Aunt Kari's Visit To Oregon

When we got home from Missouri, we did not even have a minute to unpack, do laundry and catch our breath. My sister, Karilyn, was visiting from Kentucky and she had a WHOLE list of things she wanted to do while she was here. Unfortunately for her, I wanted to do them too, so Mom strongly suggested they wait to do them until we got home. Soooooooo.....We went to:

1) The Wild Animal GamePark - Bandon, Oregon

We absolutely LOVE this place. If you have never been, it is definitely worth the trip and the price. You get to hold baby wild animals and mingle with deer, llamas, goats, burros, ect. Over the years I have bottle fed tiger cubs, held baby lions and played with baby bear cubs. There is something new all the time.

This time we got to hold opposums...


ferrets...
and a baby lion cub.

You have to watch out for the burros, because sometimes they nip you on the behind when they want you to feed them.

Elisabeth was brave enough to try and feed a peacock. Emily preferred the big horn sheep (however, they butt you once in a while if you are not looking and not feeding them)
Kim found a mommy and baby goat that reminded her of baby Travis and his mommy.
Afterwards we stopped and visited the Umpqua River lighthouse.
It was neat to be able to go up in the top, but they wouldn't let Benjamin climb the stairs. He had to stay down with Grandma and Brayden.

We ended the day at the beach. We didn''t bring swimsuits, so I just made them take their pants off. At least they had dry pants to wear on the way home.

Grandma and Leilani took a walk on the jetty.
The girls played with the big piles of seaweed.


2) Enchanted Forest - Salem, Oregon
The castle is the entrance to the magical forest.
We all had fun on the slides with our cousins.
I got to take Travis on his first slide, because his mom was afraid she would drop him :)




Benjamin had a lot of fun lining up cars and driving them around the gift shop.
We had fun playing tag and hide and seek in the Indian cave - just like when we were kids.

3) Crater Lake National Park

We started the trip with a visit to great-grandpa's grave in Roseburg.
On the way we spent the night in a fun campground in the mountains.
It has a fun little waterfall and lots of beautiful scenery.


3 generations
Somehow my mom's car battery died. Lucky for them I had jumper cables in my car (My dad bet that I wouldn't, because they didn't, but I did) Leilani felt pretty cool steering the car as we pushed it into position next to mine.

This entrance is only accesible to hikers. (My son is not asleep, he is just throwing a fit)

We started out admiring the view.

The kids had fun playing in the snow.


The wild flowers were beautiful


All the kids had to find a walking stick to carry on the hikes.

Since we did not have husbands around, Kari and I had to carry our sons in backpacks ourselves. At least I didn't have to do it pregnant like she did.

These pinnacles are pretty neat. They stick up in the middle of the forest.

4) Wildlife Safari - Winston, Oregon


A shot of us in the car (I did not know I was in the picture!) Obviously we didn't enforce the seatbelt rule, but with the speed limit like 10 mph, we figured we were safe.
The highlight of the day was the camel rides.


Even grandma took a turn! (so did I, but I guess no one took my picture)

We really liked the petting zoo area too.

5) Fishing at Leaburg Dam
Everyone was excited to go out in Grandpa's boat. He had to take several trips out to accomodate everybody.
The kids were excited to catch some fish.


It was a very busy 2 weeks, but it was a very fun time. It was fun to visit with family and be able to do so many things with them. We miss Kari and don't get to see her family very often. The kids learned a lot and played hard. It has almost been a vacation, though, for summer to be over!