Oregon Vacation: Bend

We are back from a wonderful trip to see my family and friends in Oregon!  After flying home overnight and arriving yesterday morning, Nora is still sound asleep today even though she normally would have woken up an hour ago.  I am going to give her another hour to sleep before we get up to go to work, so I'm working on this post rather than beginning to unpack like a responsible person would (well, maybe a responsible person would have done that yesterday).

It's hard for me to describe how great it is to go see my family, in August, in Oregon.  This is the best time of year to visit Oregon, in my opinion.  I don't like living so far away from the people I love there, but the major perk of moving away from a place as great as Oregon is having a great place to visit for family vacations.  For me, there are so many reasons this was a great trip.  I got to spend over a week straight with my daughter and husband.  I was able to enjoy this time without feeling like I needed to set time aside to do work, since I had submitted my latest prospectus draft right before we left.  I spent a lot of time with my newest family member-- my nephew, Everett-- and my whole immediate family was together briefly.  I saw so many of my friends who happened to be in the area, some of whom I haven't seen since our college years.  I hugged all their kids and watched in delight as Nora played with them.  Thanks to Mom, I was even able to enjoy two back-to-back adult nights out.  Traveling cross-country with a toddler is, well, tough.  But truly, even though she had one difficult flight, Nora is a trooper.  She handles the time change better than any of us and manages being carted around to different places better than I could have even hoped.

I have so many pictures and memories to share that I'm going to attempt to keep the writing fairly short.  But to give the single sentence overview, I will say: This trip is exactly what I needed right now, and I am so thankful to everyone who made it possible.  So onto the pictures!

We bought a seat for Nora.  This was expensive, and she didn't sit in it the entire time, but in the end it was definitely worth it.  She is obsessed with buckles lately, so a lot of her carseat time on the trip was spent buckling together all the ones I put on this toy for her and then promptly demanding that I unbuckle them again.

We got in late, spent the night at an airport hotel, and then drove to Bend in the morning.  Getting caught in road construction is not so bad when it affords you this view of Mt. Hood.

We arrived in Bend to spend several days with Nate, Ashley, and Everett, who is now eight months old.  My cousin Dalton has been living with them this summer, so getting to see him was an added bonus!  Nora had some attachment issues at first:

but by the end of the trip she didn't mind me paying attention to Everett.  She would sometimes insist on climbing up on my lap to join him, but compared to her initial reaction, this was a definite improvement.  And though she wasn't too keen on me holding him at first, she loved playing with him right from the start.

While in Bend, we also visited their awesome water park.  The trip got off to a not-so-awesome start when a woman backed square into us in the parking lot.  Note to everyone: if someone pulls a toddler out of the door you've just backed into, you should at least ask if she is okay.

I was definitely envious of the water park, though.  It had so many kid friendly features, none of which are really captured in this photo.  Nora had a great time there, and with five adults and two children, there was enough adult energy to keep Nora above water.

These days, Nora only needs to hear a word once to repeat it back.  So I knew she COULD say "Dalton," but she wouldn't do it.  I think she was shy around him!  While we were playing at the park one day, I took a video clip of her saying his name so he could hear it. : )



Vickie and Tres were on the west coast to attend a wedding and church camp, so although they were not near Bend, they came for an afternoon to spend time with all of us.  Mom had driven down to see us and babysit that evening, so I insisted on getting a picture to capture the first time we had all been together.  I'm glad I did, because thanks to Ashley's photo staging and self-timer skills, as well as some some bribery blueberries for Nora, it turned out great!

That evening, Mom stayed at the house with Nora and Everett so Nate, Ashley, Billy, and I could attend Bend's Brewfest.  It was so nice to have a chance to hang out with them as adults, and the event was really cool.  I don't know how many breweries were there, but I'd say at least 100, and most of them had two different beers you could get in a 4oz sample.  I like beer all right, but I LOVE people watching, so this packed event was definitely right up my alley.  I also ate from a food truck, which I'm pretty sure was required before I was permitted to leave the state. I wish I'd thought to make someone take a picture of all four of us!

That wraps up the pictures I have to share from Bend, and I need to get Nora up and get myself off to work.  It was such a great visit, and I can definitely see why Nate and Ashley like Bend so much!  If we have to be living so far apart, I'm glad that we have all settled in places we are happy to call home.