Foley Family Adventures: Vacation With Friends

Our good friends, Dave and Kara Miller came to visit us with their boys and we all went on vacation together! I hadn't seen Kara and Josh for 6 years!! Dave has come out a couple times, and last year brought Sam out (to do a climb with Kevin).

Anyway, we had a great time. We rented a big house in Sunriver for 4 days, then headed to the coast for a night.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well my girls got along with their boys. They were instant friends and had such a good time together all week.

Sam, Kay, Josh and Syd

Danny - the Miller surprise baby (whom I'd never met)

We got to Sunriver on Sunday and just hung out at the house and explored the area a bit.

On Monday we drove north to Smith Rocks State Park to meet the Eubanks family. They are missionaries in Thailand/Burma and we actually met them through the Millers. We've hiked with them the past two years and it was great to hike with them and the Millers.

We've been to Smith Rocks several times. It is a beautiful state park where serious rock climbers meet to scale the rock walls. We have hiked much of the park, but had never done the Misery Ridge trail...(we've been there with some of the grandparents and they just weren't up to the challenge).

The Eubank family is a pretty extreme family - they have to be with the kind of work they do in Thailand and Burma - so we knew they were up to the challenge. In fact, this was nothing compared to what they are used to doing.

We got to the summit and Kevin and I were both a bit freaked out. We are weary of heights and when our kids are with us, we just get freaked out and wimpy.

Sydney really, really, really wanted to go out on the precipice with Suu and Sahalie but we weren't about to take her out there. Dave, in his ever-present confidence, offered to take her out - promising she would be safe.

I wasn't so sure, but Kevin agreed so out they went. (Grandmas - you might want to look away and skip the next 3 photos)....

I snapped a few photos, but then had to look away. Thankfully I could distract myself with this cutie.

We hiked on and saw the elusive Monkey Face rock....

Yes...those are people you see on it's nose and on a slack line between that rock and the other one. Crazy people.

I love how green it is right around the river.

There was a time when we wanted to get to the other side of the river. There is only one bridge so it was either walk to the bridge or cross the river. The kids opted for crossing the river. I walked to the bridge! Suu offered Sydney a ride on her back as she swam across.

On the other side of the river we set up a couple climbs for the kids to do.

Kayleigh is our little spider or lizard or whatever climbs rocks easily. She went right up to the top.

Syd....not so much. In the 10 minutes I was there watching her this was about as far as she got. Supposedly she did make it to the top, but I wasn't there to see it.