Our Personal Plage: 2015

Jeff finished his first year of med school strong! We celebrated by hitting the road, but before we did we said good bye to Moscow. We really enjoyed our apartment, friends, farmers markets, thrift stores, and church. It was sad to say good bye, but we are excited for more adventures!

My cutie playing with his toys for the last time before we packed them up. He will get them all back in 4 months when all of our summer vacations are done :)

Our drive down to California was going to be a long one so we decided to make lots of fun stops along the way. I wanted to keep each day less than 5 hours of driving.

Our first stop was White Salmon, Washington. As Jeff and I drove into the town we loved the look of it right away. It is in the gorge of the Columbia river.

We stayed the night with Jeff's Uncle Wayne and Aunt Jody. I think the boys highlight of our short visit was the huge bonfire and explosion they made :)

Duane,Jody,David,Maren

Our second stop was the beautiful

Crater Lake!

As we entered the National Park and payed our $15 fee something began to change. The nice clear weather that accompanied us into the park quickly turned to clouds and then full on snowbanks and whiteness on all sides of us. We couldn't tell if there was a 100 foot drop on our side or a a tree lined mountain side. We could not stop laughing! We finally made it to this beautiful area and we would drive right through with out being able to see it. We took the above picture at the first pull off vista point. The large lake was supposedly right there :)

Emmett must have known there wasn't much to see and stayed asleep

We had to take our pictures to document this cloudy, snowy outcome of our visit....
Then something amazing happened........ the clouds started to slowly move!!!

As the view became brighter and brighter Emmett woke up

I could hardly believe the beauty and magnitude of the crater! It is amazing how something so terrifying, such as the massive eruption from a huge volcano, can create such beauty! With such a violent past it is stunning how it brings such peace.

After trying to warm ourselves up from our cold out door adventure by eating a hot bowl of chili at the tourist shop we headed into Medford for the night.

We Continued to

HUMBOLDT

We stopped for a picnic in Crescent City. First gimps of the beach on this trip. We had over 15 large squirrels trying to get us to share with them :(

Paul Bunyan &
Babe the Blue Ox

One of my favorite places as a kid!! There is a picture of me when I was around 5 years old trying to reach his toes :)

now I can reach them!!

Heading down the coast line of my childhood! We were lucky and got to see some whales!

MY BOYS!!!

Emmett playing with Mom

and the never ending kisses :)

(9 months old)

BIG TREES

Jakoby Store House

We arrived in Arcata with hungry bellies for dinner. To make things fancy we headed into the restaurant that my childhood self remembered as the place we went for nice occasions or when we felt like splurging. I felt like coming back to my childhood home as an adult was reason enough to celebrate!

Growing up in Humboldt was so much fun! I didn't realize at the time how I was surrounded by such beauty. It was just home :) Coming back was such a treat! Even though the rough economy in the past few years has hit the area hard, it was still fun to see all my old favorite spots! The Stamps were some good friends of ours from church and they were kind to let us stay in their old beach cabin.

Our old house in King Salmon with my car from the present in front

King Salmon beach

Patricks Point State Park

Tide Pools

My favorite bagel shop and mural

....and of course the famous bead shop where all my jewelry as a child were made!

The Plaza

After a couple fun days in Humboldt we continued down the 101 to visit my mom for a couple weeks. On the way though I had to stop at the WORLD FAMOUS TREE HOUSE and visit my friend!! We have been friends for years and I have many memories sitting in his arms :)