disappointed, I headed down the trail. Then I decided to take a little side trail that led up to this rock. And this is where I discovered the great views are! It was nice. I could see Detroit Lake, Mt Jefferson, and all the other little mountains. Took some pics then headed back down to meet the rest of the family back at camp.
Can you spot Mt. Jefferson?
Right away I discovered how different it is not only camping with other people and other people that you have never camped with, but also camping with little kids. Its an experience for sure! You definitely have to learn not to try and keep them decently clean, this task is next to impossible! My new motto is with kids and camping: the dirtier, the better! The family I was camping with consisted of the mom and dad, son (20), nephew (18), foster daughter (11), and the two adopted babies (2 and 3). The babies are so cute, keep you busy, but fun. They brought their kayaks and boat so we did a lot of kayaking, tubing, and wake-boarding; along with keeping the babies happy and safe! I am so excited every opportunity I have to go wakeboarding because ever since I first tried it last summer it is high on my things that I enjoy doing list. I have only been three times though, it's hard having to have a boat to do it! haha. Didn't get to go too much at Detroit Lake, but I am glad I at least got to do it a little. And the waves were really bad, so it was hard to try to do anything except stay up! Fun times. And kayaking was really fun. I was able to take Izzy, the older baby, out on the kayak with me. She really enjoyed that. It was so fun to get to be around and play with little kids, I miss that!
I took Nick and Brittney, the nephew and 11 yr old, on about a six mile hike one day. It was a great hike. I had to encourage Brittney to keep going. Her legs were hurting her or something. My great life lesson I use when doing things like this is that once you start something you cannot give up, you finish it! And she did! She did great. We made it to the top with some awesome views. It made me so mad. For some reason we passed some people that were coming down and I guess they said something to us like we weren't going to make it to the top. I was so mad. Why would you say that to someone? I don't understand why some people have to be so rude sometimes. So of course, there was no way I was going to not get Nick and Brittney to the top!
Gabby
Izzy (I am not sure what happened to get this face!)
At one point when driving around the lake we found a bridge with some rope swings next to it. It was great. I always enjoy me some good rope swinging! Then a boat drove by and was telling us how deep it was under the bridge. It was deep enough, so of course, I decided to jump off the bridge! So fun! I would say about 50 feet high, definitely not as high as I have done before. Cody is afraid of heights and I got him to jump off the rope swing! I was excited because he really enjoyed it.
Cody doing a flip
Playing patticake!
Nick and Philip. Nick is doing the cooking!
When we got back from hiking we get to camp to find out the dad had attempted to wakeboard and hurt himself on the first attempt. They took him to the hospital that night and he had a really bad torn hamstring. He could barely walk. He is doing better now but can't return to work yet, he works at the hospital. All in all a great trip with great people!
Can't believe I got one with them both smiling, amazing!
Izzy and I kayaking!
Nick and Brittney on top of hike
Detroit Lake with island
For my birthday, I was afraid I was going to have to spend it alone at first. But then Andrew came up for a few days. It was great, we had a lot of fun. I suffered from major sleep deprivation because I worked a night, drove to Portland in the morning to pick him up, hung out in Portland a little, then drove back and worked that night. It was crazy! I still am not quite sure how I survived that and was still somewhat functioning and decently nice to those around me, but I did! Thank you God! The night he was in town and I was working he visited me at work, surprised me with my glasses he had fixed for me, some chips, and he baked me a birthday cake! It was great! Actually the first home-made cake I have had in a while.
After catching a bit of sleep we made some breakfast, yummy fresh home-grown eggs, then went boogie boarding, played frisbee, and hung out on the beach. We went to my favorite beach, Crescent Beach, where we were the only ones on the whole beach most the time. It was fantastic! The water was crazy cold, but we had on our wetsuits. Its crazy how weird the waves are here. They are hard to boogie board on, I can't imagine surfing on them. It's hard to explain how the waves are, they are just different! And the pull of the current is really strong, you have to keep watch that you aren't about to go into the rocks!
The next day, my birthday, we decided to bike around town. He ended up taking me to play mini golf, where I kicked his butt! Then I ended up taking him up this long climb on the bikes! He was riding my road bike. I think I got him liking road bikes also. They are very addicting once you try them out! We made some hummus and spaghetti squash for lunch, yummy! To wear ourselves out even more, we rode our bikes and played some tennis, where I kicked his butt again! After relaxing a bit, like 10 min, haha, we got ready for dinner. We went to this great place, the Baked Alaska, in Astoria for my birthday. I got Halibut and he got Tuna, which I tried. I liked them both, crazy! Neither tasted fishy at all. He told me after dinner that his tuna was raw, YUCK!!! Then 1/2 Baked Alaska for dessert, yummy! It was a great birthday, I enjoyed just kind of chillin and not going all out camping or hiking, which is what I thought I would do. Thursday morning we had to get up at 2:30 to drive to Portland so he could hopefully catch a 5:30 flight. So of course, more sleep deprivation! But no worries, I don't know if I caught up on lost sleep, but I have slept and feeling good! The sun was out the past few days, amazingly, so I took advantage by taking a long bike ride and hanging out on the beach. It was great!
My new sleeping bag, super excited! Thanks dad!
Enjoying the sunset
Thank you God for such a great birthday and for all my amazing family and friends! Mom, I love you and miss you so much! Thank you for birthing me, for all you give me, and loving me!
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