Grandma Hiatt's funeral was one of our big events scheduled this summer. Another was a celebration of Andrew's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Woo hoo! Angie and Amy started working together late last year to plan a big reunion on the Oregon Coast. I had never been! I was so excited! It worked out wonderfully. Reagan, Lauren, and Zach were the only ones who couldn't be with us to celebrate. It was a fabulous four days. I just wish we could've had ONE more day to hang out with our extended family. The time went by too fast.
Before the partying, it was time to take care of some business.
I had already gone over 5000 miles, so I decided this was a
good time to get my oil changed.
Luckily, they had a Jiffy Lube right by our hotel,
so it was in and out.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Care Bear and I also decided it was time for a car wash.
In the National Parks, we had driven on some dirt roads.
Plus, we'd hit more than our fair share of bugs.
C and I had one day free to spend in Portland,
where neither of us had been.
Overall, it was kinda scary and really dirty.
There are LOTS of homeless camps on the side of the road.
So sad to see.
But we had fun,
First, we visited the Saturday Market,
a fun collection of makers.
We ate delicious food.
I had tamales and C had an acai bowl.
We were both very happy with our purchases.
There are LOTS of creatives around there.
I was fascinated with this girls coral-reef hair.
So elaborate!
And this woman's socks and shoes reminded me of Whit,
who has a strawberry milk purse.
We left downtown and headed to Milwaukie, a suburb where I had found
a movie theater/arcade where we could spend some time.
When we parked, we saw this FABULOUS candy store
across the street, so we had to stop in there first.
It is called Enchante and we LOVED it.
I came across this little notebook and had to buy it.
We also stopped in to this antique store
to buy a bottle for Whit, who collects them.
As much as I LOVE spending time in nature,
and have thoroughly enjoyed our time in the
national parks, I've missed video games!
C and I had a great time playing in this arcade.
They had some good coin pushing games. :)
I ended up with a tiny baby smarties and a big daddy smarties. Ha!
We also watched Jungle Cruise while we were there.
We both liked it.
Before we went to the movie, I had texted Aunt Julie
(Andrew's mom's sister) to let her know we were in town.
She lives just across the border from Portland in Vancouver, WA.
She invited us to come over and stay with her and Uncle Tom
and go to church with them in the morning.
Yes, please!
I love spontaneous invitations!
After the movie, we headed to Vancouver.
Caroline had a GREAT time snuggling with dogs.
We had a yummy dinner and then got to play
a few rounds of Pit. Fun fun!
Since I'm not a pet person, I'm happy when
C can have time with other peoples' pets. :)
Barb and Dennis stopped by that evening to have dinner with us.
So fun to see them for a bit before the reunion.
We had never been to Aunt Julie's house and it was so fun to visit with her.
Meanwhile, the Sweats were converging on Portland!
Whit and Andrew flew in from NC
and B flew in from Utah.
Yippee!
So happy to have this van full of my peeps again!
It was a couple of hours to drive from Portland
to Lincoln City, where we were meeting the rest of the fam.
So fun to see the Pacific Ocean on the GPS.
We arrived a little before we could check into our rental property.
We headed down the beach first.
It was COLD.
Can you tell?
More cool tide pools.
My kids still humored me and let me take jumping pics!
Yes!
And then they took jumping pics of me and Drew.
My favorite!
Then we walked around Lincoln City's downtown for a bit.
I made my girls take a pic with their crocs
by the graffiti that said CROCS.
We told the kids they could have some money for souvenirs.
Brandon and Whit bought these gorgeous coordinating shirts.
Hilarious.
And I found us
another arcade.
I may have been having withdrawals. Ha!
And I may have set all the records on Bubble Bobble.
Then it was off to our awesome rental property.
Ang and Amy found a place that was big enough for all
TWENTY-FOUR of us! It had two houses on the property.
All of the married couples got their own rooms.
The kids got spread out about the two houses,
some sleeping on sofas and sleeping bags on the floor.
It was great.
Loft upstairs
Ping pong downstairs
This was the view from our house.
See the ocean at the end of the street?
Fancy ocean-view dinner for the adults.
It was delicious.
The next day, most of our family went out crabbing.
Whitney wasn't up for it, so I stayed back with these fun kids.
We explored Lincoln City a little more.
It is known for its artistic glass shops.
Then we made some glass art of our own.
It was fun, but overpriced.
B made an awesome El Cap
Jonas did some fruit and a tree.
W made the Paper Mint Co logo
I did the whale tail.
The rest of the fam was out crabbing.
They had a fantastic time!
Care Bear and Macy loved the kitties hanging around the shop.
I was happy that the 13-year-olds all got to be together.
The family was divided up into several small boats.
I guess Care Bear was the most brave of these three
with touching the crabs.
A big crabbing crew!
Everyone seemed to enjoy it,
but they came home STINKY.
And it was really hard to get the crab smell
out of everyone coats and gloves and socks.
Yuck.
Afterward, I got to go on a hike with
Tony, Cindy, Jane, and Eli.
Hooray for more hiking!
And with people who actually WANTED to go! :)
We hiked through the forest to this cool swinging bridge.
And then down to this waterfall,
Drift Creek Falls.
It was almost three and half miles
and took about an hour and a half.
I LOVED it.
So fun to spend time with family
that I hardly ever get to see.
Back home, there were lots of board games going on.
And Tony and Cindy brought this super fun yard game.
I tried to google it and it looks like it's maybe called
Bottle Bash? I don't remember them calling it that.
Anyway, it looks super easy. You try to knock a bottle of
a pole with a frisbee. And if the opposite team hits your
bottle off, you try to catch it. And you also try to catch the frisbee.
It is HARD.
But fun. I liked it a lot.
Jane and Eli trying to catch the falling bottle.
Grandpa and Macy.
Grandma catching the frisbee.
Drew was good at catching it, too.
We took turns making dinners.
We had LOTS of crab this night.
Too much crab.
I think most of it got thrown away. Boo.
B-train made sure to eat well.
When I saw that the sun was setting,
I talked Andrew into RUNNING down to the
ocean with me to get some pics.
Oh, I love hanging out with this boy.
So pretty.
The next day Grandma Sweat treated us all to a whale
watching tour. (A second one for Caroline and I--Lucky!)
We all crowded onto one boat,
along with two strangers.
The boat was SUPER rocky.
One of our cousins may have lost her lunch...
The whole Sweat crew!
When we left the marina, it looked so nice, with blue skies
and calm waters.
But once you got out on the ocean, it was completely different.
VERY foggy and angry seas.
But we did get to see two grey whales. Yippee!
They are kinda hard to see since they're basically
the same color as the water.
But they were SO CLOSE to the boat.
It was AMAZING.
I loved it.
After that, we drove a little further down to the coast
to Newport to see the sea lions.
Look at all of them!
They were so fun to watch.
And they are REALLY loud.
Cindy and I made haystacks for the night we were
in charge of dinner. Actually, Cindy did most of the
work and I was her sous chef.
After dinner, we had the actual 50th birthday celebration.
Amy had put together some fun games.
I was TERRIBLE at this Would They Rather game.
Tony re-wrote "Close to You" with personalized lyrics
for Grandma and Grandpa. So fun.
We were in charge of getting the cake.
And then we played another game with words from
their love story, which was fun.
Group pictures!
The whole crew, minus the three who couldn't make it.
Andrew's siblings and their spouses
Siblings, spouses, and parents.
The happy couple, fifty years later.
So grateful for Barb and Dennis and their example of a loving marriage. They made me feel a part of this family as soon as I met them. I'm lucky to have such awesome in-laws! And I'm happy so many of us could be together to celebrate this special milestone.
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