Berry Hunting

We went up to my mom's property to pick some blackberries. The drive was thick with them; big, ripe and juicy! Daisy loved them! We would toss her the over ripe ones, and she would scrounge for them on the ground.

One of the ones I tossed to her pegged her right between the eyes!

There were some trails off the main road and we found some chittim trees that had been de-barked. Trees look very strange when they don't have their bark.

Blackberry picking was only semi successful, as a lot of the berries were overripe. We finished off the day going to my grandmas to check out her blueberry patch. We were very surprised to find over twenty some bushes totally hung with berries!!

We picked and picked as fast as we could! There were berries just falling onto the already semi-blue covered ground. I was trying to quit eating them so I didn't get a stomach ache later, but they were so juicy, it was hard to stop!!

My grandma's bird, Halo, came out to observe the harvesting. He really liked blueberries too, so he and Daisy fed on the berries that covered the ground.

We ended up with WAY more blueberries than blackberries, but that was great! It was a perfect berry picking day!

Darlingtonia State Park

We stopped at this park on the way home from camping. What a cool place! It is a really small park, loaded with insect eating plants! I had only heard of these amazing plants, this was my first time seeing them.
So at the end "cupped leaf" at the end of each plant are pedal like things, which initially lure in the insect. Once under the "hood" part of the plant, it becomes difficult to exit, and the insect eventually falls to the bottom part of the plant, where it is dissolved and digested.

Wonderful!

Also found a side trail and came across this big root system. Super cool park to explore as we were winding down from our overnight adventure.

Camp Trip....Finally!

Jered and I have been working opposite shifts all summer, so we were very excited to squeeze in one night of camping that we could share together. Of course, we had to stop at the beach before adventuring too far inland. I do miss living on the beach, but I forget when I go look at my GIANT pumpkins that I have growing in the garden.
This is at Ocean Beach park, ran by the forest service, where you have to pay $8 to park for the day!!! The day use area in the park has like, three picnic tables, then there are stairs to the beach, and that is it!! I was sure glad that I had my coastal passport, so it didn't cost us anything, but still, that seems like a lot of money for a day use area, that didn't really have any room for much "day using". Fun place though, can't you tell?

So we left the beach just before Reedsport and headed up the Smith River. We drove for some time, but slowly driving out of the tidal influenced area. That wasn't exactly one of the goals in mind, but I wanted some warmer weather which meant inland. Daisy just wanted somewhere she could swim. It amazingly wasn't that hard to find.

We found an adorable little campsite, right on the river. Daisy was already swimming with her new Frisbee toy thing! She was so excited.

We saw color change all along the hillsides.....is fall sneaking up on us?

We floated around the river in the kayak, and Daisy swam around with us. We stopped on this bank so she would take a break. She was swimming hard, and didn't want to give up the ball!

Perfect little campsite.

Daisy kept fetching for the majority of the trip, mixing it up between her new frisbee thing and tennis ball.

On her way to get a tennis ball.

On the way back with the tennis ball.

These falls were a couple miles west of our campsite. We didn't stop to swim in them, but it sure looked appealing!

Yaquina River

We haven't been doing much kayaking lately, so we thought we would go down to one of the port of Toledo parks and go for a spin on the Yaquina river. We had found this park on the bay road a few months back, and hadn't gotten to check it out to the fullest as of yet.

The building of the park was funded by state parks, so you know it has to be cool.
It was still VERY tidal, even though we were much closer to Toledo than Newport. It reminded me a lot of the Alsea, but I don't remember the Alsea water being so brown.

There were tons of log formations all around (they have to be old dock and such). It kinda creeps me out for some reason.

The tide had pushed us up the river a good distance, and we had to paddle down the river in order to get back to the boat launch. It was way harder than I had imagined. We made it back to the dock, but decided against paddling against the strong current toward the ocean.... I don't think we wouldn't have gotten very far. But fun for a Saturday; Jered even made it to work on time!

At the playground with the Collier's

I hadn't actually gone back and played on Beverly's BRAND NEW playground, so it felt appropriate to adventure back with the Collier's and half their litter. Daisy was going to go with, but I also learned today that there are "no pets" allowed in the playground area. This was a rule that I had neglected to learn in my FIVE plus years working there!! I feel like such a dork, but back to the playground fun (Daisy stayed in the car).
That thing that Trace is standing on is the only thing left that even resembles a swing on playgrounds now-a-days. Swings are very dangerous (=fun) so instead you get a plastic board with a foot of chain; just enough to wobble, not enough to hang yourself. Not quite as fun if you ask me, but ask him, and I am sure it is a totally different story.

Same goes for Malina, she can even do it one handed.

Slides are way more fun, and both of the large slides were a big hit.

Rhyson is now quite the grown up. I don't think he could say more than ten words the last time I saw him.

There were some wobbly stool things that I had never seen before. Malina could stand on them as if they were solid ground, yet for some reason, they were very wobbly when I stood on them.

How cute is that!!

Or that!!!

By the end, Rhyson was certainly turning into the slide expert!!

What a move there too, may be an acrobat in the future!

The first big harvest!

Today we took our first large vegetable harvest from the garden. I think we will make a stir fry for lunch tomorrow. So exciting. I am hoping that I feel better (very sick!) so I can really enjoy the homegrown broccoli, green onions, green beans, carrots, and maybe a cucumber or two. Very exciting, and well worth the work.

Trip to Ptown

Before this week of rain started....we were entertained by some little tykes.
They are so cute!

At park #1

At home

Park #2 had the crazy green lake. Super beautiful park though.

"Touchdown!"