A July to Remember

river trip  - Michelle and boys Grand Ronde 

 Maren:  We are officially in the swing of summer and are in full adventure mode.  We finished with all of the wedding fun, had a short week to prep and then headed out on our big family raft trip.  We launched on July 4th on the Grande Ronde.  Daddy was so excited to leave for the trip and had us all loaded and ready to go really early so we headed out on the 2nd late in the day.  That gave us the opportunity to take a different and more scenic route on the way over so we got to see some really beautiful country... places that daddy has told us stories about from hunting trips that he has taken.  We got to the launch site before everyone else but it wasn't long before the rest of the group showed up.  We had the Oppelts, The Guinns, Ashley and Scott (Miss Andrea's sister and her hubby) and Michael and Rachelle.  We got rained on in camp the fist night but then had pretty great weather after that.  Because it was so nice, many of the nights we slept in our cots underneath the stars... we really enjoyed falling asleep looking at the millions of stars above us.  Unfortunately, there was a fire that burned through that area after our trip last year so there were a lot of dead trees but it still was really beautiful.  We had great campsites this year with plenty of room for everyone and ended up staying a layover day at the first, and two layover days at the second!  That gave us the opportunity to have a couple of nice (but challenging) hikes, and a lot of free time to play.  

Shortly after we returned home from our trip we loaded up the car again and headed south for a family reunion.  On the way down to Almanor we stopped at Burney Falls State Park and had a really nice hike.  While we were down at the waterfall there was a couple that was getting married!  The reunion was really fun even though it was small this year.  We got to celebrate Aunt Sue's birthday and I helped Nonna make the cupcakes!   Mommy, Maddox and I slept under the stars and one morning we woke up to find that a bear had helped himself to the leftovers in the garbage.  There was garbage all over the lawn and just a few feet away from us.  We were so exhausted, and mommy had the sound machine on, so we didn't even hear it!  Imagine our surprise when we woke up to see the mess!  

Maddox: As you can see the beginning of our month was full of fun adventures and we finished it off with even more.  Right after the reunion Pica came up and met us and took us home with him for a week.  We had a great week and did lots of fun stuff.  Our cousin Fletcher came over a bunch and we really had a great time with him.  Pica took us all to a special place that he calls the Pot Holes up on little river where he often goes camping.  Its a really amazing place with lots of little swimming holes and we had a great time playing all day.  While we were down there we went on lots of bike rides around the golf course, we visited a children's museum, and had lots of slumber parties.  We really enjoyed our stay but missed mommy and daddy a ton.  

To wrap up the month we took Aunt Michelle, Micah, and James on a day trip on the Rogue before they headed home for the summer.  Uncle Frankie wasn't able to join us but we had a great day anyway!  The boys loved the kayaks and we showed them how to surf behind rocks and did lots of rock jumping.  We were sad to say goodbye to the boys but it was a fun way to finish our summer fun with them.