Black Butte!!

Warning: LOTS of pictures! We just got back from Black Butte and rather than just post a million pictures, I'm giving a quick summary of each of our days there.

SATURDAY

The drive to Black Butte

We were in for quite a drive and with a two year old and that was a scary thought. We stayed at Matt and Lisa's house Friday night in Maple Valley to get a head start on the drive. Total drive time: 5.5 hours. Romy was an ANGEL! She loved the car ride and it helped that we played games and had movies to pass the time...

Starting with Romy's favorite game...hide and seek. Where's Romy???

There she is!!!

Making silly faces


We stopped at a McDonalds so Romy could play in the Playplace and burn off some energy in the hopes of a nap in the car. This is her going down the slide.


Our plan worked! Actually, don't be fooled...she only slept 20 minutes and then we got to Black Butte.


SUNDAY
Let the fun begin!

We started the day off at breakfast (no pics) and then headed to the pool. I figured Romy would enjoy the pool but never realized just how much she would love it!

Swimming with mommy in her doggie floatie.

Relaxing in the baby pool

Romy and "my Jess" These are the early pictures of Romy's obsession with Auntie Jess. This girl LOVED Auntie Jess! She always has loved Jess but this vacation she was pretty much connected to Jess at the hip!

Dinner Sunday night. Jess, Dan, Rob and I made carne asada taco bar with root beer floats as dessert! It turned out better than I expected. I'm not a cook. I can easily mess up cooking toast just to give you an idea. Fortunately, everyone really enjoyed it!

Sunday night Rob and I took a bike ride so I could show him the sites. This is the "butte" that Black Butte is named for. Isn't it beautiful?

Gorgeous sunset

The "neverending bridge" that was named by us cousins when we were younger. It's just a bridge to ride your bike on but I realized this year that it seems much shorter than it did back in the day. Funny how that works. :)

Uncle Ron and Dad smoking their pipes. This is always the nightly routine at Black Butte.

Danny and Jess...aren't they cute?

Game Night! We played Balderdash and it was hilarous! Don't mind my weirdo sister's face in the pic. We all think she's nuts. :)

After the game, my mom gave Lisa an early birthday present. She has been working on this quilt since February! Isn't it so beautiful? I got a quilt that my mom made a while ago for graduation and I love it. She does such an amazing job.

MONDAY

Family Day

Romy up early in her cute new outfit for the festivities

Romy and Trina playing Romy's fishing game

They pushed Romy out of the way so they all could play. Ha! Kidding! Everyone liked this game though that is made for 4 year olds. I love it!

Me and my mama

This picture does not do this event justice. When we were little we had "pancakes from the sky." This was invented by Uncle Ron and my dad. This being our 25th year at Black Butte, the pancakes morning turned into quite the event. These guys seriously out-do themselves every year. This year they had written a song to the Gilligan's Island theme about Black Butte. The hats were there own special touch. :)

That's my dad at the top of the deck pouring pancake batter to my uncle at the bottom. Think we're weird yet?...it gets better.

There's Uncle Ron catching the pancake batter!

The official pancakes from the sky pancake.

There was a LOT going on that morning and then I found Romy sitting outside by herself. Even she seems to think this family is too weird for her. Ha!

Onto the next family event, "kickstar" which is really just kick ball with colors and teams. :) Note the red shirts. We all got 25 year shirts in honor of our 25th year that listed all the favorite Black Butte memories on the back. SO fun! That's Phillip in his gear (blue team.)

Kickstar

This picture should have come later but it is the champion trophy (MY team...thank you very much!)

Dad before we headed out to the kickball field.

The blue team aka the Blue Monsters

The Red Team aka the Red Bulls

Romy hanging out on the swings while we played kickball

After kickball and during Romy's nap, us cousins all went into town in Bend to have lunch at the Deschutes Brewery. Here's a pic of Phillip and Emily

Rob and I at lunch.

My attempt at an artsy picture of the menu

After lunch, Rob, Romy and I had a little family time and went by the park

SO happy on the swings!

Our shadow family. :)

We took Romes for some ice cream

Another perfect scenic picture

Romy and I outside the lodge

TUESDAY

Boat day

Each year, our family takes a speedboat out on Lake Billy Chinook. Isn't this view great? We didn't think Romy would be up for boating but fortunately, Jess was willing to stay back and watch her for a few hours so Rob and I could go out on the boat.

Rob taking a run at tubing. It wasn't super hot that day and the waves were pretty choppy but we all still enjoyed our time boating.

Sweet Romes at dinner after our boating

The fam enjoying dinner at Papa Andrea's pizza

Later that night, we enjoyed another Black Butte tradition...smores! Here's Jess, Lisa and Danny trying them out

Danny grubbing on a smore

Me and my cuz...Trina

Matt and Lisa. Lisa will love me for posting this picture. Ha!

Trina and Emily later that evening. All the ladies helped out putting together my wedding invitations. Aren't they so nice?


WEDNESDAY

We head home

We were SO sad to leave. We had such a good time! Goodbye house!!

In the car on the way home, Romy took a picture of her feet. Cracked me up!

Well, another year at Black Butte had ended. We had such an amazing time and were so sad to go. Romy still keeps talking about wanting to go on "cation" (vacation) again. Until next year...