Swan Island Daliah Festival & Hiking Saddle Mountain

The weekend before school started, my dear friend and I went on a little excursion to celebrate her birthday. We started out at the Daliah Festival in Canby. 

Oh my goodness we were in Daliah heaven!

Friends are the flowers of life!

From there, we went on our way toward Seaside to hike the Saddle Mountain Trail that has long been on my bucket list of Oregon hikes. Round trip, it is about 5 miles.

There were many beautiful sites along the trail. At the picnic bench pictured below, we found ourselves pondering a life question: How did they get the picnic benches so far up the trail???

Seriously, if anyone has an answer for me, please let me know. 

We kept going, up and up, and then we reached what we thought was the end of the hike.

A little perspective on how big our universe is...

God's creation is so amazing!

I was feeling on top of the world, and then, I looked to my left...

and realized we were not at the top.

This hill may not look that bad, but oh my word, it was the most difficult hike I have ever done. To put it in perspective, when you zoom in on this picture, you can actually see people hiking on the trail.

I thought it was never going to end. It kept winding up and up. It was so steep, there were chain link fencing put over the trail to help the hikers with grip. 

Getting to the top was worth it though. Look at the view! We could see the ocean too!

I am so glad for my dear friend Kate going on adventures with me! It was a grueling hike on the way up, but the way down was just as bad! I discovered that I, apparently, have a knee problem! My left knee hurt so bad only on the down hill that I couldn't bend it. I fell quite a few times from the awkward gait I had to take on to avoid the pain. Luckily, Kate is on the up from knee surgery as well, so we were both slow pokes on the way down.

We finished the day with some Taco Time and a Candy Man ice cream cone on the gloomy beach.

We earned that ice cream!!

I'm looking forward to our next adventure!

Happy Sunday!

4th of July & Seaside Brewing Company

For the 4th of July, we went up to visit my Husband's family.

We helped take our twin nephews on the max to the parade.
They were so cute. They were so excited to be going on the "train. When first max came by they were just screaming at it because they were so excited. And then we had to tell them we weren't going on that and we had to wait for the next one. It was torture for them to have to wait! They love Thomas the train :)

The parade was fun. Lots of kids, lots of candy, lots of red, white and blue!

We both got pretty sunburned though! Our chairs were in the sun & I forgot the sunscreen!

I had a cute festive outfit, but I didn't get any pictures of it!

We spent the rest of the day at the pool with a bunch of our nieces and nephews. It was relaxing and refreshing! I really didn't even lay out like this for long, because it was way to hot! Pool and shade for me :)
The next day, we went up to Seaside to visit Joel's uncle. They guys went out to Golf and my mother-in-law and I went and looked in all the shops. We found one adorable home decor shop that was decorated beautifully and the gal working was a hoot! We also went into couple of cool antique shops. Lots of pretty things. The weather was beautiful! We just walked down to the ocean and back. Then we all had lunch together at the Seaside Brewing Company.

I didn't take any pictures, so I just stole some off of their facebook page. On their website, it says that this building used to be the city jail! The weather was way nicer than it is in this picture :)

This is the inside near the bar.

This is the second story. We went out that door on the left and ate lunch on the deck.
I had a Honey Badger Blonde, and fish tacos. It was delicious!!

See how sunny it was? Such a nice day!

What did you do for the 4th?
Happy Tuesday!