THE SPJUTE FAMILY: Fun in Oregon

We planned to do a fun hike Friday. It was located South in the Tillamook valley, up behind some random neighborhoods - and it was beautiful! it's amazing how many shades of green Oregon has.

The longer we stayed, the longer she slept in in the mornings.

Good morning Sunshine.

Cute Claire. She loved having hot chocolate every morning.

I brought some watercolor paints, and it was a hit painting the seashells.

I love that this picture shows how fast Claire is really going.

My girlies 💗

We made it to the hiking trail!

There was the coolest fallen tree that went along the trail. It was easily 3'+ wide and was the biggest tree in the area. It was crazy long too! Quince and I took the trail less traveled, and that made all the difference.

Uncle Dan catching crawdads.

The girls were in waterfall heaven!

Showing us their booties. They definitely learned that from their Dad ...

On the way out, I hit a slimy log wrong and slid so fast onto my back that I hardly had time to react. Greg had to use all of his strength (literally) to pull me and Quincey back up, since I tried to stay as stiff as I could to not get any more wet. Luckily only the backpack and my backside got submerged and Quincey stayed nice and dry. It made for a funny thing to laugh about the way back down the trail.

After the hike, you guessed it! We went to the Tillamook Factory for lunch.

Here is Sof having the audacity to look so grown up!

Claire was in hamburger heaven!

After having to jumpstart our car 2 different times, we finally pulled into an Auto Zone where they tested our battery and told us it was shot, and if we decided to wait to replace it, that ultimately it could ruin our alternator as well. So, Greg and I decided to replace the battery. Because after fixing the oil hose and ripping off the front shield plate, what else could possibly go wrong?

We learned the people in Oregon are some of the most genuine, down-to-earth, helpful people. Because of Greg's ICD device, he's not supposed to stand over an engine, so I was trying my best to replace the battery with the limited tools that we had. A man walking out of the Auto Zone saw us and instantly stepped in to help. It turns out that he's a local mechanic and made replacing the batter look so easy! As we were getting back into the van, Greg noticed the tire light was on, so we got out and noticed that our back passenger tire was low; of course it was! So, we flagged down the mechanic man and asked him where the best place was to go. Lucky for us, he pointed kiddy-korner from where we were, and off we went.

This particular tire store was so fun! The mechanic had us pull right into the bay and had us stay in the car while she jacked it up, took off and rolled the tire away. She was speedy! And I'm pretty sure I found my spirit animal. She was so fun to watch! Also, after talking to us about our tire, she compared them to "toilet paper." That made Greg and I feel pretty good about our tire quality ... but it made sense because we have had nothing but problems with the tires since they were put on the car. After paying a whopping $10 for the tire fix, we were on our way back to the beach .... Greg and I sat there and marveled at how much help we had received in such a small amount of time, from complete strangers. People really are good, no matter their background or physical appearance.