Klamath Falls, OR

Our vacation in Klamath Falls, Oregon last week was very fun

We drove up on Monday, we left around 8am, had to stop once to feed Catcher and arrived in Redding at 12:30. That was perfect, we met up with some old friends and had lunch at the mall, and let the kids run around in the mall's play area for a while before heading on. It was 3pm when we started on the road again. The drive was nice, the clouds kept looming like there would be some major weather but we kept getting only little bits of rainny drizzle. We drove right next to mount Shasta which was amazing to see, and we arrived in Klamath Falls at 5:30pm. We got the girls in our AMAZING condo and just as Adam was unloading the van he said the weather had suddenly dropped about 10 degrees. We had seen snow along the sides of road off and on since Redding, but there was no snow actually in Klamath Falls when we got there. Just as soon as Adam finished unloading the van, it started to snow, only a little at first, but then within a few minutes it was snowing heavily and it was sticking. The girls were soooo excited, Elaine is the only one who has ever actually seen snow, but it has been so long even she doesn't remember it. They were glued to the window watching the meadow behind our unit become a blanket of White. It really was kind of magical watching the excitement on their little faces.

The next morning Adam decided to go to Wal Mart to get a few basic food items (our condo had a nice little kitchen) and he took the three girls with him while Catcher and I slept in. He said the van was frozen shut and he had to warm it up before he could open the sliding doors :) The kids loved that the snow was still on the ground as it was still quite early. However as the day went on, after the sun had been up for a few hours, it melted the small amount of snow that had been on the ground. The girls were a little sad about that, but then Adam showed the the indoor swimming pool and their frowns quickly faded. We went to Wal Mart again later that day and bought swimming suits (only $7 each...can't beat that!) and Daddy took his three girls swimming in the indoor pool for several hours...they loved it!!

Wednesday felt like it came so fast, we really hadn't done much and it was already the middle of the week, so we got the kids up and dressed early and took them to play in the snow. We had to drive a little ways to find some but we found an amazing snow park. We originally were going to drive all the way to Crater Lake but when we happened upon this snow park we decided to just stop here and let the kids go nuts. It was a huge snow park that during the ON-season must be very popular as they even built an all season "warming" lodge. It had a wood burning stove inside and stacks of wood and paper for burning, there were picnic tables inside and we used some of the cardboard in the lodge as a sled outside in the snow. The girls wanted to build a snowman but the snow wasn't really that good for building anything, it was rather hard and brittle because it was mostly old snow, not fresh sticky powder. But at one point there had been a snow plow that plowed the parking lot which had made large mounds of snow that Adam stacked on top of each other to make an odd looking snow man. The kids liked it, Maggie made a big round nose for it. Elaine and Maggie loved to throw snow balls at Daddy, but he had much better aim and they loved running away from him. I don't think i've seen Adam laugh so hard as he did during their snow ball fight, it was great :) Katie wasn't so sure about snow. She wanted to play with everybody in it, but she didn't like the cold or the wet. Maggie LOVED the snow, in every way, she loved to run in it, sit in it, lay in it and especially to eat it. Elaine liked the typical parts of the snow, making snow angels and sledding, and making a snowman. Catcher and I pretty much stayed out of the snow, which wasn't hard because the parking lot was all clear of snow (and all clear of cars too) We did take Catcher out to get a family picture in the snow next to the lodge, it was hard to do with NO ONE else around to take the picture so we put the camera on a piece of cardboard on a snow hill to take the pic...it mostly worked.

Later that day we took the kids to see the movie How To Train your Dragon. The theater was small and there was only one other family in there, so Katie ran around in the theater a bit, but it kept her entertained while the rest of us enjoyed the movie. We didn't watch it in 3D becuase we didn't know how the kids would do with the glasses, plus it costs less to see it regular. Well i dont know that 3D would have made much of a different i LOVED it, it was very cute, and i think the kids liked it too.

Thursday was horse day. And it was COLD! the weather (since monday) had been rather nice, cold, but nice. Then thursday came and it was FREEZING literally. it was around 33 degrees but with the icy wind chill it was less that 30. We had reserved horse time at the Running Y's Ranch. Adam sent me on an hour and a half horse back ride and the kids got to pet the goats and pigs and the two older girls got to take short rides around the corral on the horses too. We put Catcher in a front carrier on Adam and he put a sweater and jacket over him, Catcher was toasty warm. Katie was a little afraid of the animals, she liked to look at them thru the fence but anything closer than that was a bit much for her. Elaine and Maggie enjoyed the animals. Maggie has some kind of animal magnetism, she draws all animals to her, i don't know how to explain it but she really has a way with them. Adam said as soon as they walked into the petting zoo all the animals just went right up to Maggie, and Maggie has no fear about it either, she loves animals as much as they love her. My horse back ride was beautiful but i don't think i've ever been colder in my life! It was a trail ride which usually means your horse puts his nose in the butt of the horse in front of you and you just go. It really does not require much horse knowledge other than how to sit on a saddle. Well i'd told the ranchers i had some experience riding, and they picked my horse accordingly. This horse would go slow and make a gap between him and the horse in front of him, then on a down hill he'd take off running. Luckily i felt pretty confident about it and just had fun. He also got too excited and close to the horse in front of him a few times, at which point that horse gave a swift kick and caused my horse to rear up, i just held on and smiled, it actually was kind of fun.

We had driven past a really neat looking park several times during our trips into town and the kids always wanted to stop but there were always sooo many kids that we really didn't want to stop. So Friday we decided to take them to this park. Turned out, the cold weather must have scared everyone away because we had the place to ourselves! It had a "snow shelter" for parents, which blocked the wind and made it quite comfortable for Catcher and i to sit and watch the kids go crazy. This park wasn't much larger than other parks but it had much more unique toys than most. Adam and the girls played hard. This park was right by Klamath Lake, which made for a beautiful view. We brought bubbles and the girls chased them around for a while, then we took a family picture in front of the lake and Adam and the girls threw rocks into the lake for a while.

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The next day was departure day already. I couldn't believe how fast the week went. We didn't go there to do anything particular, just to get away as a family and have fun, and we did. I think there's a distinct possibility we'd go there again sometime.