Our family vacation this summer was AWESOME!!! We went to Oregon and spent a week with Kelly and Greg's family. The drive was better than I expected. We did it in one day, so it was a long day, but the kids were really good. We stopped at Chuck'e'Cheeses for Lunch and let everyone run around and play for an hour or so. I think that helped a lot. It was about 9:30 pm on Saturday when we arrived at Kelly's house. The next day we went to church and I really enjoyed going to Relief Society. It's been a while for me since I've been in the primary for a while. After church the missionaries came over and challenged Kelly's family to find people to share the gospel with. I was impressed that Kelly came up with someone and over the course of the week invited them to meet the missionaries and they accepted. Way to go Kelly!
Monday we decided to go to the coast. So we stopped first at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We loved the ice cream, and got ourselves nice and cold just in time to go to the beach, which was also cold! We didn't stay long because we were all freezing. But it was fun anyway. Here is our family at the beach.
Monday we decided to go to the coast. So we stopped first at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We loved the ice cream, and got ourselves nice and cold just in time to go to the beach, which was also cold! We didn't stay long because we were all freezing. But it was fun anyway. Here is our family at the beach.
The kids ventured out a little, but didn't go in the water much because it was so cold.
Cold doesn't seem to hinder the fun though!
Here's Darcy and Dad.
And Cody, running around on the beach. When he wasn't doing this he was huddled up in towels to stay warm.
And here I am with my Darcy baby! She's so cute and happy!
Another fun activity for the kids was swimming in the hot tub. The kids had a great time in there. 
Other than at the beach, it was a really hot week for Oregon. So to keep from roasting at home we headed to Hagg Lake to play in the water. Greg took us out on the lake in his boat with the tube tied on behind. Here's a picture of me and Cody being pulled in the tube. It was a lot of fun.
Dallin and Shelby also loved being pulled in the tube. They each took a couple of turns and loved it.
Darcy liked sitting in the tube, as long as we weren't moving. She didn't really like the water much because it was cold.
Here is our whole family sitting in the front of Greg's boat. It was a great afternoon.
My favorite part of the vacation was going Sturgeon Fishing in the Columbia River Gorge. It was a beautiful place and we had a great time. First we had to find dead fish floating on the water to use as bait for the Sturgeon. It took a little while but we eventually found 3 fish we could use. Greg found us a good spot, baited the line and before he could even get it in the pole holder we had a fish on! It was amazing. James took the pole and fought the Sturgeon for at least 30-40 minutes. They are huge fish!
Here is a shot of the fish. It was about 5 feet long.
You can see how heavy they are. It's impossible to lift them all the way out of the water.
It took a while for the next one to bite. This time it was my turn. After only a few minutes my arms were aching and I could barely hold the pole. 
But Greg had said earlier that no woman had ever reeled in a sturgeon on his boat before. So being the competitive person that I am I was determined to get this fish! I had to resort to kneeling down so I could lean the pole on the side of the boat. I also had a lot of help from Dallin, Tyler, and Summer. They would help me pull up the pole so I could reel it in.
It took me about 45 minutes, but I did it. I was so tired and my hands and arms were cramped up. Greg took the hook out of it's mouth and then had me hold the fish. I knew I couldn't lift it by myself, so I asked him to help me lift it. When Greg touched it's body it freaked out and almost pulled me in the lake. James was doing the video camera so we don't have any pictures of my fish, but we have it on video.
We stuck around for a third fish, and it was a great one. We all took turns fighting it. Dallin helped Dad. Tyler and Greg both took turns. I took another turn...even though I could barely hold the pole at this point.
And James finished it off. This one took the longest to fight.
It was the biggest of all the fish we caught. I think it was about 6 or 7 feet long. And we estimated that it probably weighted about 600 lbs. James and Greg both lifted it together and could only get it half way out of the water. It was massive! Greg made the trip so much fun. He's so nice to take us fishing and help us have such a memorable time. You're the best Greg!
Another one of our favorite things was riding the horses. Kelly took the kids on rides and it was great. Here is Cody and Kelly riding Texas.
Here is Dallin riding Fancy.
Here is Shelby on Texas.
And here is Dallin shooting BB guns. He spent all day shooting the targets. This was one of his favorite parts of the vacation too.
It was a great family vacation. I loved spending time with the Nelsons. I got to read Kelly's second book, which was amazing. And we had a great time visiting and enjoying the beautiful place where they live. Thanks for letting us come! We want to come back!!! 
7 comments:
Wow - looks like a blast! Love the pictures!
Oh how fun! I hope that we can go someday and have as good a time as you. Really great pictures!
I thought you were lying about the fish. Those fish were huge!
-Pierce
I've never heard of these crazy huge Sturgeon fish!! You have to post the video that James took of you. Did he get the end where you almost fell in the water?
Great pictures! I love the ones at the beach. I'm glad you guys had such a fun trip. Hopefully we'll be able to make it out there sometime. Looks like a ton of fun!
Looks like such a fun time. We went to the beach near Portland and visited Tillamook Cheese Fac too and had the same freezingly good time. The fishing sounds like a blast but tiring. Your kids are all getting so big. I miss you guys.
ps--what's this about your sister's second book--is your sister an author?
Diana,
I didn't know you went to Oregon too. How fun. Yes, my sister Kelly is an author. She's trying to get her books published right now. They are amazing! My sister Laura also wrote a really good book. I'll spread the word when they are published so you can read them!
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