Jack O'Lanterns

Eden wanted a scary one, and Z's is a pokemon.

Oregon

This summer we took a trip to Oregon, which is where Jeremy and Ann and Lee and Cindy live.  We had a great time there.  Beautiful weather and great places to go, and we loved seeing all the Oregon Hitchcocks.  The kids all had a wonderful time together, too.  Eden loved playing in the tree house with Evie and Libby, gathering berries everywhere and then turning them into various soups and foods.

The Pacific Ocean.  Those are sea lions lolling on the pier behind us.

Cousins!

The girls

Sea lions

We saw the redwoods in California.  Amazing and beautiful.

Family lunch amongst the redwoods.

This beautiful river was in the redwood national forest.  We ate lunch nearby and played in the water for half the afternoon.  The water was clear and cool, and filled with tadpoles and tiny frogs and fun places to swim!

Gorgeous!

You gotta hug a redwood.

Lee watches the kids swimming.

It usually takes Z about 2 minutes to "fall in" whenever we're near a river or stream.

Evie and Libby looking for wildlife.

Derek enjoying the day.

We also went to Crater Lake one day.  There was snow up there!

And chipmunks.

This particular chipmunk was eating out of people's hands, so Eden wanted to give it a try.

We swam in Crater Lake!  I was very proud of myself because I was the first one in, and it was COLD!  But how often do you get a chance to swim in the deepest lake in the United States??

Crater Lake is stunning.  It's the deepest lake in the USA, and is one of the clearest bodies of water in the world.  You can usually see between 80-115 feet through the water, so the water is an amazing blue.  It's inside an ancient volcano.  You have to hike a bit to get down to the water, but it's totally worth it.

One day we went to a winery which had a life-sized chess game.

Beautiful cousins.

"A flowery band to bind us to the earth."

Nathan preached at a church in Omaha yesterday, so we all decided to tag along and have a mini vacation.  We ended up at the Lauritzen Gardens, which is certainly a hidden gem!  100 acres of various kinds of gardens tucked away in the heart of Omaha.  It's well worth the price of admission!

The rose garden

The train garden.  There was a garden dedicated to model trains.  The tracks are built from tree branches, and I believe 9 model trains run the whole time.  There are also miniature replicas of buildings in Omaha.  This was definitely the kids favorite place in the gardens.

Pretty girl, pretty waterfall.

The Hitchcocks were a big philanthropic family in Omaha.  We've seen their name in several different places.  They had very good taste!

A Hitchcock in the Hitchcock garden.

Bird of Paradise -- gorgeous!

It was a beautiful day with the super-soaked blue of an autumn sky.

We found this amazing praying mantis.  It was about 3 inches long.

Inside the cabin in the children's garden.

This beautiful sundial was in the rose garden and told very accurate time.