Family Vacation - Part 1

LaPine State Park - Deschutes River

Well, the Johnsons have flown the coop ... lifted off ... left the building ... !!!!  Bye-bye junipers!  Might I just say that I severely underestimated the amount of work and energy required in getting this family of 9 out the door.  :-)  After much prep, packing, more prep, finishing projects (Dwight's house), checking on the goats, packing, helping with a Bend Soap tour, and final prepping, we finally left.  We were a day later than we had planned, but oh well.  We had nowhere to go, so ....

Day 1 -- Ty's Pool party and LaPine State Park
Our first day was mostly spontaneous. With all the boys in their matching orange "traveling clothes" (as I've come to call them), we ate breakfast out and then headed to the Juniper Swimming Pool (couldn't they name it something else?).  Ty had been planning on going here for his birthday - which we had postponed until we were free to enjoy.  It was WONDERFUL!  What a great way to start out -- relaxing and enjoying the children playing.  Wyatt and Vienna were sketchy at first, but became totally comfortable by the end.  They absolutely loved going down the slide.  The 5 others were rock solid and loved the warm 3' deep water.  It's the closest thing to Hawaii we have 'round here. :-)

Next stop:  Visiting our southern neighbor towns.  We made a quick stop in Sun River for a possible bike ride, but decided to keep going to La Pine State Park to camp out and rest.  We all (that is, Daddy, Mama, and the 3 littlest) needed a major nap after all our trip prep.  Phew!  There's no rest for the weary though.  I tried to get Vienna, Wyatt and Quint to nap, while Dwight took the 4 oldest (who were not tired AT ALL!) down a trail that led right to the beautiful Deschutes River.  They were all glad they went.

Apparently there was a rope swing there!  They all took turns swinging far out across the water.

There was "cliff-jumping"...

... and rock-skipping

We ended up not staying there after-all, but heading North instead to Dufur - to camp out at Chad & Jenise's.  The boys were practically in 7th heaven - getting to see their cousins.