The second half of our Oregon trip was spent in good ol' Florence Oregon at the Barnes Family Reunion. Every year we go down to camp at the Carl G. Washburne State Park Campground. Before this land was a state campground it belonged to a man that hired my grandpa Archie Barnes to be the caretaker, so my dad and his three brother grew up there, which is so neat we now get to go back and camp there. This is all of us that could make it out this year (we missed our "Florida" Barnes). For some odd reason we always end up taking this group photo after we have been there for three or so days and are all looking very stinky and "campish"...oh well, this is us having a great time:) (Lucy is covering her face and Carson won't look, because of the bright sunshine...but we won't complain we loved the warmth!)
At the campground there's a trail you can hike out to the original homestead site where all that is left is a stone chimney. Here is the meadow near the home site. As a service project Uncle Pat, Uncle John, my dad- Mike and brother-in-law Levi, mowed it all down...hard work! Some of us went out to watch and be the cheerleaders, really we just sat around taking pictures and picking flowers.
Carson found some fox glove flowers and found they made some pretty neat claws, or fake fingers.
Graham was just happy to be along for the ride.
Cleaning Clams...
One Barnes family tradition is to wake up bright and early to go out and dig river clams. Then bring them back and clean them, pound them, and cook them to eat. Most of us get out there in our yucky clothes and mud boots and work together to get about 8 limits (which is 36 clams each limit). If you have never eaten river clams before you've never known "delectable". They are the best ever when they're fresh, we down about 200+ every year and love it as we all gain a few pounds! Above and below shows the cleaning process...a bit gross if you ask me but, I don't do this part. Thank you to all those that do so that I can enjoy them later.
"Posh" frying clams (note Daniel in the back nabbin' a few hot ones)
Uncle Pat, Jackson, and Posh hard at work frying those clams
Down to the Beach...
Most of the time there we had this beautiful weather. Here we drove the 5 minutes down to the Heceta Head beach, the sun was out and the cousins had a blast getting wet, building a dam (or trying to), and building a sand castle = a perfect day at the Oregon beach.
Our chubby little bundles:) They are about 6 weeks apart in age, Graham born in Jan and Lance in Feb. Here's Lance and Graham together on the beach. After setting them down it was about 3 seconds before Graham started putting sand in his mouth...yum!
The beautiful Heceta Head Lighthouse
Building the dam...this started as Seth's idea. The kids joined in right away and it kept them busy for a long time. Then the tide started coming in and all their work was washed away...no worries, they went on to building a sand castle.
Carson loving the water!
Lucy loves to run away from the waves...like she's not already all wet.
After this blast of a week we decided to drive home through Bend...BIG MISTAKE! The road was too twisty and we ended up stopping to clean up puke...gross! I am a sympathy puker and it took all my efforts not to lose it while me and Todd worked to get the car seat, Carson, and everything else it touched, cleaned up. Without knowing the roads and it being night we went a bit slower than we had anticipated too, and ended up getting home around 2 am...yuck! Needless to say the next day we were all dragging. Below you see the evidence. Carson was busy coloring one minute and out the next minute, with marker still in his hand...I guess that's proof that the vacation was a success. We had a blast seeing both sides of our family and miss them all already!
At the campground there's a trail you can hike out to the original homestead site where all that is left is a stone chimney. Here is the meadow near the home site. As a service project Uncle Pat, Uncle John, my dad- Mike and brother-in-law Levi, mowed it all down...hard work! Some of us went out to watch and be the cheerleaders, really we just sat around taking pictures and picking flowers.
Carson found some fox glove flowers and found they made some pretty neat claws, or fake fingers.
Graham was just happy to be along for the ride.Cleaning Clams...
One Barnes family tradition is to wake up bright and early to go out and dig river clams. Then bring them back and clean them, pound them, and cook them to eat. Most of us get out there in our yucky clothes and mud boots and work together to get about 8 limits (which is 36 clams each limit). If you have never eaten river clams before you've never known "delectable". They are the best ever when they're fresh, we down about 200+ every year and love it as we all gain a few pounds! Above and below shows the cleaning process...a bit gross if you ask me but, I don't do this part. Thank you to all those that do so that I can enjoy them later.
"Posh" frying clams (note Daniel in the back nabbin' a few hot ones)
Uncle Pat, Jackson, and Posh hard at work frying those clams
Down to the Beach...
Most of the time there we had this beautiful weather. Here we drove the 5 minutes down to the Heceta Head beach, the sun was out and the cousins had a blast getting wet, building a dam (or trying to), and building a sand castle = a perfect day at the Oregon beach.This is...Carson (in the hat), Back row: Sloan, Lucy, Wyatt, Hannah, Hyrum.
Front Row: Sterling, Lance, and Graham
Our chubby little bundles:) They are about 6 weeks apart in age, Graham born in Jan and Lance in Feb. Here's Lance and Graham together on the beach. After setting them down it was about 3 seconds before Graham started putting sand in his mouth...yum!
The beautiful Heceta Head Lighthouse
Building the dam...this started as Seth's idea. The kids joined in right away and it kept them busy for a long time. Then the tide started coming in and all their work was washed away...no worries, they went on to building a sand castle.
Carson loving the water!
Lucy loves to run away from the waves...like she's not already all wet. After this blast of a week we decided to drive home through Bend...BIG MISTAKE! The road was too twisty and we ended up stopping to clean up puke...gross! I am a sympathy puker and it took all my efforts not to lose it while me and Todd worked to get the car seat, Carson, and everything else it touched, cleaned up. Without knowing the roads and it being night we went a bit slower than we had anticipated too, and ended up getting home around 2 am...yuck! Needless to say the next day we were all dragging. Below you see the evidence. Carson was busy coloring one minute and out the next minute, with marker still in his hand...I guess that's proof that the vacation was a success. We had a blast seeing both sides of our family and miss them all already!
2 comments:
Thanks for the pics of the reunion. We wish we could have been there. Looks fun. The cousins are getting so big. When the twins were babies we had a puke nightmare on one of our trips. I'll NEVER forget it! To make it worst, they barfed up scrambled eggs! As if eggs don't smell bad already. It took me a few years to want to eat eggs again.
What fun! Your kids are very cute! We miss the coast...
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