Out and About

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We could only stay indoors so long, and quickly found that the weather was much nicer in town than down on the shore. Which means an afternoon of shopping was in order. Heh, heh…

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Jillian and I went to the antique shop…first thing. I found an old brass key and a photo of a baby that I wanted. But in the end, I behaved myself and put them back. The Bald Kid found a Batman set of figures from an ancient day. He was in heaven and bought it right up.

Everyone pretty much went their own way on our day out, but we magically kept bumping into the most peculiar people here and there.

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Jillian needed a hoodie for the beach so we came here to look. I stayed in the car where I belonged. Unless I have unlimited spending money, I find that outlet shopping is too frustrating. So I sit and crochet and leave the incredible deals to the younger set…with the younger knees.

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Loving the beautiful roses that thrive in the wet air here. My roses back home are very, very unhappy right now with their dry desert dirt. Poor things.

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This wind spinner shop was right on the main drag, so we passed it a million times.

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Just had to take this picture of the zombie guy for Jacob.

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Ahhh…now we’re talking.

Salted milk chocolate caramels…

and Honeycomb makes for one very happy me.

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This pretty little nick-knack shop reminded me of the seaside shops at Redondo Beach when I was a kid. We could never find big pretty shells on the sand so my dad would take us in and let us buy one.

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So each of the kids got a starfish…

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and I got one exactly like I had as a little girl…

so everyone could hear the ocean right up close…

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or wear it.

Either way.

A Day~ In

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A little seagull friend was on the deck by the crack of dawn.

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Someone, somewhere must have fed this fellow well, because he sure watched us like we weren’t quite with the program.

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The little folks sat lounging around in their jammies doing their reading time.

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How I would love to go back to the days when someone assigned me a book to read.

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It was quite foggy and brisk this morning…

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but the sea has a way of making ordinary things beautiful even without the sun.

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Breakfast…ummm.

Dane and his Kortney.

A very young photographer and a cherry topped cupcake.

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Magoo was without a hat and since it was cooler than we’d expected, it seemed the thing to do, to whip him up a soft green and peach one.

If you must be little and closed in for a while, you may as well have a tablet of some kind…

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and a tickly uncle…

and a ping pong table.

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There’s that tablet again.

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Mama kisses…

a soft couch…

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 a little more crochet…

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and a place to exercise.

Perfection.

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It’s also good to have a Twister playing Aunt…

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who knows all the right moves…

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no matter what size the players are.

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A hot tub is a plus…

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as is a box of games…

and a…what the HECK?…tablet.

Something good to eat…  131

a book of sudoku…

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and an almost finished hat…with an obvious mistake. grrrrrr.

I shall call this my Amish beanie.

You know, so that the mistake is suppose to be there.

*sigh.

Ah well, fine enough end to a long, lovely day.

Oregon~ Beach House

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I promised to show you the insides of the wonderful beach house that was our home for nearly a week.

Are you ready?

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This is the kitchen/great room. It was positively perfect!

The stairs leading to the loft/playroom. That’s the front door on the bottom right.

The first place that Miss Lily went was out on to the deck to check out the view.

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Outside…

looking in.

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The beach was actually quite a ways below our back deck.

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We had to go down about a thousand stairs at the end of the block to get all the way to the water.  These stairs went to the lower patio where the hot tub was.

The loft had just enough space for the Bald Kid to stake it out as “his room.”

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Josh, scoping out the kitchen.

Dane thinking deep thoughts about…I don’t know what.

Jacob and Magoo…

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Kortney and Lyndi.

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The little guy staying up way past his bedtime. But heck, it’s vacation…

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and there’s a ping pong tournament going on.

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Don’t wait up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oregon Road Trip~ 2

We woke up in the hotel and scrambled around getting ready to go down and get the cute little breakfast buffet. It was lovely and the Bald Kid even made his own Belgian Waffle. Yummo. I had cereal because I’m just a simple gal at heart. I didn’t actually take any pictures of the hotel…except this one. So it will have to do.

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Then we jumped in the car and headed out on the road again.

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Anybody hearing old Willie Nelson singing right now or is it just me?

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As we approached Portland, I got in the habit of taking a picture of anything that was new or different or strange to me. In fact, I don’t even know what this thing is, but I took it’s picture alright.

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This spooky little guy was just sitting there minding his own business so I captured him for posterity too.

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I really loved the fire escapes too. Oh, sure the cities in Utah have them too, but these ones were very Jason Bourne-ish, or Burn Notice-y. Can’t you just picture a wild bad guy chase going on here? Well, I can.

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We were excited to go to this famous donut shop but then, after doing a bit of research, we decided that it wasn’t exactly family friendly. Plus that crazy line coming out the door was a bit much. We skipped it and ate Cheetoes instead.

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I thought for a second that we were headed straight to Chinatown, but Jacob turned left right before we got to the gateway. No Chinatown today.

