Happy Easter!!!

Ocean Trip 2010

Once again we found ourselves at the Oregon coast doing what we love best, playing.
This year we had the special treat of having Auntie Nat tag along.
She was a big help and it was great having her around.
Here is one of the few family photos we were able to take. Funny how the children and spouse always have about the same crazy faces in EVERY one of them.
Hazel really enjoyed her new found freedom of being able to walk and explore the ocean for the first time.
We rented a Kayak and canoe on our second day. We stayed on Devil's Lake in Lincoln city. It was the best of both worlds...fresh water and salty.
Poppy was really excited about the little crabs. They may be one of the best parts of coming to the ocean. They are not to big to be threatening and very cute.

Thanksgiving part 2 (prepare for overload!)

Because I'm sure all of you didn't get enough of the chicken education...here is the bird.

In a visit where there are lots of people to see, we opted to have a sister's pizza party at Verena's house. After, I made them work on thier own Christmas gifts...aren't I so nice? Here are a few of the sisters: Verena, Katrina, Joanna, me and my best friends from High school Angie (who made a special trip to come see me).

(I must say this is one of my favorite pictures of Oscar...what a cute boy!)

After a delightful time at the grandma and Grandpa D's house, we shuttled down to Utah for the Grandma and Grandpa E segment.
Oscar, Daddy, Auntie Emily and Uncle Carvel spent Wednesday Skiing up at Alta. If you sense a slight hint of jelousy in my writing you would be correct. This year they had a bunch of early snow and they had a wonderful time skiing.

I don't think they look happy...what do you think?

One piece of our trip that was really cool, and not pictured was our trip to see the exhibit "Body Worlds" it is the exhibit where they take human bodies and plasticize them. It was really cool and Oscar kept great notes about the things we saw. If you get a chance you should check it out.

(Oscar's pocket's bulging with golf ball findings)

We then made sure to get in our annual Golf ball hunt.
Not only did we find a bunch of golf balls, but uncle Reed and Ricky found some sort of cryptic message stowed away in a little capsule of sorts. If any of you know this language, maybe you can decipher it for us. It was a funny note that was spinkled with some incense of sorts.
Cousin Willie, Auntie Meg, Uncle reed and baby sam came along. Aunt Natalie was there too (just not pictured, as well as grandma)

Daddy and Poppy walking the line...And lastly was the trip to see the temple lights. We rode the train downtown and spent a bit of time shuffling through the crowd. Althoughit is always very crowded, I was delighted to see how much the kids liked the pretty lights and the Temple.
The next day after a few last minute stops we headed on home.
We spent Saturday night in a hotel in Boise where we stuffed ourselves with Pizza and went swimming. Sunday mornign we stopped in to see great Grandma Dilworth and made the last of our journey home.

Thanksgiving break part 1 (Grandma and Grandpa Dilworth's)

(Grandpa's pep-talk, notice the knife in his hand)

In every child's life there comes the point of discovering how the world really works. This Thanksgiving, Grandpa Dilworth shared with our kids the lesson of life and the food chain.
During our visit Grandpa had a chicken that was crippled and severely picked upon by the other chickens. It became evident that it was time to put the poor chicken out of it's misery.
Oscar was especially sensitive to the poor chicken's plight. The night before grandpa put it out of it's misery he told Rick "Dad I think it might be better for that poor chicken to die, so it won't be in any pain anymore."
The next day grandpa pulled all the kids together to teach them the lesson of life. During his pep-talk to the kids, he told them that deep inside each one of us is a sad feeling when we have to take the life of another animal. He said that God gave us this feeling so that we would only kill what we need, and not any more. He told them that the best way to put the chicken out of his misery was to cut off his head so that his brain wouldn't feel the pain anymore. The kids took it really well. They saw grandpa cut off his head and watched as it's nerves reacted post-beheading. This is a picture of Poppy checking out the severed head.
They then watched briefly as grandpa hung it up and skinned it.
Overall I think it was a great life lesson.

Meanwhile they spent the majority of thier time at Grandma/pa Dilworth's playing in the hay fort. Grandpa had constructed a fort with thier hay bales and the kids loved playing all day in there.
When they weren't in the fort you could find them building nests and pretending they were chickens.

Nest building

Grandma put the kids up on Montana's back for a little bare back.

This is just a little of the trip and I will be adding more later...it seems I'm in slow-poke mode in getting caught up from the last week. So, more to come...

Full fall days

Grandma and pa visit

Ahhh...the peace and tranquility that abound in my house when the GRANDparents come to town.
Soccer games, walks, talks, jokes, stories, bike rides, ice cream...

It is so lovely to have them in town. In fact I find myself with free time and not knowing what to do with it.
The kids on the other hand, always enjoy the little extra TLC they get when they come to town. Poppy was quite sad when we only read THREE books before bed tonight...
Thanks for Making the trip guys! You can move right on in when every you want! That is, if we can get rid of the little mouse that seemed to like to scratch the wall by your bed...sorry!

Day Four and Five...

Ahhhh, Sunday we decided to head back north to another set of tide pools. These were in the Ecola park area. We ended up at Indian beach. It was beautiful, and once again we were reminded that if you indeed want a great beach...follow the surfers.
The tide pools were great! Tons of rocks and we got there a few hours before low tide and had a lot of time for exploring. This was by far the best exploring spot. The rock pools were everywhere and the rock crabs were fun to chase.
Oscar spent from 9:30 am -2pm scouring the rocks. I finally convinced him that the tide was coming back in and that we should explore some other areas.
Poppy found a little fresh water spring shower, just her size. It was really cold water and she would run in and out of the spring.
We had forgotten sunscreen and because it was so warm compared to the other days, I had dressed the kids a bit too warm. They decided to wear their swim suits and we all got a bit baked!
It was really warm and very beautiful.
Oscar is standing at the look out above the beach. The rocks in the back ground were the tide pool rocks, after the tide came back in.
We went back to camp to once again shower and head off to dinner. We had a half way decent sea food dinner in a little town outside of Nehalem. It wasn't the best but it filled our bellies sufficient to sleep well that night.
Oscar had looked forward to a camp fire the entire trip and so as the last night there, we decided to have one. I asked him if he would rather have ice cream and watch the sunset or have a fire and smore's...

The fire won out. We still watched the sunset and enjoyed a beautiful evening on the beach, and then went back to camp for a fire.
Oscar ate a bunch of smores and then ran around camp playing with other kids, while Ricky poppy and I enjoyed the fire. It was nice. So, for those of you who think we really weren't "camping" since we watched dvd's and ate out everynight, you can be appeased that we had a fire at least ONE night.
The point of our vacation isn't exactly the camping...it is finding ways to spend the most amount of time on the beach. We do this by not havign to spend hours cooking food over the fire, and by not needing a fire because we spend so much time exploring that the DVD viewing is merely a means of mellowing out for bed.
The kids get so worn out and it is all about living these few days to the max.
Then, you wake up and it is time to go home... we pack the car and we head down the road.
At the end of day five, we are back in our own snuggly beds.