Seaside, OR Family Vacation

We've returned from our week long vacation on the Oregon coast. I feel like we were gone forever, which I think is a good thing. We had lots of time to sit around, read, play, go to the beach, walk downtown, eat and sleep. All the things we needed to do to just have some time to get away from the "normal" life and feel a little recharged to come back and do it all over again. My parents joined us for the week which was a super treat for us since we were able to sneak out at nap times and in the evening when we needed to enjoy some time away from Shane.

Here are some of the highlights of our week away.

We spent a fair amount of time on the beach, since I think Shane is a fish and would have spent even more time in the water if we would have allowed it. He basically spent every day just waiting for his time in the water. The water was so cold even on the days we had sunshine. He would go in up to his belly and often Papa would take him out as far as he would want to go to jump waves.




There was a carousel in downtown Seaside. Our first morning there we took Shane down to ride it. I think maybe he didn't understand that it was going to move because he was a mix of emotions when he got off a little excited and a little scared. After this time he would only go on it with someone, but always picked the ostrich to ride!?!

There was also a little train ride downtown Seaside that Kenny and Shane rode. Shane refused to go by himself.
Seaside was put on the map because Lewis and Clark spent many months there during their explorations. Before they returned home they spend about 2 months making salt to preserve their meat for the return home. While we were there they were having the "The Salt Makers Return" where people were in full character "acting" out what happened during that time. It was quite interested to visit. They would even barter with you for items. I saw a bunch of kids with various fruits trading for beads.

This is all the salt they made in one day!
My brother and sister-in-law came down for a couple days from Keizer, OR. Here Shane is enjoying being buried in the sand.
There were swing sets all along the beach, which made for some great swinging time for Shane and a little peace and quiet for Mom and Dad as well.
One morning we made our way down to Ecola State Park for a little tide pool visit. They were the best and most beautiful tide pools I have ever seen. Shane had so much fun and was very comfortable with touching the marine life now. The hardest part was keeping him from getting wet from head to toe which he very much wanted to do!


Seaside had an aquarium just down from where we were staying. It has been around since 1937 and I was honestly a little nervous about the condition of it or what we would see. But I must say it was the highlight of the week for me. There were about 10 Harbor Seals that we could feed and man were they hilarious!!! Many of them had taught themselves "tricks" to get your attention for the fish "treats" we were feeding them. One full on splashed you. They were super cute, happy and in good condition, which made me feel lots better.

We had amazing weather the whole week. It did vary from foggy, windy, cold and sunny. But we couldn't ask for more from a week on the coast. I think we saw more sunshine there then we have been seeing here at home. There was even one day were it was just about hot outside. A view of the sunset from our condo balcony. We stayed in what we think could be one of the best places to stay in Seaside. We were right down in front of the Promenade and beach. We spent tons of time just watching people and the beach happenings.
Monday morning arrived to a flurry of construction and people down on the beach. We quickly figured out they were setting up for the upcoming relay race Hood to Coast. Sadly we left on Friday a day before we got to see all the people come in from the race.
We stayed in the building to the left of the biggest one in the picture. We were on the fourth floor making it a spectacular view of all things below and out on the beach. Every night we could see all the beach fires on the beach. The place was super cozy and comfortable and gave us all enough space to relax, play and hang out.
We took a morning trip down to Cannon Beach. Which had gorgeous beaches, places to stay and shops. Very much more high end then Seaside, but not quite as family friendly. This is a picture of Haystack. Kenny and Shane are walking towards it in the picture. That morning on the beach was super, super, super cold. But of course Shane needed to go in the water.
A few other highlights where when we took Shane to the arcade where he got to play "big boy" video games with Kenny. He was in heaven driving cars, motorcycles, boats and flying airplanes. We found an awesome bakery that had day old plates of donuts for $1!! Of course we made a quick stop there before heading home and still are enjoying the yummy and super cheap donuts at home. Finally, my favorite store of all was called Tiptons where they had beautiful house decor and Christmas decorations along with the best specialty candy selection. I could use a mint malt ball right about now!! I think we all put on a few pounds last week for sure.

Peach Cobbler

I made this super yummy peach cobbler awhile back. Or maybe it is a crisp or it could be a crumble. What ever you want to call it, we fought over it at our house. As you can see, I couldn't even get a picture in time before a serving went missing to Shane.

I used the recipe from here with a couple changes (mainly just to work with what I had on hand).

I think I could eat some version of a cobbler/crumble/crisp every day of the week!!!!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Mommy's shirt and Mema's toenail sticker on his thumb. Won't Daddy be proud!!

September Card Class

We'll be making 3 fall cards using the new paper packet Olivia and some of the new simmer brads as well. I LOVE the colors of autumn. I often wish I had time to send out Halloween cards because I think they are so fun to make.

