What do the states Vermont, Rhode Island, and West Virginia have in common?

On our recent 25 day, 4 leg, and 4,259 mile long vacation, those were the only states whose license plates I couldn't find to mark off on my map. I'm still looking.

First leg of our vacation (July 10-15): Brookings, Oregon to visit my folks.

Second leg (July 15-21): from Brookings to Lake Almanor, California for the annual Perazzo clan reunion.

Third leg (July 22-25): after spending a night in our home, we went down to Vegas to attend my nephew's wedding.

Fourth leg (July 25-Aug 3): from Vegas we drove to Missouri and Illinois to see church history sites and then we toured Iowa and visited the places Andrew served in while on his mission there.

Today's post if about the 1st leg of our journey:

Brookings, Oregon, Sunday July 10th-Friday July 15th. (well, my parents actually live in Harbor, Oregon)

We didn't spend as much time there as we usually do since there was just too much happening (Glen, Ryan, and Hannah were in Salt Lake for Youth Conference July 7-9, so we couldn't leave any earlier), but we still had a great time. Things we enjoyed:

Visiting my parents. Temps in the mid-to-low 60s. Going to the portrait drawing session at the Manly Art Center (and my kids being the models). Taking walks. Atlantic Pacific Ocean (some of our children were confused as to which ocean we were visiting). Tie dying t-shirts. The beach. Tide pools. Frisbee golf. Chalk art. Playing scrabble. Attending a dress rehearsal of the community production of the musical Lady Pirates of the Caribbean. And the last night we were there, we all attended the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: part 2.

Andrew, Alex, and Glen as we walk towards the harbor

Hannah with some chalk art (done by someone else)

Andrew, Alex, and Eric posing for the drawing session

Do you get the impression that Andrew and Ryan are cold???

Glen and Alex playing frisbee golf on the beach

Grandma, Ryan, Eric, Andrew, Grandpa, Hannah, and Alex

Glen, me, Mom, and Dad