Donaldson Family Reunion 2012

PORTLAND ZOO

The kids have been begging all year to go to the zoo, so we stopped by the Portland Zoo on our drive to the coast.

Sitting in the eagle's nest with cousin Christian.

The monkeys were by far Nathan's favorite animal to watch.  After watching the monkeys, the kids enjoyed trying to swing around like them.

Abby was excited to see a cheetah.  She has a stuffed cheetah, and has always wanted to see a real one.

The kids loved the lorikeet area where they got to see the birds up close.

LINCOLN CITY

My parents rented a big house for all of us to stay at in Lincoln City.  The kids were excited to try out their sleeping bags.

They especially loved the "pirate ship" in the backyard where they spent many hours playing with their cousins.


The kids all had fun finding clues and following them to find their own pirate treasure.











FAMILY PICTURES

It was quite a production to get all of us (14 adults and 20 kids) together and matching for this picture.  You can hardly tell from the smiles that we were all about to strangle each other.

Our individual family picture

THE BEACH

The kids loved the ocean and enjoyed exploring sea caves and looking for sea shells.

Nathan walking barefoot on the sand.

Maddy and Nathan had fun building sandcastles.
Here is Abby flying kites on the beach with Grandpa.

HIKING

The girls went with Jared on a hike to Drift Creek Falls. Maddy did an especially good job.

They got to cross a large suspension bridge.

At the waterfall.

DATE NIGHT

My parents were really sweet and watched all the kids one night for us in Lincoln city while the rest of us all had a "date night."  The guys cooked delicious sea food and we all enjoyed a night together without kid distractions.

WHALE WATCHING

The girls went on a fun whale watching tour with Jared, their aunt Sarah, and cousins Jacob and Mary.

They saw some sea lions.

They even saw a grey whale and tracked it for a few miles.  A few times it surfaced, it showed its entire maw (which the guide said is quite rare).  Unfortunately, Jared discovered that getting a good picture of one of those events is even more rare.  He was lucky just to be able to time getting a picture of the fluke (above).


TRAINS

My mom met a nice couple when we went to church on Sunday who invited us all over to see her model train that drives through a minature fairy tale land that she created.  The kids really enjoyed following the train around and identifying the different places and characters from their favorite fairy/nursery tales.

We had  a lunch at their house afterward with this beautiful view of these great blue herons.


GREAT-GRANDPA DONALDSON

It was a special treat to have my Grandpa Donaldson join us for the reunion.   The kids had a lot of fun doing  puzzles with their great-grandpa.

GOING HOME

On the way home we were able to stop by Multnomah Falls with Sarah and Gordon's family.

We had a great time at the reunion, and especially appreciate my parents who worked hard to make a wonderful vacation for all of us.  A couple other things we did that I don't have pictures for are: a trip to the Oregon Coast aquarium, shopping at the outlet mall, swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's condo at Depoe Bay, Donaldson family sing-a-long, lunch at Mo's, lots of yummy meals, beautiful ocean views, and late night games and discussions after the kids went to bed.  Winning Heard-in-the-House for the trip: Christian (who is very into cowboys right now) came halfway down the stairs one night when the adults were all up talking, looked through the railing, and said, "Are you all down here talking about horses and cowboys?"