Sunriver

For this year's England family reunion, Aaron and DeAndra booked a couple of houses in Sunriver, OR. To breakup the 7-hour drive, we stopped to visit Emily's aunt and uncle in Boring. The girls were intimidated by the dogs at first, but once things calmed down a bit, the girls and the dogs really enjoyed each other. 

They especially enjoyed all the toys up in the play room, and would come down the stairs to show us every single toy they discovered.

After a couple of hours, we were back on the road again. It wasn't too bad of a drive, and was rather uneventful. 

After a quick stop at Costco in Bend, we arrived in Sunriver in the late afternoon. The house we were staying at had more of a cabin feel, especially since it was completely surrounded by forest. I think Sunriver is pretty cool in that way. The girls really enjoyed exploring the house until we headed over to the other house for dinner.

It didn't take long for others to arrive, and the chaos could officially begin.

The first night was bruuuuutal. Harlow actually slept decent, it was Hadley and Cambri that woke up in the middle of the night and decided they didn't want to sleep. Emily and I kind of took turns, and eventually after what felt like 9 hours, the girls finally fell back asleep. Emily told me it was probably more likely in the 1.5 to 2 hour range. Still, not how we wanted the first night to go. 

Then they woke up at the same time they always do, and acted as though they got the best sleep ever. They couldn't wait to explore outside and sell pine cones to each other.

We headed down to La Pine for church, and we took up nearly a third of the overflow. This also gave Harlow plenty of space to stretch her legs.

There were a couple of candy jars as we walked in, so all the kids made sure to grab a sucker. All the adults grabbed some chocolate. Need more of that.

Gpa Dale wanted to get a picture with all the grandkids, so we headed out to the parking lot to try and get everyone on the same page. As is tradition, 100% cooperation was challenging.

Good enough.

It was Father's Day, afterall, and that meant I got to bust out my Harlow jersey. The girls also gave me a printout of baseball gloves with their handprints over them. I consider myself extremely blessed to be the father of some pretty great little girls.

The rest of the day was pretty chill. 

We took on dinner and made some BLTs. The girls also discovered the hot tub, so we let them hangout in there for a little bit. 

* * *

On Monday morning, Gma and Gpa were talking about heading down to Crater Lake, but since the forecast didn't look too promising, they decided to wait until Wednesday. We decided we would hit up Crater Lake on a different trip, so we planned on going to the High Desert Museum up towards Bend.

There were a bunch of wildlife statues all over the place, and the girls really loved them.

They also thoroughly enjoyed the real animals that we saw throughout the museum.

We walked through some exhibits that showed what life was like in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The fake mine we walked through scared them a little, but they really enjoyed the teepees and fish.

They also really enjoyed looking at the turtles, snakes, and lizards

After walking through the exhibits inside, we took to walking around the grounds to see some other stuff. Cambri found the covered wagon to be pretty cool. She said it smelled better than the ones Emily does at home.

Harlow was pretty much just enjoying the ride. We went and saw some otters, and they had this area where you could see them swim in the water, and the girls got a pretty good kick out of that.

We also walked around a little homestead, which was also pretty cool to see, but didn't have much else going on.

We then headed over to the birds of prey exhibit, where we got to see some owls and eagles. It was also where we ran into Gma, Gpa, and Lindsea's family.

Afterwards, we made our way up to Bend to do a little shopping and grab some lunch. We arrived at the Chick-Fil-A just as Rissa and her family were leaving. As we were getting ready to leave, Aaron and Whitni's families showed up. After them it was Gma, Gpa, and Lindsea. So we had this train going, and none of it was planned.

In the afternoon, we hit up a park in Sunriver, where Cambri and Harlow spent most of the time on the swings.

At the house, the girls went straight for the hot tub. It didn't show up in the picture, but Hadley had steam coming off her as she got out.

Gma definitely got her time in with the little grandkids.

The cousins really got into whatever it was Brandon was playing/watching.

Tuesday morning, while Aaron, Stewart, Rock, and I went golfing, Emily met up with her cousin Laurel at the Sunriver Brewery for lunch. The girls had a blast playing with her kids. 

In the afternoon we went over the SHARC, which is the waterpark in Sunriver, but since the girls are too small, we just swam around. Even though the pool was heated, it felt very cold. The girls eventually decided they were done when they started shivering. 

* * *

On Wednesday morning we headed back up to Bend because we wanted to visit a park that Aunt J had told us she thought the girls would like. It was a pirate ship, but based on how she described it, we were expecting something much bigger, and in my head I was picturing it to be wooden.

Either way, Hadley had a blast on it, and spent a lot of her time jumping off the plank, probably because it was spring-loaded.

Cambri, obviously, spent 90% of her time on the swing.

Even Harlow got in on the slide action.

There was another park that Emily saw that she wanted to go check out. This one included a little splash pad that Harlow was all about. There were also a playground, and again, Cambri took to the swings.

The water was cold, but she didn't seemed fazed as she trekked through it.

Afterwards we stopped by a place where Emily could get some ramen, something she has been wanting for months now, and hasn't been able to get.

The girls practiced their chopstick skills, but found they weren't very effective with fried rice.

We then headed back to the house, relaxed for a little bit, then went over to the SHARC for about an hour or so. It was definitely the type of day that would wear these girls out pretty well.

After dinner, we attempted to get a group photo.

We finished off the day with some ice cream in the village.

Harlow got a taste of the sorbet and Emily couldn't shovel it in her mouth fast enough.

Cambri got strawberry because it was pink.

Hadley went with Oreo, because that is her favorite cookie.

The next morning, we drove back home. It was a great trip, and the girls had a blast. Hadley was disappointed that she didn't get to play in the hot tub one last time, and told us we needed to buy one.

It's always fun to be with family, and fun watching the girls interact with their cousins.