Epic Vacation

*Warning: A million pictures are in this post!  Because of that, I am giving a rough overview of the week and then a million pictures!*
For Memorial Day weekend, we went on an EPIC vacation with our good friends from the ward Nate and Yolanda Stanford with their 5 kids and Brittany.
We stayed down in Bandon, Oregon which is SOUTHERN Oregon coast.  Dustin and I drove with Brittany and completed our journey along the entire Oregon coast by driving from Lincoln  City down into California.  Our trip down we stopped at some lighthouses, a cool place called Devil's Churn, and the sea lion caves.  It was an all day drive starting at 8 AM but we made it to Bandon in time for dinner and swimming at the pool.
Sunday we woke up bright and early to visit the West Coast Game Park walk through Safari which is a long title for "coolest zoo ever."  You get to pet the baby animals!  We got to pet a black panther, black bear, lion, and fox.  There were goats and peacocks and deer and llamas just walking around and pooping everywhere.  Hahaha, yep, it's true, the word of the trip was "poop" based on all the poop we found everywhere.  Guess that's what happens when you mix free roaming animals and children's vocabulary!
After the coolest zoo ever, Brittany, Dustin and I headed down the rest of the Oregon coast into California to visit the Jedediah Smith State Park which is a park with REDWOODS.  They were so awesome!  So awe-inspiring.  I felt like I was walking through a super high-def movie as it was so surreal. You really felt so small while hiking among the giant trees!  Sunday night was spent with a fancier dinner and more swimming!
Monday morning we hit the beach in Bandon and it was awesome!  Tide pools, mussels, and star fish galore!  I ventured out into the water about knee high, but most of our time was exploring the tide pools.  The kids had so much fun pulling the poor star fish off the rocks.  Dustin and I carefully relocated them back on so hopefully they are okay!  The afternoon we explored a little Old Town Bandon starting with the Cranberry Sweets shop- where they have free samples of just about all of their candies!  We felt pretty sick after our samplings, especially since Dustin and I haven't been eating a lot of sugar lately.  Then it was the drive back home, which was much shorter driving straight back and not along the coast.
It was a great weekend and a fun getaway! 
 Now pictures!

 Yaquina Bay lighthouse

 View from Yaquina Bay lighthouse

 Dustin at Devil's Churn.  We climbed all over these rocks and it was cool to see the waves splash up against the rocks.

 From the top of Devil's Churn after hiking back up

 Sea Lion Caves

 Can you see the Sea Lions?  They are BIG.

 Another lighthouse.  Don't remember which one...

Dustin driving the boat!

Petting the baby black panther

Baby Black panther

A goat was fond of Brittany's jacket and kept trying to nibble it.

Amery with a little baby goat.  She loved it!

Petting the baby black bear with Daxton and Brigham

Dustin and one of the many peacocks!  Which were sometimes scary cuz they would kinda charge you.

Amery and Brigham petting the camel

Petting the baby fox

Albino ferret

The Stanford kids.  Brigham's (in the middle) face is my favorite.  So Brigham

Brittany and Dustin petting the baby lion

Dustin and the llama

Dustin inside a Redwood.  This was a little one.  Hahaha

The base of a fallen Redwood.  Look how big it is!

Stretching out as far as we can

Very tall. Pictures can't even portray the beauty of these trees

Just to get a little perspective- Brittany is that tiny dot at the bottom of the tree in the middle.  Can you find her?

Brittany and the beach.  So excited!

We found a little sand crab.

Tide pools

Star Fish!

Dustin found a little cave

It was kinda bright... don't mind me squinting like crazy.

The beach!

So happy!

Amery and the star fish

Little crab

Lincoln's haul.  He's holding three star fish here.. that we hopefully put back on okay...

The sun started to come out!

Yolanda, Brianne, and Brittany.  Great friends!

Such a pretty view!

Old Town Bandon- The Flying Pig.  Thought it was funny and cute. :)

Me and Brigham- my adopted son.  He is one crazy kid!

Good vacation!

My new obsession

So the crafting that I've MOST been excited about (and by excited I mean newly obsessed with) is quilting. My friend Brittany talked me into taking an 8 week quilting class with her on Tuesday nights.  I was surprised and overwhelmed at the expenses and work that would need to go into this new hobby at the first class, but have now become quite enthralled with quilting.  I love picking out fabrics and finding quilt patterns that I like and seeing it come together!  My first quilt has been what I have named the cupcake quilt.
You see, once upon a time when I was doing some shopping for a friend's baby shower, I came across this outfit:

Isn't it so freaking adorable?! And so totally me.  I am a cupcake kinda gal.  So I bought it for myself with the hopes that someday we will have our own lil cupcake. 

So when quilting class started and I needed to think of a theme for my baby quilt to make (I wasn't gonna start out on a big quilt so baby quilt made sense to me), cupcake theme was an obvious choice to me!
So I picked out some fabric....

 And started cutting....

 And started sewing.... (this is called chain sewing... you just sew one piece after the other so it makes a long chain of pieces that you snip apart)

 And sewing....

 And mapping out....

 And sewing some more...

 Until I reached this point this morning!

Um, isn't this the cutest freaking thing you've ever seen!?!  I am very happy with how it's turning out.  I still have a border to put around the whole thing, then I need to do the backing, batting, and binding to finish it off.
My lil cupcake is gonna be one lucky lady!