July 2020: Our waterfall staycation

Coen, Audrey and I spent three weeks in Eugene as a staycation. Brent stayed an extra week beyond us. It was really fun to have time in Eugene in July- definitely the best weather!

Coen was excited to play with his toys when we got back! He spent a long time time setting up his little people.

Back in Utah Ava set up an elaborate tea party for stuffed animals.

It was like a high of 80 degrees the whole time we were there, and it felt heavenly! We played lots outside.

Brent and I were both able to give Coen some extra one-on-one attention since Ava stayed in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa. I played little people with Coen and he thought I was hilarious, pretending to be Forky.

We went on sunset walks sometimes. This is in the grasslands in front of our house.

Ava got to hang out with her cousins at the park:

And she played croquet with Grandma and Grandpa:

I researched some hikes to waterfalls around us and we decided to do one a week. We did really good going on all of our hikes! So be prepared for a LOT of hiking pictures. It was so beautiful everywhere.

The first place we decided to go was east of Cottage Grove, called Trestle Creek Falls. It turned out to be a pretty difficult trail because there were really steep places and sharp drop offs to the river down below. There were downed trees that we had to kind of go around in some places. I was nervous so much of the time!

The color of the river was so beautiful- you can see the turquoise water directly behind Coen's hat.

We hiked to a lower waterfall first- I think it's about 65 feet tall which is hard to tell from this picture since it's far behind us.

I am a bonafide Oregonian- I sat right on that log and nursed Audrey during our hike.

Look at this forest! Audrey was good the whole time in the front pack.

Brent decided we should go see the second waterfall, so we we hiked about 4-5 miles this day. 

Once we got to the waterfall, we decided it was not safe for us to continue all the way round the loop because if you slipped on the trail, it was certain death. We decided to turn around and head back to our car the way we had come after each taking a turn to walk behind the waterfall. Coen kept tripping every 10 seconds- of course Brent was holding onto his hand and we kept him on the inside part of the trail. Brent thought the whole thing was super fun but I'm scared of heights so I would give this hike a 1 out of 5 stars. Here's Brent behind the waterfall:

Coen behind the waterfall- you can kind of get a sense of how steep the drop off was behind him. Those girls on the other side of the canyon were making me so nervous. 

An example of how steep the trail got- we climbed up on our hands and knees holding on to roots and rocks in some places.

After our hike we went to get BBQ at Brent's favorite place in cottage grove.

Brent built a super cool fort for Coen in the living room. He's such a fun dad!

During church we built a rameumptom with legos.

Audrey is busy as can be. Her favorite place is to be in the dishwasher. 

We facetimed with Ava quite often (but not every night). Audrey was SO excited to see Ava, it was cute!

Friends in our ward did field-trip Tuesdays so we got to join in. The first Tuesday was a trip to the river, which was on the road toward the coast. It's nice and shallow and slow and the kids could go crawdadding. The kids all caught a lot and Brent caught a huge one, like bigger than his hand! Coen was so happy to see his bestie.

Having fun with all of our friends that we hadn't seen in months:

When we first got there, our friends were telling us that they saw a snake swim up out of the water with a fish in his mouth. See the fish in the picture? The snake ate the fish whole.

I was sitting in my camp chair, which was in the river. All of a sudden I felt something wet and soft and looked down. There was a baby snake on my foot! Ahhhhh I hate snakes! My friend picked it up and held it for all of the kids to see.

Audrey found a new spot to hang out in the bathroom.

On Thursday we left after Coen's preschool and we drove to Silver Falls, east of Salem. I saw Emily's pictures on facebook and decided we should go there. It was soooo pretty and I'm so glad we did! If you look really closely you can see people walking on the trail behind the waterfall in this picture.  This first waterfall is 177 feet. It's the most spectacular so we have a lot of pictures with this one!

It's called the Trail of Ten Falls and we saw 7 of them! My phone said we walked about 7 miles that day. When we first got there Coen refused to walk and was in a bad mood. I told him he could name each chipmunk we saw, starting with A and go through the alphabet. That helped him and luckily he perked up a bit. Brent carried him probably the last 5 miles though. Brent's energy never ceases to amaze me!

