Last week we spent our 7th year vacationing with our friends, the Haddens, in beautiful Sunriver, Oregon. I'm proud to say Jana and I have successfully worked our husbands up to a 5 night stay (we started with 3 nights back in 2010) and we are closer than ever to our end goal of a full week ;)
You may ask, what the heck do you for that long in Sunriver? Oh ho ho. Let me tell you, we vacation slooowly. It's amazing. Sleep in. Brunch. Swing on the back deck and drink coffee. Deer watch. Bike ride. Play at the park. Swim. Nap. Take turns cooking. Watch movies (or the Olympics!) Play games. Visit the village. Float down the river. Eat out. Get icecream at Goody's. Read books. Exercise. Relaaaax.
Here's where the swimming goes down, just a 3 minute bike ride from our vacation home. It's called SHARC and it's our second home at Sunriver. Out of the picture is the kiddie pool/play area, the lazy river, outdoor hot tub, and entire indoor pool complex with pool volleyball and basketball, a whirlpool, lap lanes, and second kiddie area.
This was Blake's first year going completely lifejacket-free, and oh the freedom! Finally, all the kids are good swimmers and trustworthy in the pool, and as long as the youngest two weren't off all on their own, Jana and I felt no need to abandon our spots on the lazy river. HIGH. LIFE.
Cooper and Dylan
Not pictured: Jana and I coming down on the double tube, which is a good thing since we flipped at the end and I landed directly on top of Jana and it was all very ungraceful.
So I'll give you this picture instead, where we look just a little more put together.
Dinner and hot tubbing on the back deck.
Spending the evening at The Village (fave activities: visiting the toy/game store, bumper cars, Goody's ice cream parlor, window shopping, dancing to the outdoor bands, and eating at Village Bar & Grill or Sunriver Brewing Co.)
I can't believe this was our first time doing this, but we brought our own inflatable floating stuff to do a 5 mile float down the Deschutes where it wraps around Sunriver and we LOVED IT.
I can't even describe how beautiful and relaxing and peaceful it was.
All the way up to the last half mile of the trip when we realized Jana had somehow dropped her plastic ziplocked iphone in the river and not noticed it was missing until it was long, long gone.
SAD, SAD TIMES.
(This led to an emergency trip to Costco in Bend for a new, upgraded iphone and after drooling over Jana's new 64 GB of storage I had half a mind to conveniently lose my own phone... ;)
Relaxing at Fort Rock Park, where we like to bike to for its playground, tennis and pickle ball courts, outdoor basketball & volleyball court, and big green playing field.
Russ (far left) loves the outdoor hoop. Unfortunately, just a couple of minutes after I took this picture on our second to last day there, he colided with the kid defending him and broke his nose. Like blood all over, nose going sideways, we better head to the emergency room, broke.
The doctor basically just gave him some nausea and pain meds and sent us away with instructions to wait till the swelling was down before having an ENT specialist reset it, so we came back home to join the rest of our group at the pool and still managed to make it back to Goody's for dessert in the Village that night. Russ is a trooper.
Celebrating Emily's 9th birthday on our last morning in Sunriver. Jana hung a sign, made us all delicious cinnamon rolls, and we surprised Emily with a couple of presents over breakfast.
Final group shot before heading home, with a stop at Three Creeks Brewing Company in Sisters for lunch.
Ending vacations is so hard for me! But getting to stay 6 days definitely made it a little easier.
And now, for my final words of advice if you're planning a trip...
DO:
- find a home with bikes and SHARC passes. We usually use vrbo.com.
- bring helmets for kids 16 and under, they check!
- take your kids to one of the outdoor movie nights.
- try one of the float options (there's 3) on the Deschutes and bring your own tubes/rafts/kayaks so it's free.
- go with friends or family! You get to share the house cost, split meals, and have built in entertainment for your kids.
DON'T:
- worry about getting a home with AC. Being high desert, it gets so cool at night and all the houses are shaded by tall pines, so as long as there are fans we've never had a problem.
- get a house so far out that it's too hard to bike to at least SHARC or Fort Rock Park. There are bike trails everywhere and they are fun to use.
- drop your phone in the river. It's a bummer.
- break your nose playing basketball. Also a bummer.