This time around we'll be focusing on leaves and 3 different techinques:
--sanding/distressing
--2nd generation stamping
--rock 'n roll stamping

Attend this workshop and get a new Autumn/Winter Idea Book for FREE!

Cost: $5 for 3 cards and envelopes.

RSVP soon I have a limited amount of space available.

Off to Seaside, OR

We'll be in Seaside, OR for the next week, hopefully soaking up some sunshine, relaxing and playing in the ocean. We won't have internet available to us, so look for our vacation update after we return home refreshed!

Shoplifter

Shane and I made our weekly trip to the grocery store on Tuesday. He has had a really tough time at the store lately, so much I pretty much refused to take him with me, but I thought I'd give him another try. He had earned the privilege of riding in the car cart on this trip. He was super well behaved the whole time and stayed in the car portion of the cart and didn't ask for anything besides the cookie from the bakery he gets most of the time.

As we got out to the car I bend down to tell him how awesome he did in the store and that he can ride in the car cart again next time we go. He wouldn't look at me and was acting a little funny, but I just thought it was because he knew he had done a good job. I got the groceries into the car and had asked Shane to get out of the cart but he refused. I finally pulled him out of the cart to find a piece of candy under his bottom that he had been sitting on.

Ahhhh.....this is why he was acting funny, I had a little shoplifter on my hands. I could tell he knew he had done something wrong, but I'm not totally sure if he just thought he was wrong because he hadn't asked me for it, or because he had taken it. I told him that was stealing and he said "bad guys do that?". More proof to me he really knew he was in the wrong. We walked it back into the store and placed it back on the shelf. He was pretty darn embarrassed, because he won't look or talk to me and told me he wanted to sleep on the way home (ya, right, he never sleeps in the car!).

I was a little taken by this happening at just barely 3 years of age and hope this incident stops any others from happening in the future. I know those check out lines are rough with all that fun looking candy right at his eye level, but I don't think I would have ever thought he would be sneaky enough to just take one.

October Craft Club

I will be hosting craft club on Saturday, October 9th. We'll be making an apron. I've been wanting to get my sewing machine out for awhile now and thought an apron seemed like a quick and easy project, plus I've been wanting one, too.

The best part is that the main portion of the apron is made from a towel, which makes for not a lot of sewing. A great project for all beginning sewers like myself.




An Evite to all Craft Clubs members will be going out soon with details on what supplies are needed, etc.

Warped Tour 2010 -- Gorge, WA

Shane spent last weekend in Sequim while Kenny and I spent the day at Warped Tour listening to some of Kenny's favorite bands play. My main goal of the day was to stay cool, which turned out to be pretty easy. It was a hot day probably close to 100 degrees.

While I was sitting under a tree in the shade (along with tons of other people) and Kenny was off listening to a group I didn't want to make the walk over to hear, I had a little tree frog land on my foot. He kept trying to head for the busy sidewalk behind me and I kept trying to get him to go the other way. Eventually he made his way down the row of people who I let know a frog was on the loose and we all attempted to keep him off the sidewalk. Finally, a women came by in the grass and stepped on him, but rumor was he made it out from under her foot okay.

Anyways, back to Warped Tour. There were 8 stages and a gazillion bands playing. We were very selective in the groups we took the time out to go watch. Besides the fact that we hadn't heard of 90% of them. The highlight for me was seeing Everclear play. They were the last group we saw and standing just 15 feet from the side of the stage with such a small crowd around us was super cool. The bands only played in 30 minute sets, so we got to get all the best hits from all of them which made it ever more fun to be in the crowd.

I'm also pretty sure I was the only pregnant person there, but was happy to see others that were older then me. We were surprised by the amount of families with their kids there (from 6 months on up). Both of us agreed 100% we wanted nothing to do with bringing Shane with us at this point in time.

Everclear's lead singer Art Alexakis
Kenny's favorite group of all time is Face to Face: lead singer Trevor Keith
Taking a break in the shade enjoying the beautiful view of the Columbia River Gorge.
Proof of the belly attending Warped Tour 2010.

Week #28

Yah! I am seven months along and looking forward to not being pregnant any more. I had an ultrasound appointment today that showed baby girl Booth is doing well and growing at an average rate. I'm am doing well, too. Just tired of the sore back, heartburn, and lack of sleeping.
Here is a shot of her from today. I couldn't believe how clear she was up on the screen.

And of course a shot of the belly + Shane (he needed to get into the picture action).

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Shane some how coaxed me into letting him sleep in "my big bed" during nap time at Mema and Papa's house. He normally sleeps on the floor in a sleeping bag. We found him like this one nap time all cuddled up looking just like an angel.