Waterfall #2- we were able to walk behind this one as well.

This trail was very well kept and even had stairs in some places. See the switchbacks in this picture? I read that this was one of the projects FDR created in the Great Depression to give men jobs- creating the infrastructure at the park.

Waterfall #3

Waterfall #4

Waterfall #5- this one we looked at from above:

Waterfall #6- another huge one that we were able to walk behind

I will give this hike a 5 out of 5 stars- a must see for people coming to Oregon! 

And waterfall #7- I was completely worn out! Coen got a Happy Meal in Salem on our way home and promptly fell asleep after he ate his chicken nuggets.

The next day we played with our friends at the park. We missed having Ava there but her bestie liked playing with Audrey:

Back in Utah, Ava was having a tea party and sleep over:

She also went to a birthday party for her cousins:

I tried putting Audrey's hair in a pony tail for the first time. Haha.

We met the Wilsons at the Delta Ponds to walk around and chat outside. Here are the two dads with their babies:

Brent and I went to get our temple recommends renewed, in the church! We had masks on and sat far away from our bishopric member- it was a unique experience. We took turns staying outside with the kids while the other was inside. Coen is also a bonafide Oregonian, hugging trees:

Coen really got into Hamilton and kept singing the songs, especially the one that the king sings. "And don't change the subject, cuz you're my favorite subject!" He wanted to dress up as the king too.

We met our friends at the park for a water fight. Coen didn't actually want to get his face wet and carefully threw water at people's feet.

Audrey enjoyed the bubbles:

Cute friends! We have missed seeing our friends due to Covid and then being in Utah.

While I worked Brent went to help someone in our ward move into their house, which is just down the street from us. They needed their lawn mowed but didn't have a mower yet so Brent went back and mowed their lawn in the afternoon when they were gone. He even brought both kids in the stroller and pushed them with one hand and dragged the lawn mover with the other, about 10 or 15 houses down our street! 

Audrey gives the best snuggles and hugs:

Ava was able to go with Boston, Marcie, and Grandma and Grandpa to Josie's baptism! They stayed in St. George and then Ava met up with my parents in St. George and had more vacation there after that! Here are the girls at Pine Valley.

Our last hike was on the 24th of July- we went to Sweet Creek, which is about an hour away from our house toward the coast and then up a river. You hike up the river and there are many small falls all along the hike. Coen took this picture!

The hike was very easy and the trail well kept. The falls weren't as spectacular, so I'll give this 4 out fo 5 stars :)

Audrey was a good girl again- she likes being outside.

There were so many cool places with different falls! 

Ava with her aunt and uncle in St. George- she got lots of attention being the only kid with four adults there!

We went with the Wilsons to a blueberry farm. It was our first time and we asked the lady to give us instructions on picking the berries. They are white when they're not ripe and then they turn to pink and then blue. If you pick them when they're white, they won't ever ripen. And you're supposed to roll the berries off with your thumb to not break the skin and then not pile them too high in the bucket or they'll smash each other. 

This is a great berry for kids to pick! 

Audrey LOVED the berries as we were picking. She kept asking Brent "ma?" We picked about 4 pounds and it was like $2 a pound. 

Our ward went back to church for the first time at the end of July. Brent went to help with the sacrament meeting prep and cleaning afterward. I stayed home with the kids since I didn't feel like Audrey would do well staying on our bench and not putting stuff in her mouth. 

On our last day Brent got out the water table and the kids had so much fun! It was so nice to be able to use our yard more and be there when the weather was so warm. 

Brent and I on my last night in Oregon for a while- We love our sunset walks in the summer! We really enjoyed our time back home and I'm so glad we decided to do a little staycation in the middle of the summer break! Thanks to my parents for letting Ava stay with them for 3 weeks, and also Brent's parents for letting her have a sleepover and taking her to St. George- I'm sure she will always remember this summer!