We were blessed this summer to take a three-week summer vacation. Because of the length and the number of places we were wanting to go we needed to cut costs. We decided to drive and camp the entire three weeks! As we search online for campsites it appeared that several campsites were full, but we decided to just go and see what we could find when we got there.
We left early July second with our first stop being in Colorado. We slept in our Fort Collins home and because our Fort Collins home had gone under contract a couple weeks prior we kinda enjoyed talking together about the years we lived there, knowing that chapter of our lives would be officially in the past.
Tuesday morning we woke up and drove to Provo Utah so Tyler could take a tour of BYU. He is trying to decide which college to attend so an important part of this trip was to show him different colleges he is considering. This drive was a little stressful as we had a time limit and needed to be to BYU at a specific time. We actually made it to BYU with exactly 15 minutes before the tour and felt humbled by how smoothly it went. Tyler enjoyed the tour of BYU and of course was excited to see the food court! After the tour, it was off to our first campground: Deer Creek State Park in Heber City
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| Tour in our own golf cart. No other school did this!! |
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| Art Museum at BYU |
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| The first of many times putting up a tent! |
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| The boys were super excited to Fish. They have been fishing a lot this summer in Omaha with a lot of success, but not so much at Deer Creek. It was still fun and relaxing to sit by the lake. |
We'd love to go back to Deer Creek when we have more time and take advantage of the beauty!!
The morning of the 4th of July we went to visit Monty's Uncle and Aunty who live just out of Heber city. Their youngest son just returned from his mission in Fiji and it was pretty fun listening to his experiences from his mission. He was a good missionary and like many missionaries is kinda sad to be home. After visiting with him we were off to Carson City to see James and Cindy and the cousins.
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The salt flats are quite a sight. If you didn't know it was super HOT outside, you'd think it was snow!
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It was fun to see James and Cindy and their three kids. Cindy is actually pregnant with their fourth baby right now. Kind of a surprise baby, but they are excited. Nana and Lu also drove up and we were able to see them. Saturday morning Monty, James, Nana, Tyler, and Kyle drove to see Danny. There is a limit of 5 people on any given visit. Tyler and Kyle enjoyed meeting him as the last time they saw him was when they were both young boys.
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| Kids playing with Cousins at Washoe Lake. |
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| Cousins love to play |
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| Fun on the Canoe. As far as I am concerned these boys are masters on canoes. Tyler and Kyle were so kind to take all the younger kids out on a trip. Good thing they were trying to stay strong while on the trip for Football. Canoeing a workout. |
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| Kyle trying to fish again, but the water was so brown there is no way he was going to catch a fish. He tried his best though. |
The next morning we went to Virginia City which is a pretty cute little mining town. The kids enjoyed walking through shops and we all enjoyed an ice cream. A fun afternoon.
Tyler--not sure how he grew up so fast!! If you notice Makai in the background. We had just gotten to Virginia city and he said he was not feeling good. It finally hit me that he was car sick! After just a few minutes he felt better. It was a little scary. On a road trip we always worry about the stomach bug joining our trip, but thankfully, this was just a small case of car sickness!!
After meeting with Danny we parted ways and we drove to the coast of California. Our next campsite: China camp. We were so lucky to get a campsite in China Camp and stayed here for three nights. The first night the campsite was full, but Monty asked the camp host and he let us stay in the group site since no one was there. The following day we had to move the tent to the regular spots, but we felt blessed to have a place to sleep. There were killer Raccoons at this site and many deer. While we set up the tent we enjoyed seeing deer and while we slept we were thankful to not be eaten by the Racoons!
Sunday we went and enjoyed a nice relaxing time at McNear Beach park. It was so beautiful. The boys watched people fish off the pier and we even saw two people catch stingrays!
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| Relaxing, and eating lunch. The sun felt so good. |
We got to Salt Point a little late. It was dark and cold and everyone was hungry. Can you see the joy in Kory's face??
Although we couldn't find a store, we ate what we had. Bagels, hot chocolate, oatmeal, peanut butter. Ironically, this was the boys' favorite meal! They were so hungry and this hit the spot. Everyone fell alseep quite easily that night.
This was by far the coldest night.
The morning was beautiful.
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| I had to take a picture after taking down the tent. Gorgeous |
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| I helped take the tent down. The night before I DID NOT help set the tent up! The wind was so cold I was so thankful to have all my strong men taking care of me. |
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| Makai is often in his own world! Most of the time he can be found having an adventure, especially if there is work to be done. |
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| A stop along the coast to give everyone a break as a couple people were sick to their stomachs. |
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| He is an absolute goofball!! He loves to strike this pose. |
We quickly learned that Northern California doesn't have stores like other parts of California, at least not on the coast! We were out of food that morning because there was nowhere to stop the night before. As we drove into Fort Bragg Makai screamed, "Taco Bell, we are saved!" If you know our boys, you know they love Taco Bell. We stopped and enjoyed a fun breakfast.
Although we love the ocean and couldn't get enough of the California Coast we DID get enough of Highway ONE!! Poor Trey was so sick to his stomach. He screamed out in tears, "Is there no other way!" Thankfully, Dad had done some research and knew Standish-Hickey State Recreation area had a fun treat in store. It was HOT and this little watering hole was a little piece of Heaven! For a few hours we all just splash around and rode the small waterfall. I really felt this spot was made just for us. So refreshing and a perfect place to recharge.
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| Makai loved swimming to this rock, and then letting go an letting the water take him. |
All good things must come to an end. Getting back in the car was hard, but thankfully, after this stop, the roads were a lot less extreme.
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| Entering Redwood country. Doesn't look too impressive. |
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| From a different Angle! WOW!! |
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| The boys in a tree! |
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| Boys on a tree!! |
Our Favorite campside we found this night. Emeral Forest!
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| This campsite was not a state park, but a privately owned campsite that sat among redwoods. The place for the tent was cushioned with redwood chips and the softest, and flattest ground we slept on. |
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| Yes, the boys thought they had died and went to heaven as this site had electricity!! Laundry has never been so fun. While we had several loads of laundry washing and drying video games were being played and phones were being charged add a little wifi and no one was complaining. My little piece of heaven was in the showers. HOT water and real bathrooms. We stayed here a couple of nights. |
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| I loved this little Banana Slug because to me it was a sign that Heavenly Father is aware of all of us. On the trip, Tyler really wanted to see a banana slug and right outside our tent in the morning was this banana slug. The only banana slug we saw on the whole trip, and he was right outside our tent. He brought joy!! |
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| A fun breakfast. We should get the cooking merit badge for sure. |
Trinidad California was magical. We took a walk along the beach here. The water was crazy, so we stayed out of the water, but there were beautiful rocks along the beach which we enjoyed collecting. Makai got a few crab bodies and Kory found a sand dollar.
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| Trinidad. Love my boys!! |
| This picture says so much about Makai. There was a rock in which people had carved their names. Makai saw it and grabbed a stick and began to carve his name. He was going to leave his mark. If he sees something fun he wants to do it. No reservations. No rules. I found it adorable that he carved his name. And that he is a lefty! |
Okay, and most of us didn't touch the water.
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Makai, however, has a mind of his own. We had to watch him like a HAWK!!
Speaking of hawks, we saw this raptor during our walk He was NOT going to share his lunch with anyone
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Time to keep going north! Back in the car and more driving.
Elk on the side of the road
One last stop at the BIG TREE. Very creative name!
And a trip to see Paul Bunyan. Paul actually talked and interacted with you, but I didn't think his voice was a very good fit. However, it was a fun little stop just for the sake of getting a unique picture.
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| This is probably one of my favorite pictures of the trip. I can't imagine a better group of boys. Sometimes they drive me crazy, but look at this picture. I'm the luckiest mom ever!! |
Tyler's hair was probably the longest his hair has ever been. On this trip he enjoyed it. I caught him enjoying the wind blowing through his hair during part of the drive. Tyler hates the air conditioner in the car. He prefers to have the window down and the wind in his hair.
