Tis the season of wild berries. It is so much fun to have blackberries and huckleberries everywhere you turn. Camden has gone a little nuts and he LOVES going for hikes to eat the wild berries. We made several batches of jam. The funniest part is how Camden sees the berries and points to them and grunts for them. Sometimes he will find them before we will. 
I think this is going to be our first toy. A sand board!! It is so much fun. There are sand dunes that you ride like you would snowboarding. I have never heard of this sport until now, and it is huge. The funniest part is seeing people sandboarding in town behind the stores. There is even a sand boarding park here for the real experts. As a side note: My dad said that I look really cold in this picture, well I was wearing my wet swimsuit from swimming in the cold lake just before. It was really a nice day, 65 degrees or so :) 
This weekend it was the craziest ward activity I have been to yet. The ward set up a slip and slide down the sand dunes and landed in the lake. It was so much fun. We loved it. When I heard about it, I thought that it would be small for the kids, but it actually ended up being an adult activity. The kids just made sand castles and waded in the lake. There are ways to make up your own fun in small towns :)
We drove up to Portland, OR and went to Anne's wedding reception. It was so much fun to see her as a princess. Brayden and Camden just kept stairing, not exactly knowing what to think. We got a hotel, and actually made the effort to shop. Now that we are doing the small town thing it is fun to shop. The funniest part is that we found ourselves at REI, buying stuff for hiking. What dorks huh?
Uncle Morris and Aunt Jane, and David are officially our first guests. We drove from Portland down to our house along the coast and had so much fun showing them our new place. They were so kind to make the effort. 
We had to stop and get to fresh blackberries so they could have some to take home with them. They loved them just as much as we do.
We ran out of time to take them to Sweet Creek hike. It is probably my favorite hike yet. It is amazing and this is only one of the beautiful pictures from this spectacular hike. 
We went with the youth to the Lighthouse for the night hike they do every year at the beginning of school. They invited us to go because it was something the new family in town wouldn't have done before. We caught an awesome night and had so much fun. I don't think our boys realize how cool it was. 
After camping, we decided to go on a fun hike to a beautiful lake. It was funny to us because we camped by a lake, packed up and drove 2 miles to hike to another lake? This many lakes is foreign to us. We have really enjoyed the Mitchells, and the Wherity's who are so kind to show us around and take us on all the sites.
Morning Fog through the trees. This is what the ocean brings in. Cool huh?
Labor Day weekend wouldn't be the same without camping!! We made a quick weekend decision to go camping with two other families. It was so much fun. The kids loved it and so did we. At about 12:00 Camden started screaming and I left the adults talking around the camp fire to help him and he started screaming louder. It was dark and I finally figured out that I smelled like camp fire and he couldn't recognize me. As soon as I changed clothes and held him he calmed down and went to bed. It was the weirdest thing.
It is fishing season!! Tons of boats are on the river selling people fish. This boat sold the entire tuna. It is so weird to me that people actually can their own tuna. I guess I will be trying that sometime. We wanted to buy a tuna, but decided that we don't know what to do with that much fish, so we got the Fresh Tuna Steak Dinner that they were selling at one of the tents. It was AWESOME!! 
We were able to enjoy the time at Airport Appreciation Day! We got to see all of the small airplanes and helicopters. Several of the pilots from the area brought their personal planes and took people on flights for FREE. We stood in line for a little over an hour, just in time for the wind to blow and they called it unsafe. We hope to go later though. 
Small town living has its perks, and this was one of them. The circus came to town and invited all the locals to come and watch them set up the tent and get ready for the day. We watched the elephants get bubble baths, their nails done, and even watched the elephant help set up the tent. It was a fun morning, then we returned at 4:30 for show time.
My neighbor and her two boys joined us for the fun adventure. The boys were so excited.
This part of Oregon has 17 fresh water lakes. It was a little weird to hear that we didn't have a pool in town but now I know why. There are all the lakes that everyone swims at. It is so great for the kids, the boys dig, and dig, and swim and then dig. It is nice for the moms to sit and visit while the kids play. The other thing that is weird is the reality that we might eventually get a floating toy. Most people own some sort of floating devise, whether it is a canoe, kayake, jet ski, boat, or fishing boat. I can remember talking to the other dental student about this, and someone asked us if we ever thought we would get a boat.. my instant reply was no. Funny how where you live changes everything. Growing up in Colorado, there was no need for a boat, the lakes were too far away.
Even the trees in Oregon are unique to me. This was a kind of tree I have never seen. I still need to look it up. One night Justin and I were driving home and saw this in one of the neighbors yards. I thought it looked so cool and insisted that Justin see how cool this was. We turned around and Justin insisted that he already had seen it and that I should get out and touch it because it was so soft. It wasn't soft at all. He then had to get out of the car and touch this amazingly weird tree only to find out that it wasn't soft. Anyone know what it is? 
We live right next to some of the Oregon Sand Dunes National Recreation Area. Sand Dunes are new to me. I have never really been on any before. Many people come here with their ATV's and their Dune Buggies. These sand dunes are motorized restricted and are used for a sport called SAND BOARDING. Again, this is new to me... People ride the sand dunes like you would a snow board. They even have Sand boarding parks. Our ward even has ward activities where you take a slip and slide down the sand dunes into the Lake. We are excited for all of these new adventures. We came to check it out for Family Home Evening and people were sitting on the top of the dunes watching the ocean and the sunset.
This is the new hobby for the boys, DIGGING. Now that we live on the Oregon coast, there is TONS of sand and digging holes. They dig at the beach, the lake, the playground and of course the back yard. I don't know if I will ever get used to all of this dirt. After bath time EVERY night I get to clean the tub. There is usually sand all along the bottom of the tub. 
This is one of the stops we made at Malad Gorge. It was amazing. I didn't know this existed and we truely loved the scenery. On both sides of the gorge are farms, and then there is this.
Justin let Camden have a piece of Licorice while I was driving. I look and my rear view mirror to see this. Can we say heart attack? I thought it was blood or something.
Oregon is absolutely stunning. As we drove accross Oregon we came to McKenzie pass. This is the summit. Here there is an observation tower to see all the mountains and everything. The weirdest part was all of the Lava. It was rolling hills of lava rock. We want to learn more of what had happened here. 
We drove 13 hours each way to be there Friday afternoon and Saturday. Needless to say our drive was long, and our stay was short. We were able to stop quickly and say hi to my family, before we headed home. Brayden and Camden love the time and Grandma and Grandpas. 
Cousins or Brothers? It was fun to see how Camden and his cousin Elias looked so similar. I couldn't get a very good picture of it, but they both have the very blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. It was fun to see them interact. They are 6 months apart.
This was the closest thing to a group picture that I got. I don't know why we didn't take more pictures. I guess we were just having too much fun catching up.
We had a lot of fun in Salt Lake City with James, Mayerling and family, Todd, Chalon, and family, Erin Taylor, and our family. We enjoyed the hotel, as we went swimming in the pools, staying up late, and enjoyed the time together. 
We recently found out that our sweet Grandma, and Great Grandma Linton passed away. We feel very fortunate to have had her influence in our lives. She was always warm and welcoming and brought the spirit with her. She was loved by many and will be missed.
We found out on a Monday and quickly made arrangements to attend funeral services that weekend. It was a wonderful weekend to celebrate her life. She was buried close to Justins parents, and so we were able to take this picture. It was fun to see all of the family that we have not seen for some time. 