anniversary trip to bend!

i have an obsession with the pacific northwest. before moving to salt lake, we were seriously considering moving to portland or seattle. it didn't work out for us for a myriad of reasons, but i am hopeful that one day life will lead us there.

we were just in vancouver last month to celebrate our 30th birthdays, and decided we'd head back for our seventh wedding anniversary. the trip started with a plan to visit crater lake national park. this national park is literally in the middle of nowhere. so when figuring out where we would stay, it was a little tricky as all towns were at least 2.5 hours away. we landed on bend and it. was. awesome. seriously... why is no one else raving about this town??? it's like a tiny resort town without all the annoying resort town characteristics. we stayed at the raddest airbnb and drank amazing local beers and coffee and ate food from adorable food trucks. we walked along the deschutes river and marveled at the beauty of those oh so tall piney trees.

we did make it to crater lake which was stunning. we saw the lake on a sunny day and it was truly beautiful and so fun to see. it's pretty gnarly to get to (as said, it's literally in the middle of nowhere), but i'm so glad we were able to check it off of our list. this is the third year we've spent our anniversary at a national park (previous parks have been banff national park and grand teton national park.... we've only been doing this for three of the seven years ;).

as always, traveling with a baby has it's own set of challenges. we're always so glad we travel and we're usually pretty glad to come home (except in this case... i was actually sad to leave oregon. i just love that state so much). august slept really well each night, but there were fussy afternoons and very early mornings. thank goodness for coffee and west coast wine!

a few photos from our trip: