Just a couple of weeks after celebrating Jaelee and Jayse’s graduation, we packed up and headed to Oregon to celebrate another graduate—our niece, McKenzie.

We knew most of our summer would be spent working at the property, so we decided to take a few extra days and make a little vacation out of it. We left Friday morning and stayed until Wednesday.

Unfortunately, Jayse had just started a new job and wasn’t able to come with us. We definitely missed having him along, but we were thankful that Brennan was able to make the trip with Jaelee.

I was feeling optimistic about the weather and made sure we packed our paddleboards. I had visions of spending an afternoon paddling around Loon Lake. Unfortunately, Oregon had other plans. It stayed cooler than I had hoped for most of the trip. We did get a few stretches of sunshine, but not enough to convince any of us to get out on the paddleboards.

One thing that never disappoints when we visit is the food. We were immediately spoiled with homemade chocolate chip cookies, pie, and Sugar Shack donuts. As if that wasn’t enough, brownies appeared later in the week too. We definitely never go hungry when we visit family in Oregon!

Saturday afternoon the sun decided to make an appearance, so Jaelee, Brennan, LaRee, Steve, Tucker and I took advantage of it and headed to the beach while Greg was spending time with his friend Brady.

To our surprise, there was hardly any wind. Anyone who has spent time on the Oregon coast knows that’s a bit of a gift.

Before we left, I told Jaelee she should either wear shorts or at least bring them because she can never resist getting in the ocean.

She brought them…

…but left them in the car.

Sure enough, before long she and Brennan were splashing through the waves. By the time they were done, her pants were soaked exactly as I had predicted.

While we were there, they came up with a fun photo idea. They dug a giant heart into the sand, set my phone in the middle of it, and posed so they were perfectly framed inside the heart. It turned out to be one of my favorite pictures from the day.

Once we’d had our fill of the beach, we headed for the mountains.

Greg had sent me a pin where he and Brady were testing out Brady’s new rifle. Steve, LaRee and Tucker headed home, the rest of us made the drive into the hills to meet them.

One of my favorite things about visiting Oregon is how quickly the scenery changes. In the span of minutes, you can go from standing on a beautiful sandy beach to being surrounded by towering trees in the mountains. It’s one of the things I love most about this part of the country.

We watched Greg and Brady take turns shooting, and I had forgotten just how loud those rifles are. The sound echoed through the mountains with every shot. Brennan even got a chance to shoot at the target, which I know he enjoyed.

After hanging out for a while, we left the guys to continue shooting and headed back toward town.

That evening, Greg, Steve, and Brennan went fishing at Lake Marie while Jaelee, LaRee, and I made one more trip to the beach.

This time we were chasing the sunset.

All three of us had cameras in hand, clicking away as the sun slowly dropped toward the horizon. The light was beautiful, and of course Jaelee couldn’t resist getting back into the water—again. She was determined to capture some dramatic wave photos, and I’d say it was worth getting wet one more time.

After the sun disappeared below the horizon, we met up with the guys at Lake Marie for a few minutes before finally heading back to the house.

Looking back, it was one of those days that perfectly captures why I love visiting Oregon. We started our day walking along the beach, spent the afternoon in the mountains, and ended the evening back at the ocean watching one of the most beautiful sunsets.

Turkey vultures, my fav!

As we were leaving I saw these in the parking lot. They look like a rattle snake tail I thought they looked cool so I spent a few minutes taking pictures of them.

And just like that we are up in the mountains.

Such a pretty time in the mountains with all the flowers.

Did I find a 4 leaf clover?

We could see the Umpqua River and the Ocean from where we were.