november storm watching at the beach

We're on a little vay-cay to the beach for two nights. We came down right after Andrew's first basketball tournament of the season Sunday, and are coming back home today. We're staying in Seaside at the Shilo Oceanfront right at the turnaround. {Jim had free airline mileage that needed to be redeemed so we got the hotel FREE.} Sunday night, we got down here around 6:30, checked in, ate dinner at Pig-N-Pancake as it was right there and seemed like about the only place open, got a little food/snacks at the grocery store for the kitchen in our suite, and went swimming for an hour and a half, until 10. Later we all stayed up until midnight, doing TV, computer, books and just hanging out in the room all together.

If they look a little bummed, it's because they had to wait before we took them down to the pool.

Monday, after having the hotel breakfast, we drove south to Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Wheeler and Tillamook. The winds picked up and built all day long. We stopped and took the kids pic at Tolovana Beach. Next, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for 'Squeaky Cheese' (curds), ice cream, and the Tillmook Country Smoker for Beef Jerky--the above mentioned treats being the absolute faves of nearly the whole clan. I, on the other hand, forewent ice cream for Starbucks. We browsed the Old Wheeler Antique Mall, then drove back up the coast to the Seaside Carousel Mall where the kids wanted to go to a few shops. Kids got some things to use in the pool (water skipping hand ball, diving rings, beach ball), Catie got like her 50th stuffed animal puppy (but she just 'loves her so much' and named her 'Sunny'), and girls bought Seaside sweats. Jim & kids got salt water taffy at a candy shop. I am also not a fan of taffy, which suits me just fine. We had an early 'happy hour' dinner at McKeown's since we skipped lunch (or at least I did, as I didn't inhale bags of curds and jerky and ice cream), and the rest of the night we hung out storm watching and swimming at the pool. That night and this morning, we saw newscasters out at the turnaround filming the ocean and the weather. We kept joking about finding a way to get on TV.

Andrew saw this picture and said, "Oh, man, I should have flexed!" {He reminds me of his Uncle Jeffrey}

This morning, we had breakfast downstairs and now the kids are at the pool again. Jim and I are taking turns packing and watching them swim. We'll check out in an hour, at noon, and drive north this time to see the beach and find something to do before heading back. On our way back through Seaside, we plan to stop and eat at one of our fave steakhouses that was closed yesterday--Bigfoot Restaurant.

Post-Trip Note:
We returned home around 7:00 after having traveled home through Astoria on Hwy. 30 due to a road closure just south of Seaside where the storm flooded the road. This altered our dinner plans; we ate at The Wet Dog Cafe in Astoria, a place we discovered this summer while camping. Good burgers and waterfront view. We storm watched during the late afternoon meal. Just as with last night at McKeown's, the storm opened the door we were sitting next to several times during the meal and we had to keep closing it. We saw several sea lions and the wind blowing water spray across the Columbia.

We had a fun trip and fun watching storms, even though kids were a little spooked {mostly our big, tough boy--poor kid}. Once we were walking to our car when a big gust came nearly taking the door of the car off as Jim was opening it. Andrew jumped and ran to stand in the doorway of the brick building we were parked next to. Jim smiles and says, "Good to know we can count on Andrew in a crisis." Andrew laughed sheeplishly after he realized what his reflex action was--to run and hide. Catie was actually the least scared. Today, she was like, "I don't get it? What is there to be scared of?" We were nearly home when the radio newscast stated, "It caught people off-guard and seemed unusually stormy, but that was because we haven't seen that weather around here since last winter. Actually, it was just average to above-average in terms of storms we see in this area every fall and winter." That seemed to put it into perspective for A and he may have then realized it was not as big a deal as he was making it to be in his mind. Jess commented that the highlights of the trip for her were the storm and the swimming. I guess there wasn't a whole lot more to it, but we had fun being together.

fourth of July beach trip

July 3-5, 2011          Central Oregon Coast near Newport


Bridge on the trail to Ona Beach, south of Newport



 

A day of kite-flying, sand-digging, ball-playing,
wave-jumping, sun-soaking fun at the beach!

 

Kayaking at Beaver Creek Natural Area near Ona Beach

The view from our beach house deck looks out over a cattle ranch and Beaver Creek Natural Area and State Park

 

The 8 cousins eating dinner on the deck

 

Kids photo on docks at Newport Bay Marina where we went to watch fireworks on the 4th.

Kids playing card games and waiting for the firework show to begin

"Daddy, do you want to look at my collection?"
Catherine loves to collect rocks and shells at the beach.



 



Last day at the beach, lunch at Mo's, then headed home







Spring Break 2011

Monday, March 21 {Day Trip to the Coast} 



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?


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).





 

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.

  

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.




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.










Climbing the big dune at Pacific City.

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}

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.

Dad let big kids drive lawn tractor by themselves while hauling scraps and branches to burn.

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}

Look out! There's fierce competition at Wilsonville Lanes tonight.



We love Deno's Pizzeria, Wilsonville!




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).



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}