Metolius River Resort

Now that's it is November, I am going to tell you about an awesome weekend we had back in September.  Yep, I'm a little behind.  Standard.  For Aaron's 10 year anniversary at his work, they gave us a weekend get-away at the Metolius River Resort in Camp Sherman, OR...right outside of Sisters, OR.  They also gave us gift cards for restaurants in Sisters and Bend...I'll touch more on this later.  Let's start with the resort.  It was beautiful!!  There are 11 amazing cabins to choose from, and when I say cabins, I don't mean rustic-bring-your-own-bedding type of cabins...I mean swanky, nicer-than-my-house cabins.  And they sit right on the Metolius River which is known for it's fly fishing and over all beauty.  

The resort was fairly empty when we were there, which was awesome since we come with a 4 and 1 1/2 year old that do not sit still.  But for some reason- maybe the tranquility of the resort- the kids were super relaxed and mellow at the cabin.  

Checking out the grounds

Our home for a long weekend

 Every cabin has a TV, Wifi, DVD player...all the comforts of home.  Except one.  We purposely choose the cabin that had no TV but had an awesome stereo system.  We wanted to totally check out!  Oh and there is no cell phone signal in the area to boot.  It was fantastic.  At night, after the kids went to bed, Aaron and I cracked open some wine (truthfully we did this well before the kids went to bed), played board games, listened to music, read and basically did things that you can not typically do with young kids!

 Walking distance down the street is the most adorable store, where they still have those penny candy machines and old school gas pumps...Parker loved it.

Checking out the local fish hatchery

 So years ago, before we had kids, we did this hike to the top of Black Butte Lookout.  We remember it being fairly easy and had the brilliant idea to have this be our first family hike.  We remember up at the top the chipmunks are super tame and would come sit in your hands, so this was our goal- to let the kids experience this.  It was about 8billion degrees outside and a solid 2.5 miles straight up...and then back down.  I want to note the .5 mile...the guide books and even the sign at the trail head state it is 2miles one direction, but someone had carved in ".5" on the sign.  Which doesn't seem like much, but when you are carrying kids, it's a lot.  Oh ya- Parker wanted to be carried the majority of the way.  Asher actually hiked the thing going up (and against his will, I carried him down).  It was burtial...it wasn't pretty...we almost turned around a number of times (especially when people coming down would say "you're doing this hike with young kids?!")....BUT WE DID IT.  And the kids loved it!

Parker named this one Mr. Big Fatty

 After our hike we were feeling like we could concur anything, including going out to one of the restaurants we had a gift card to.  I know this doesn't sound like much, but with Asher...it's like playing russian roulette.  Long story short...I got my meal to-go and re-heated it up back at the cabin due to Asher's inability to sit in a high chair for more than 3 minutes.  So the next night, when it was dinner time, what did we do?  Try it again!  This time we drove to Bend to this super awesome restaurant called 500 Wall (if you're ever in Bend, go here).  After this experience, Aaron and I vowed never to go out to eat until Asher is 3 years old.  Once again we took turns walking outside with Asher while the other one ate...and this night Parker decided she wanted to go outside too...at one point this left Aaron sitting at our table by himself with 4 meals, a beer and a tequila flight.  Did I mention Asher threw all the crayons and bread basket on the floor?  Ya, I have no pictures from either of these dining experiences because I would rather block them out.  See you out and about in 2016!

 One a positive note...we ended the weekend on a easy, kid friendly hike to see the head of the Metolius River.  All in all, it was a great weekend with a lot of outdoor family time, and some lessons learned!