Long drive day. It was now July 13th and we are about to leave California and enter Oregon. When we first drove into Oregon I was so disappointed. I'd always heard Oregon was beautiful and southern Oregon was NOT pretty. However, the more we drove the more beautiful it became. We wanted to see Carter Lake, the deepest lake in the United States. We'd read about it and it was beautiful but much different than we had expected. For some reason we thought we'd be able to go to the edge or it. Now we laugh at how naive we were.
There is a huge campsite by Carter Lake, but with over 200 campsites, there was no room for us. We had to keep driving and no one was happy about it.
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| This man never shaves when we go on vacation. This is two weeks worth of growth and it's starting to drive both of us crazy, but he is going to keep the tradition going for one more week. |
That night was the worst night of the trip as we couldn't find a campsite till about 9mp and when we did it was mosquito infested. There were so many mosquitos everyone was miserable. Poor Monty couldn't even leave the tent. He tried, but mosquitos love him and he was being eaten alive. I had long sleeve and pants so I tried to brave it and make the boys dinner on the stove wearing a nice headlamp. Camping really takes any classiness out of you, but everyone got fed and we climbed into the tent happy to be safe from the killer Mosquitos and hopeful the morning would bring some relief from the Mosquitos, but in the morning the mosquitos were just as bad. We couldn't wait to get out of there.
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| Making sure any and all mosquitos that got into the tent were dead before we went to bed. |
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| My headlamp! Haha!! |
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| This was the night Makai put it so well, "I feel like an all you can eat Mosquito buffet!!!" |
We decided to was time to drive back to the coast in hopes the mosquitos would dwindle in population the closer we got the coast. However, to add to the stress of the mosquito night we noticed our back tire looked a little low. In the middle of nowhere, we were hopeful we could get to a town and get some air. We did find some air, but soon the tire looked low again. This part of the drive was a little nerve-racking, but we made it to Eugene. In Eugene, we learned we had a nail in our back tire. Thankfully, Discount Tire was able to fix it. While we waited for our tire to be fixed we saw a billboard for amazing chocolate dipped ice cream bars. We couldn't pass that opportunity up!
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| Don't they look excited!! |
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| Trey and Dad got the chocolate dipped Banana!! The right choice!! |
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| Makai was messy before he finished his first bite! |
We made another college stop this day. This one more for Kyle.
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| I really hope this kid gets to play football in College. He wants it so bad!! |
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| He wanted to take this just in case he decides to go to Oregon! |
We continued our drive to the coast and just as we'd hoped there were no mosquitos!! We slept at Beverly State Park that night. We watched the sunset on the beach and enjoyed a nice walk on the beach. I was kinda surprised by Kory and how he turned the sand into a canvas. Kory loves drawing and I am amazed at what he can create.
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| One of Kory drawing from the evening on the beach. |
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Beautiful night!!
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We enjoyed Oregon. But, Oregon was not our final destination, so we headed further North the next morning.
Seahawks stadium. Now, all the boys except Makai have been to 'their teams' football stadium.
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| Tyler started liking the Seahawks when he was about 5! Took us a while, but we finally made it. One day dad wants to take you to a game. |
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| So much culture!!! |
While in Seattle we decided to hit up the Seattle Aquarium and Pikes Market. Pikes Market was very interesting and for lunch, we had such a good meal from a Persian Restaurant. Most of us were sceptical, but we all loved it! We were hoping to watch them throw fish around the market, but either we didn't get there early enough, or they only do throw them when people buy fish. Nonetheless, it was very cool as there is really no other market like Pikes Market.
We hit up the aquarium and although we all agreed that it isn't as good as Monterey Bay Aquarium, we all still enjoyed it.
