Hartley Family Reunion July 2013

We made our way up to Washington State for the Hartley family reunion at Pacific Beach Naval Resort. Darryl had some training for his new job. Accenture has their corporate offices in Chicago, Ill. Darryl went there for the week then flew to Portland where the kids and I picked him up on a Friday afternoon en route to Clark's house in Seattle. The kids and I made our way to Portland with a few stops for fun and energy outlets. We found a wonderful children's museum in Medford, Oregon called Kid Time! Inside there were places to rock climb, slide, build with giant wooden toys, dress up, go shopping, pretend you were a banker, dance on a stage, play with water and generally run like crazy. We stayed until we absolutely had to get back in the car. That evening we picked Darryl up from the airport and crashed out at a hotel. The next day we made it to Clark's house in time to go to the lake and play in the water with the cousins. All weekend it was a packed house at Clark's. Brad's family (6 people), and our family (5 more) were all packed into their little 3 bedroom house. Some of the kids slept out in a tent in the back yard. On Sunday, Clark's ward didn't have regular church meetings, so we went to Seattle to see the sites and spend time together as a family. We found this great fountain and the kids got wet. Then we went to the fish market and the gum wall.

 Monday morning we hit the road on the way to the beach houses in Pacific Beach. Clark set us up with 3 houses and everyone except Marshall and his family were able to come. The cousins had a great time for 4 days at the beach houses. We played at the beach, found tons of sea creature and shells, flew kites, rolled down the hills, had a BBQ, played family bingo, went bowling, painted with Papa, had an un-birthday party, made smores on beach, and generally had a great time.

After the beach houses, we took our time coming home to California. We stopped in Oregon and bought wonderful blackberries. Then we took a detour through the Redwood forest in Northern California. Part way through the forest we stopped to play on a giant fallen tree. The kids had a great time exploring the forest and finding treasures. On another side adventure we went for a hike and found giant pine cones and searched for forest creatures. One of my favorite stops was in Crescent City on the California coast. We found an amazing light house and did a little beach hike up to it. Luckily for us, we caught the very last tour of the day and the kids got to see everything in the light house including up into the tower with the lenses and the light shining into the harbor. It was beautiful! One of Darryl's favorites was a stop in a spot where you can drive through a redwood tree. The clearance was not so wide, but it was fun to drive through the middle and come out the other side. We stayed at a hotel on the coast, then made the last little drive home by way of Clearlake. We checked out that big lake and it might be fun to do some boating and vacationing there in the future. Overall it was an awesome trip.