Farewell beach...we will miss you dearly!

So Judah has been asking to go home for a couple of days (it's hard to be 4 and off routine) but the rest could have stayed a month! At least it was rainy today as we packed up so it wasn't as hard to drive away. It has been our tradition to get one of the "grow" animals and grow it during our vacation and then set if free into the sea. John-John is the official "free-er." This year we grew "Growie the Turtle" and stopped by the beach on our way out of town. I took a picture of the kids in the van as we were headin out and told them it was so that someday when we didn't have the big green van anymore we could remember all of our adventures in it...John-John got teary and said "What do ya mean we won't have the van forever?!" For anyone who has seen the movie RV, it is a family favorite and we have affectionately named our van the "Big Green Rolling Turd." Slightly innapropriate I know, but we love that van and all of the places it "rolls" us to!!!

Fort Stevens

We went and had a look around Fort Stevens.

It is actually very interesting and we went on the underground tour which was cool...literally. It was the old bunker/battery and was dark and damp. The kids did good and like to learn about history...the older gentleman leading the tour was a bit longwinded....There was a fun little museum too. There were several buildings to explore aside from the tour too and pleanty for the kids to climb on and get worn out!

Adventures in Seaside

Today was rainy and cold and Mike wasn't feeling well, so I loaded up the troops and headed off to Seaside. After another ride on the Carousel, we found the hat shop and had a lot of fun. They suprisingly weren't that expensive and a few of the boys got one. We shopped for a bit, collecting some treasures (and B-day suprises for Grandma). We hit the arcade-they have player cards like at a casino. What is the world coming to?! On our way back to the ice cream store we spotted the tilt-o-whirl and had to try it out. Judah was the most excited and Will took some convincing. They all loved it! We then continued down the block to the ice cream store...I looked back at Judah and he looked a little green...yea, well, I'll spare you the details, but just know that after the vomit comet, he asked "Can we go on it again?" I love that kid!

To Haystack Rock- and beyond!

The younger 4 and I went out and dodged waves the other night. We went down with the intention of climbing on Haystack rock as we have done in the past, but it was all marked off this year- so we took to the waves! Once your legs go completely numb, the water is not too bad :) It started out with the toes, then the ankles, knees, and so on until Judah and John were each attached to one of my arms and Em to my back and the waves were taller than Judah. So much fun! One of the marine guys keeping people off of Haystack told us that at 6:30 the next AM, would be the lowest tide and we could see cool stuff in the tidepools-so the alarm went off the next morning and so did we. Once we got down there we had a blast and the early morning grumbling stopped-Will was even skipping on the beach after being my biggest nay-sayer! Lol! And to make the trip totally worth it, we stopped by the bakery and got fresh goodies. Aaah! I love vacation!

A day at Seaside

We love heading up to Seaside for the day....it is a little too touristy to stay in, so we just visit. We worked in all of our favorites-got our new sweatshirts, ate chinese food, rode the carousel, walked the beach, checked out the seal tank and got Tillamook ice cream!

A fun day!

On our way to the Beach.....

We made a few stops on our way down...a museum and the hatchery-fun! We told the kids they got three suprises that day...those were two and the third was a hotel to swim. We have good kids, pretty easy to please...as long as you bring candy for John, ignore Will's teenage sighs and block the sounds of Em and Mo bouncing off the walls, it is A-OK!

GOTCHA!

Happy 6yrs home Michael Odelin!

"Oh who could have guessed? Who could have seen! Who could have possibly known?

All of these roads we have traveled, the places we've been-

Would have finally taken us home?

So it's here's to you and three cheers to you!

Let's shout it 'Hip Hip Hooray!'

For out of this world so tattered and torn,

you came to our house on that wonderful morn,

And all of a sudden a family was born.

Oh happy adoption day!"

(by John McCutcheon)

Each of the kids get woken up to our obnoxious singing of this song on their adoption day! This year, Michael chose to go ice-skating for his day-what an adventure! Will and Michael are our roller-bladers and they picked up on it right away. The other kids and Mike soon followed....after a few rounds, the little boys came over and asked when I was going to get out and try-my response "When I'm done being scared!" So John went over and brought me a cone and said "We'll help you." And off we went!!!