With a baby due in early September we decided our family vacation this year would be to Sunriver. We knew we would be spending several long weekends down there, but we wanted to make a point of Brian taking a full week off and us making a real trip out of it. It turned out better than we could have imagined and is one my top vacations of all time. We left to spend the July 4th weekend down there and Auntie Steph and Uncle Sammi made last minute plans to come to Portland, which became Sunriver too! It was such a treat to have them there, not knowing the next time I was going to see my sister I was so excited they could come. My parents were there and the house was full of lots of laughs and celebrating of Stammi's recent engagement. After a fun long weekend everyone left except the 3 of us. We spent the week golfing (Brian), riding bikes, going to the pool, playing in the dirt, looking for fancy rocks, scooter riding, squirrel and deer hunting, bubble blowing and everything in between. We visited breweries for dinner, sat on the deck to relax during nap time and made it feel like a true vacation. One of my favorite nights we rode bikes out into the meadow on kind of a warm stormy evening. We took Jake to the stable and the airport, both of which he found less exciting than a practice putting green…and then ate burgers on the lawn in back of the lodge while Jake played. It was simple and special and great end to our time together.
At the end of the 10 days I wasn't ready to come home so Jake and I spent another week there, the last few days of that with my Dad who then gave us a ride home! Jake and I then came home for a week and headed down for one more week of fun with my parents. We had the best time and Jake was in heaven every second. Jake and I had our little routine…every morning we would go out and look for the rocks (that I would hide the night before), then around 9:30 we loaded up the bikes with the chariot with all of our pool stuff and ride down to the SHARC for their 10 am opening. We played in the toddler pool, the sand area, the fountains, and the shallow end of the big pool. As the Summer progressed Jake became more and more confident in the water, less afraid of getting splashed and more eager to "swim." He still won't get his face in the water, but we started with a simply lean over to Mama from a sitting position to "jump" into the pool to him backing up for a running start to jump to me by the end of the Summer. We had a snack at the pool and then rode home for a nice long nap (Jake) and then more play and dinner. We had an awesome time and we got a great tan too…especially my little bronze baby.
I am so grateful to have these memories in the Summer before we became a family of four. I know it won't ever quite be like that again and it really was a special time. I am so grateful that my parents bought this house that we can all spend time together in, so grateful that Jake can wake up and see deer out the kitchen window, so grateful that we can all sip wine on the deck in the sunshine, so grateful we are in the mecca land of breweries, so grateful to make memories in a place that has always been so special to me.
