Oregon Summer Trip 2007

These two sure have a lot of love. This was taken by the lazy river called Mill Creek on the Gill Family Reunion near Silver Falls. Pretty cool considering my Grandma Erma lived in Millcreek area in Utah years ago. It was a fun time just drifting down the river with the sunlight and berry branches tearing in our flesh whenever we got lost in the moment and forgot to paddle. It was so fun we went twice.
When we first got to the Alders Gate, a religious compound, where we had our reunion we quickly decided to go for a walk. Out on the trail we came by what I can only describe as "Jacob's House" (for those of you that watch LOST). So I had to take a picture of it. Below you will see more pictures of this hike including Mariah and Audrey discovering blackberry's and a picture of me as "Forest Stump"! There are few other pictures that show the beauty of the thick forest in these areas and beautiful big ferns.







We had an amazing time last year in Oregon for the Gill Family Reunion. Here is a picture Susie took of me climbing the rock wall they had there. We stayed near Silver Falls which is a beautiful place. Ok, Susie here. Silver Falls State(?) Park is south of Portland and has a myriad of waterfalls you can hike to, some paved, most not. It was like being in an enchanted forest. I'm used to forests and such from my NJ heritage but these trees are immense and covered with green moss and the floor has lots of red mulch. Much like I've imagined as I've read the Twililght series.Back to the WALL. Can you believe I made it all the way to the top after 4 children and very little exercise in the time leading up to that trip?! Yeah - I was surprised but determined to show up my husband I guess. Roxy made it too, having never climbed before. Alissa and Mariah did really well too. Strong women!
As you can see there were many fun activities we participated at while we were there. We did archery, hula hoop contests and drifting down a natural lazy river on tire tubes.
Yes, that's right a perfect bullseye! I guess that Archery merit badge was actually legit! Below you will see Roxy and Alissa duke in it out in a hula hoop contest. Roxy won. She goes forever, seriously I think she could go for the world record. It doesn't even look like she moves her hips that much. It's amazing.

While were in Oregon we saw many beautiful things. We traveled up through Idaho and up across the Oregon/Washington border along the Columbia River. We saw Eagles, several damns and lots of boats. We came down through Portland and down to Silver Falls. Below are a few pictures we took on a Sunday hike at Silver Falls at the end of our Gill Family Reunion.



After the Silver Falls trip we made our way up to Portland for a few days where we went to the Zoo and met up with the McCann's which was fun. We also had the opportunity to visit the Portland Temple and go inside and do a session while there. It is really amazing in there. We especially liked the dark woods. Susie now wants to redo our entire house in dark wood. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out how to keep the house as clean as the temple to really get the full effect. After the temple we went up along the Oregon coast. The highlight of the day was visiting the Tillamook factory where we had ice cream and saw how cheese is manufactured. The coast is really amazing, windy and cool. We tried to get some local tips on a place to eat while we were up there and unfortunately, the locals don't have taste buds anymore, because the place they told us to go was pretty bad.


















After Portland we headed off back east passing three sister mountain range, Mount Hood, and stayed a few days near Bend. We played golf, went swimming, and just were pretty lazy. It was nice. Leaving there we went across Eastern Oregon to Idaho and checked out Shoshone Falls on the way home. All in all, a pretty amazing trip that put some serious miles on our car!