We’ve been busy the last few weeks which has been great! Kris scored a 3 day weekend over the 4th of July so we did some fun things. Started Friday with a trip to Portland for a comedy show at 10pm. Funny stuff and had a great time! We went up with Justin and Debbie and despite some annoyances with food and drinks, I think we all had some good laughs.
Saturday we went on a 2 1/2 hour horse back ride up into the Santiam National Forest with Into the Wild Equine Adventures.
I love horse back riding and couldn’t wait for this trip. I haven’t been on a horse in quite a few years and knew I would be out of shape for it. The biggest part of me that is out of shape though are the tailbones that got sat upon the whole trip! lol.. My legs didn’t hurt at all but man, those saddles are not soft! I rode a Tennessee Walker
which I had requested as my mount simply because I thought she’d be smoother for my back. However, going up and down small gullys on a trail at a walk does not equal a smooth ride no matter what kind of horse you’re on. The horse trots/stumbles up and down and you bounce around in the saddle. Oi vey! The trail was a walk up the mountain side to an overlook
and then back down the way we came up. The trip up was a piece of cake, however the slide/stumble down was a bit more difficult. The views,
the peace and the joy of being on horse back were well worth the effort! I thought for sure my back would hate me, but it wasn’t too bad.
Saturday night Kris and I hosted a campfire at the RV park but no one came. So we got to spend 4 hours together, just sitting around, having a beer and roasting hot dogs and marshmellows over the fire, together. It was very pleasant and I really miss having a fire pit, though having pre-seasoned, well cut, large firewood was a bonus we didn’t have backhome. 🙂
This is the fire pit, but the picture was taken a week previously when other people did actually stop by.
Couldn’t leave you without a pic of fire!
Sunday we participated in an Uncivil War of cornhole at the RV park. The winner won a $50 gift certificate to the park and the runner up won a $25 certificate. We were defeated by the champions in the semi final round. Sounds pretty good eh? Until I tell you that there were only four teams and two rounds. 😉 We all had a great time though and that is what matters.
After that we packed up and headed to Seattle after dropping the dogs off at Scot and Amy’s. We went up to visit with Chris and Christy in the Seattle/Tacoma area.
This is Fran, their Miniature Pincsher.
Christy made some delicious ribs and after dinner we built up a fire and again, sat around and talked. Way better than sitting in front of a TV imo.
On Monday we went to a coffee shop that has a Jenga game you can play. We got coffees and assorted breakfasts and played Jenga for an hour. We had some pretty spectacular crashes! and a lot of fun. 🙂
Afterwards we went to Des Moines beach on the sound, where Christy was being a volunteer interpreter for the day.
We hung out on the beach for several hours and I took a ton of pictures.
We saw little crabs,
See the little suicidal crab? A hint, he’s to the left of her palm.
sea stars,
a kingfisher
and lots of other assorted shore type critters.
It was a gorgeous day and again, had a great time.
This past week I decided to get serious about finding a place to rent. I found a small 2 bedroom house that has a decent backyard and a 1 car garage. We put in an application on Friday and we hope to know on Monday or Tuesday whether or not they will accept us. I am torn between wanting them to and not. If they do, great! We’ll move in and have a bit more space. If they don’t, that means many other places also will not accept us and we should quit trying. If that is the case, then I have a plan of attack for revamping the living quarters a bit and then reorganizing the storage unit so that we can more easily get in and out and find stuff we might want/need. Like my riding gear so I can take horse back riding lessons for a little while. 🙂
This weekend we’ve been staying at Scot and Amy’s while they went to Seattle to go diving. It’s been nice to have more space and reclining couches again. I am definitely not a fan of hard wood floors with dogs (click click click) and the rental has all hard wood floors… but I’ll manage. I’ll coat the bedroom floor in area rugs and just eliminate that issue. 😀
In other news I head to Indiana on Wednesday for a small vacation. I’m so looking forward to seeing my friends and family again!!! It’s been too long and I have plans already to have dinner with friends on three evenings of the 5 I’m there! One, granted is at my sister’s house on Sunday, just a relaxed get together cookout. Can’t wait!!!