Then we took the Kingston Ferry, you could either take your car on it or just board it. We decided to just board. The ride was so relaxing. We were hoping to see Killer Whales as we had been told they came into the bay, but no such luck. Maybe next time. We didn't have a drop of rain while in Seattle. In fact, it was pretty hot. The weather showed off for us!
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| Tyler contemplating!! He does this well. |
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| Trey and Makai being goofballs! |
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| And, you can't go to Seattle and not see the Space Needle. However, we didn't pay to go inside. A little pricy for 7 people. The ferry was a much better view. |
Kyle captured such a good picture of Tyler's hair. Tyler's hair was crazy on the trip and he wore a hat most of the time, but at this moment Kory stole his hat! We all begged him to give it back.
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| WOW!! |
Later that night we went back to our campsite. We slept next to some other Samoans. Monty wanted to sleep by them and I didn't because I said they would be up late. Sure enough...I was right!! The next morning taking down our tent was rough, but it was time to begin the journey back east!! We had to leave early if we were going to make it to Montana. We had few states to pass though.
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| Makai had a hard time waking up. He left the tent and went to the car and fell asleep. He was sound asleep!! |
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| While these guys worked and trust me...this does not make them happy! Everyone thinks Makai is treated like a baby! |
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| How did we carry all our stuff? In these two black totes that Tyler and Kyle strapped to the car every morning. One had clothes, and the other sleeping bags! Tyler and Kyle were rock stars attaching this everyday! |
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| Always so helpful!! |
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| So good at things like this!! |
So, off we go and headed to Butte Montana. Butte Montana was Beautiful. We were only there long enough to go to a YMCA and sleep, but we were shocked by the beauty. On top of a Mountain in Butte Montana is a big white statue. It is of a woman and we had fun researching the story behind the Statue.
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| A statue of a woman a husband made in honor of his wife who was able to recover from her bout with cancer. |
The town is an old copper mining town and there is a body of water here that is toxic. If anything lands in it, it dies. The town is trying to keep the water from spilling into their water system. Kinda interesting and scary to read about. But a fun town. We slept so well that night after too many hours of driving.
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| Kyle |
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| Tyler, Kory, Trey, and Makai |
Kory lucked out with dish duty this morning. There were not very many dishes! But this is an example of how we washed dishes this trip.
Colorado school of Mines is a great Engineering school. We got there just in time for a tour and although it is a pretty small school, but seems like an interesting option.
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| Boys were not thrilled with this tour as you can see we now have two sleepers! |
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| LAST night of camping was at Jellystone Park in Larkspur Colorado. We were all hot and tired, but this pool was a nice welcoming surprise. The boys swam till the pool closed and then we went into Castle Rock and got some Pizza. That night we didn't put the rain fly on the tent and just slept under the stars. We actually didn't have any rain on the trip which I consider a huge blessing!! Camping in rain is NOT the funnest. We were always so luck to find a place to put up our tent and rest. |
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| That hair!! |
The last morning was July 20th. We woke up and drove down south to the Air Force Academy for our last and final college tour. All the boys are at least considering the Air Force Academy and Makai is convinced he totally wants to go here so he can blow things up. We've taken the boys to the Academy before, but the tour actually let us go into the dorms and classrooms which we haven't been able to do since Monty graduated.
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| Air Force Academy tour. |
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| The Chow hall. If he does go here, this will be his favorite place! Food is a big deal to this boy!! |
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| Monty, remembering his days practicing on this indoor field. |
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| Kyle asked me to take this photo. Looks like a possibility. |
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Always a beautiful campus with many reminders of why we are free and honoring those who have sacrificed to make sure we stay free. Love the feel of this campus.
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We gave the kids to option of camping one more night or driving home and getting home late and EVERYONE wanted to drive home!!!
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| This car might just have over a million bugs! Time for a car wash!!! |
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| And time for this man to SHAVE!!! |
It was so nice to be safely HOME!!
We stopped and got some amazing clam chowder and then headed up to Salt Point to camp. 
