Monday, March 21 {Day Trip to the Coast}
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| Cate, Jess & Drew at the Dunes in Pacific City |
Jim took Monday and Tuesday off so he could spend some time with the kids and I for Spring Break, but since we have some other trips coming up and show cattle to feed twice daily, we just wanted to do a day trip. (We don't want to over-use calling on the neighbor girl next door to feed for us, because we will really need her for our vacations coming up!)
We drove to Tillamook, went to the cheese factory, ate lunch in the car and then headed south stopping at some landmarks along the beach. We were looking for breaks in the clouds and a beach with sunshine. We finally found some (as good as it was going to get) at Pacific City. We played catch (lacrosse/baseball) on the beach, Catie collected shells, and hiked the dunes for a couple hours. We drove to Lincoln City, shopped at Nike and Under Armour, finding what we were needing to get for the kids spring sports, had dinner at Dory Cove and then back home at 9-something at night. We played pictionary on my phone for much of the drive. Andrew had the best play of the game when he drew what appeared to be the solar system, had us guessing for at least 10 minutes, and it ended up being 'a masterpiece'--nice, who would have guessed?
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Andrew had been asking to go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory--
(said he started thinking about it when he studied the coastal indians at school)--he likes cheese and ice cream as much as his dad (I guess I could do a whole blog post on how alike father and son are, since it keeps coming up). |
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| First things first, get in the samples line. Jess and I like the white sharp cheddar, Andrew likes the smoked chipotle & garlic and colby-jack, and Jim likes the medium cheddar and colby-jack. |
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Right after we took this picture, a group of at least 15-20 teens on break from Japan came up and asked if I would take pictures of them with our kids by these cows. Jess turned so red in the face because she didn't get why they wanted to pose for a photo with her! Catherine, too, looked embarassed, and Andrew ran off and wasn't even in the pictures! Later, I had to explain to the kids that tourists often like to get photos of Americans in their trip photos.
I tried to ask the Japanese girls about the earthquake and said we are sorry about what happened in their country. I think they got the idea, but they were a bit confused on my question. They said, "one week" when I asked if they were in Japan during the earthquake. I think they meant they were visiting America for one week. I don't know, but for once, I felt like taking their pictures, too--kind of felt like they were 'celebrity status' based on all the press the Japanese are getting right now. |
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| Of course, the ice cream (right before lunch)--Jess had 'cake batter', Andrew had 'mountain huckleberry', Catie had 'cookie dough, and Jim had 'toffee crunch'-something. |
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| Climbing the big dune at Pacific City. |
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Jim and kids are at the very top waving. Andrew made it up first in about 3 minutes or something crazy. He wanted me to take a picture for him to show at school. To him, it was like he just climbed Mt. Hood as proud as he was. When they came running down, they finished in reverse order of how they made it to the top--Catherine being the first one back! |
Tuesday, March 22 {Yard Work Day outside w/ Dad, burn pile, bike ride, taco night}
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A picture of a fort the kids made in the burn pile...it has now been burnt. Kids helped Dad burn and throw sticks in the fire.
After that, they played 'spy'. They had to come in the house and find all the toy guns first. I guess they were having fun 'spying' on Jim while he was working around the place. They would see how close they could get to him before he saw them. |
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| Dad let big kids drive lawn tractor by themselves while hauling scraps and branches to burn. |
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| Catie, "Pleeeeaaase, can I drive?" But, she has to wait until she's old enough, and apparently, "that is going to take FOREVER!" |
Wednesday, March 23 {Spring Cleaning, Family Bowling & Pizza night}
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| Look out! There's fierce competition at Wilsonville Lanes tonight. |
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| We love Deno's Pizzeria, Wilsonville! |
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It was Daddy's idea to go bowling tonight. Kids had a blast. We are pretty competitive, even thought we try to just play for fun.
I won the first game and Jim won the next followed closely by Andrew in second (which made his night--he was very
unhappy with his first game when he got fourth place just ahead of Catherine). |
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Catie bowled well for her size--really cute how slow her ball rolled and how she was
happy as can be walking back, not even caring what her ball was doing. She's not competitive yet. |
Thursday & Friday, March 24-25 {Gilbert House Museum & Cousin Sleepover @ Grandma's and Uncle Scott's Birthday Party}
