A Day~ In

013

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

015

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

016

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

018

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

021

It was quite foggy and brisk this morning…

037

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

040

Breakfast…ummm.

Dane and his Kortney.

A very young photographer and a cherry topped cupcake.

049

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…

054

and a tickly uncle…

and a ping pong table.

062

There’s that tablet again.

064

Mama kisses…

a soft couch…

084

 a little more crochet…

057

and a place to exercise.

Perfection.

105

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

110

who knows all the right moves…

112

no matter what size the players are.

097

A hot tub is a plus…

124

as is a box of games…

and a…what the HECK?…tablet.

Something good to eat…  131

a book of sudoku…

135

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

240

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

Are you ready?

106

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.

116

Outside…

looking in.

114

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

113

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.”

118

Josh, scoping out the kitchen.

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

Jacob and Magoo…

124

Kortney and Lyndi.

130

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

125

and there’s a ping pong tournament going on.

126

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.

004

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

011

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

013

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.

018

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

020

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.

025

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.

026

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.

029

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

030

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.

035

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

036

 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.

043

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.

046

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

063

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.

068

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

067

Total tootsie resting…

070

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.

075

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

077

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.

078

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

079

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

081

So naturally, we left–for our own safety.

080

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.

084

A bit more driving…

088

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

089

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.