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Tons of lovely lampposts made even lovelier by the hanging flower baskets. Why don’t we do this? Hmmmm? I’m calling the mayor.

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We parked the car and found that the only way to the ground floor was down allllll those stairs. Y.I.K.E.S.

But we survived. Jacob found this Hebrew inscription outside the biggest bookstore in the universe.

Yes. We went inside.

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We all pretty much went our own separate ways for about 2 hours.

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 A cute little lady was staring up at the books in the same “Crochet” aisle as I was in. She said, “Isn’t this just Heaven?”

I said, “Positively. Heaven. I’m never leaving.”

Of course, that was a fib because eventually we did leave, most reluctantly. These fun street performers were playing right outside the store.

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I would say that this is certainly a church, but since I don’t know for sure, and I don’t want someone to make a comment saying, “Silly rabbit–that’s our city hall,” I’ll just call it a tower thingy. Can’t go wrong with that.

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So charming to see the little community gardens all over town–very green and friendly looking.

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April and Jacob found a quilt shop so that was the end of them. The Bald Kid and Lily and Beck and I stayed behind resting our tootsies in the car. I spotted this sweet little flowery tree. It reminded me of the Bougainvillea trees that are beautiful but positively impossible to grow outdoors in Utah…at least for me. Maybe I’ll try again. I need a pink tree in my life.

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Oh, sure. They come in purple as well. I’ll be needing that one too.

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Total tootsie resting…

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until we found this natural food market. We went a bit wild because, well, for starters they had gorgeous fruit and so we were rendered powerless. We bought grapes, and cherries and yogurt and crackers and 9.5 water and some other stuff that I can’t remember. It was a glorious place.

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Funny name, and totally untrue, as I am not, in fact, yoga. Honestly.

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The quaint neighborhood that we parked in had colorful spots painted all up and down the street for no reason other than cuteness. I bet if we tried this at home we’d get arrested. But it was very whimsical and fun.

Might be worth a try…

sometime…

late at night.

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Scribbled on the sidewalk of the same neighborhood.  No mincing words here.

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Proof that the zombie apocalypse is totally real…at least on this street.

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So naturally, we left–for our own safety.

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After wandering around for a while, taking in the sights, we found Jacob and Lily sitting under a red umbrella eating…

I don’t even know what.

But he is brave and I didn’t ask. Go Jacob.

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A bit more driving…

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A trip to the local Costco. Yeah, we like eggs…a lot.

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A few more car games and finally, FINALLY–

We arrived at the beach house. Our home for the next week.

Ummmmm….at last.

Wanna see inside?

Be brave and I’ll show you next.

Oregon Road Trip~ 1

Well, it has been such a long, LONG time since we’ve taken a vacation that we made a break for it this last week. We booked a beautiful beach house on the Oregon coast for nearly a week! EEEEeeeeeee! All my kids and their families took a different route–depending on when they were leaving and where they wanted to stop by the end of the day. The only common goal was to meet at the beach house by Tuesday. The Bald Kid and I jumped in with April and Jacob and the Littles and off we went.

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Now you need to know that whenever you take a trip like this, it is mandatory that you pack a ton of good, healthy snacks. I know what you’re thinking, but I solemnly swear the there are apples and mandarins and bananas in that box. They just sunk down to the bottom because all that goody-goodness is much, you know, heavier. Oh, and there are carrots in the cooler too. I swear.

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It’s also highly recommended that you bring lots and lots of word games and puzzles…

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and bingo cards so that you can keep the short people occupied. And our sweet little Beckham, did very well with his card, by the way, despite the fact that there are absolutely no tole bridges from Utah to Oregon. He got positively everything else so we let him slide on the tole bridge. It was either that or redirect out trip through Pennsylvania.

You see my point.

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We watched a movie…

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stopped and readjusted the seating arrangements…

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and found a few unexpected creatures along the way.  Can anybody say, “RANDOM?”

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We drove and drove through the mountains and hills of beautiful Idaho…

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and watched another movie. The kids had the headphones of this one so we go to watch the no sound version of our dear Harry Potter. Our made up dialogue was better than theirs’ anyway. Heh, heh.

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More mountains, more valleys and then…

who should drive right up next to us but…

Lyle Lovett!!

Ok, we didn’t actually ask him his name, but that’s pretty much because we didn’t need to. This guy was totally Lyle Lovett.

Trust me.

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And just when we thought me just might perish from all the beautiful mountains and valleys…

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we found a park for the wee folk to play in for a while. April and Jacob rested on the grass. Lily climbed the jungle gym.

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Beckham slid on the zip line.

The Bald Kid–who is a bit of an over achiever–ran around the whole park twice to stretch his muscles. I sat on a bench and wiggled my foot around to stretch mine. Hey, we each do what works.

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Then on we drove through the prairie…

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with one more movie in the background.

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Our first stop– The Dalles, Oregon and a wonderfully soft, cool, fluffy bed.

Perfect start, I’d say.