Oregon Coast

Sommercorn family reunion 2011 was in Lincoln City, OR this year. We all drove in from north, east, and south to share some fun memories and a large beach house. The weather just started warming up as we arrived. Although it barely warmed up above 70 degrees, it was sunny the whole time so we could enjoy some outdoor activities.
Upon arriving home from Hawaii we immediately packed up again for this trip. So I still had Hawaii on my mind and couldn't help comparing it to the Oregon coast. They are very different, of course, but both have beautiful coastlines and dense, green vegetation. The same but different would apply in this situation don't you think Rachel?
We did a quick hike together to a big waterfall.
The hike was just a way to burn a few calories before we headed to... the Tillamook Cheese Factory! Not only do they make a good cheddar, their ice cream is also incredible.
It was a pretty small factory tour, but very cute. There was plenty of opportunities to take pictures like Will in the "Loaf Love Tour" bus. On their website I saw a onesie that said "baby loaf," but unfortunately I couldn't find it in the gift shop.
After lunch at the factory, we took the scenic route home and stopped by this light house on the coast.
What a beautiful view!
Will had lots of fun hanging out with the cousins we don't see very often.
Elliot got to meet lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time.
We spent a lot of time outdoors. The beach was a short walk from the house. It was pretty cold most of the time, but Will didn't mind too much.
One day we spent at a nearby lake. The kids played at Sandcastle Park which had the most amazing wooden playground I've ever seen. It was almost like a kid-sized maze and I think the kids could have played there all day.



We lured them away from the playground with food, and a beautiful swimming area at the lake.
After all that...we were not done with the lake yet. We still had to go ON the lake with these paddle boats. Extremely slow, but still fun.
It was a LONG drive, especially after just getting back from another vacation, but luckily we have some very generous family in California that let us borrow their minivan. We officially heart minivans now. Look how happy Will is watching movies and eating chips in the van. Will and Elliot both did a great job traveling. We look forward to that day in the future when we can take a family trip in our own minivan. Our own minivan claimed by our own crumbs, barf, and garbage.

We've Got Company!

The Scarboroughs have arrived! They actually have been here for a while, but as you can tell, I've been a little behind in my posts. While I wish we could live near my family too, I am so grateful to have Britton's family so close by while Britton finishes up school.
The Scarboroughs add two adults, three cousins, and a dog and cat to the mix so that family get-togethers like Thanksgiving really become a big event!
Will has been happy to spend more time bonding with his cousins. Below, Will and Sam are sharing a "Thomas moment". Anybody who's a friend to Thomas is a friend to Will.

The Scarboroughs moved into a cute house situated right on the edge of the Mt. Diablo wilderness! Their backyard has access to hiking trails, which is pretty rare in the bay area, and we took advantage of a family hike over the Thanksgiving break. It's a beautiful area and I can't wait to explore it more when I'm not so large in the belly.
Phil is working for the same firm as before, and commuting to San Francisco by train. We got to pick him up on his way home one day for a temple trip. Erin met the rest of us at the Oakland temple, and we had a wonderful time together followed by a Denny's run.
It's hard for me to find a picture of Erin because she's usually the one behind the camera. Here's a big group of Olsons celebrating Grandma-lita's 89th birthday! Erin let me borrow a bunch of baby stuff. Score! And she surprised me by driving all the way to Palo Alto for my baby shower.
I probably sound like a broken record, but we really are SO grateful to be able to see our Olson family so often.

Lake Taco Adventure

We were planning on getting back from L.A., moving back to Stanford, and then taking a little family camping trip when out of the blue someone from church offers to let us stay in their Lake Tahoe condo for the week! An offer like that just can't be passed up. So we postponed moving and headed straight for Lake Tahoe, or Lake Taco as Will likes to call it, with our friends the Conti-Browns.
Our accommodations were spacious enough for the two families, and located very close to a nice beach on the south shore. This beach had everything we could have asked for. A great view for the adults, pretty clean sand despite the effort of the ducks, and a playground for the boys.

They're still young enough to not know the difference between a real shovel and pail made for the beach, and a simple glass a spoon from the kitchen. They loved the sand and playing in the freezing cold water. I didn't even want to put my feet in the water, and Will was laying down in it!
The older boys were also crazy enough to get in the water. Seriously, I only saw one other kid attempt to get in the water. They had a great time with the Frisbee out there, and Peter swears that it was refreshing.
Will and Gabe always had a car in hand. A lot of tears were shed over the cars, but we managed to get them to share some of the time.
They're still buddies, actually best friends according to Will. It was cute to see how excited Will was to see Gabe every morning.
We made one hiking attempt. We hiked on the Eagle Falls Trail and didn't get too far, but found some beautiful scenery, and gave these guys a chance to throw some rocks in water.
We packed a lot of activities into our last day. We started out pretty early for a canoe ride. Well, it was mostly a ride for me since the guys did most of the paddling.
Will wasn't a huge fan of the canoe ride, but enjoyed dipping (numbing) his feet in the water. We tied the two canoes together for more stability and fun. It also allowed Peter the chance to take another dive into the lake. He said the middle of the lake was more numbing than refreshing.
Then we drove around the lake up north to take a gondola ride at the Northstar Resort.
It turned out to be six gondola rides total. In two of them we were safely caged on all sides, but the last one was just an open seat! And we took our two year-old boys! I think they could sense our anxiety as we firmly held them down on the seat because they didn't try to fight it.
We saw a view of Lake Tahoe from one of the lifts, and enjoyed watching the mountain bikers take on the trails. I had no idea ski resorts catered to mountain bikers in the summer. There was a ton of bikers at Northstar that day.
Here's the view from another side of the mountain. It was great up there. In some places it was so quiet all you could hear was the wind.

The very last thing we did on our trip was play some great rounds of tether ball.

Christmas with the Cousins

We spent Christmas this year in Seattle (Renton) or (technically unincorporated King County). We had a great time, as you could tell from the previous fatty post. But food was not the only focus of our time there. There were plenty of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents to entertain, feed, and tease Will.
We'll start with cousin Hailey. Some of my friends and old roommates will be shocked to see this picture and realize that she's headed to high school next fall! I'm officially starting to get old.
Aunt Sara spent a good amount of time with the Willster. She probably fed him less cookies than most hence the sad face, but Will really does love his auntie Sara.

Matt was Will's favorite name to say during our stay there, and even a few weeks later. Cousin Matt was an expert at making Will laugh.
Matt also let Will play with his LightBrite! Will's new favorite toy.
Will didn't want to participate in the annual nativity. The kids did a great job this year with some fantastic costumes.
Christmas Eve was well documented by our paparazzi. But somehow we didn't get ANY pictures from Christmas morning, day, or evening!
I have to admit Will plays favorites. His all time favorite cousin, by far, is Natalie. She lets him squeeze her face, and mess up her toys. Will adores her and follows her around like a little, cute puppy.

Other stuff we did while on vacation was another murder mystery dinner. Here's the whole group "Cruising for Murder".
We didn't have an ugly sweater contest, but if we did, these two would have won!
We went to Snowflake Lane in Bellevue where there was dancing, holiday music, and fake snow falling from the mall. Will missed out because he was too tired.
We enjoyed some Washington nature going running in the neighborhood, hiking on Squak mountain, and exploring the woods behind my parent's house. I kind of miss being so close to wilderness.
Britton read, and cried, while reading The Christmas wish. Or was it called Christmas list, Christmas jars, Christmas shoes, Christmas orange, Christmas ice pick... It was some kind of Christmas noun.