Time in Sequim

Shane and I spent most of last week in Sequim for our final summer visit. We did the normal play outside, go to the beach, play at the park and visit Great Penny Grandma. It was fun to see Shane visit Penny Grandma this time. We had breakfast out with her and they played stack the creamers and knock them over together. Then later at her house they played toss with a pillow. I liked seeing them both get a chance to be involved with each other.

We made a stop at the Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles. Shane refused to touch any animals in the water or even let us pick him up. He found a stool and was would only use that to look into the tanks.

What is summer at Mema and Papa's house with out using the hose??? His favorite activity of all, along with cleaning the cement with a scrub brush.
Painting with pudding.
and of course, eating the pudding, too.

Everett AquaSox Game

Yesterday afternoon we took Shane to a Single-A Everett AquaSox baseball game. It was super low-key which was an advantage when you have a wiggly 3-year old who wants to move around and play more then watch the game. He fell completely in love with the two mascots: Webbly the frog and Frank the hot dog. Both who hung out in the area we were sitting in for quite awhile. Giving Shane the chance to say hi to each of them many, many, many times.

We left in the middle of the 7th inning with the AquaSox's winning 13 to 1 against the Boise Hawks. There were at least 4 home-runs hit during the game.

Here is a picture of Shane, Kenny and Webbly. You can see how fascinated Shane was by the super creepy looking frog.

Wordless Wednesday

National Stamping Month Constant Campaign -- Triple Play

Create 3 mini albums with CTMH's National Stamping Month kit, Triple Play. With 4 Exclusive Inks mini stamp pads, a versatile C-size stamp set, 3 mini albums, ribbon, an instructional brochure, and pre-cut accents for stamping, you'll complete all 3 albums in a snap!




Starting August 15–September 30, 2010 (While Supplies Last)
How can you get Triple Play??

1) Purchase the kit outright for $29.95

2) Place a minimum order of $25 in My Acrylix stamps and purchase the kit for only $15

3) Place a minimum order of $40 in My Acrylix stamps and purchase the kit for only $5

Camping Weekend

We had a fun one night camping trip this weekend past Granite Falls at a campground called Verlot. We met up with 3 other families who had spent the previous night there. After arriving at the camp site and getting settled in we headed for a 1 mile hike up to the Ice Caves. The weather was just perfect for a hike, with a few clouds, blue sky and sun. The Ice Caves were a magnificent sight and the kids had lots of fun running around, playing in the ice and eating lunch. I couldn't believe how every step you took closer to them it got colder and colder and colder. It was like intense AC outside. Then the wind would mix up the warm and cold air making a creepy feeling in the air. After playing and eating lunch we all made it back down the trail and to the camp site safe and sound.

Shortly after arriving at our site, sirens from the nearby volunteer fire station went off which were followed by aid car, after aid car, after search and rescue, helicopter, etc. All of us were very concerned and curious about what could be happening. A trip to the nearby local corner store told us that an accident had happened at the Ice Caves. Later that evening a stop from the Sheriff informed us that an 11 year old had been killed at the Ice Caves that afternoon. It turns out that this terrible tragedy happened within a very short window of us leaving the Ice Caves, we think about 15 minutes after we left. We were all struck by this loss very deeply and extremely sad that this happened. Having just been there it really hit home how we could have been witness to such a terrible event or how easily it could have been one of us. That evening around bedtime it started to rain unexpectedly. To me it felt like tears coming from the sky.

In Memory of Grace Tam. Our prayers and thoughts go out to her family.

Besides this terrible event that happened, we had a fabulous time talking with friends, eating, watching the kids play and seeing Shane soak up the benefits of camping (no teeth brushing or hair brushing, sleeping in a sleeping bag in a tent, playing in the water, running around with the big kids and just plain getting dirty).

Starting off on the hike.
All the kiddos.
First sight of the Ice Caves.
To the right of the main two caves. The small cave in the middle is the one that collapsed and killed the girl. We had eaten our lunch at the base of this hill.
Standing in the entrance of the largest Ice Cave. Which I now wouldn't even go that close after what happened.
Playing in the Stillaguamish River. We had a portion of the river go right behind our camp site, but I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing over there. The site was beautiful, private and an awesome place to play.
Kenny asked Lucas at one point if he wanted to be thrown in the river. Lucas said NO, but Shane said Yes, Yes, Yes! For about 10 minutes Kenny threw Shane in over and over again. He just loved it to my surprise. He came out of the water reluctantly shivering and his little bottom was all red from hitting the bottom of the river.
Warming up in Daddy's shirt and watching the big kids play in the water.
This was a little swing someone had rigged up near our camp site. Of course any swing is a favorite of Shane's.
A little hike by our site along the river.
Mr. Huckleberry: One of the first things Julie said to Shane after we arrived was that the huckleberries were yummy and showed him a bush of them. He then became a huckleberry scout. We did need to go over no eating anything with out Mommy and Daddy telling him it was okay, but other then that he enjoyed picking those little sour berries.