WooHoo I found some time to play with paper

I was able to find some time over the past few days to play with paper and scissors and I had such a great time :)

Here are a few of my latest creations.

We had such a great time today as a family. I haven't written much about how hard it is to get out for Rory (most outings I do with the kids and my Mom or Sister) since his accident. You can see the stress and anxiety build but I have been trying to let him know that the kids really need to have him involved, they ask constantly "why isn't Dad coming?". So when he agreed to take the extra time I had today (took a half day off work) to do a picnic at the beach I was thrilled. We all walked in the ocean (the tide was so far out that I couldn't count the creatures we found), played in the sand, and snacked on KFC (remember only half day off so no time to prepare the picnic, thank goodness for drive thru, lol) and then mega ice cream cones. The weather was awesome and we all truly had a great time.....I love summer!! I hope yours is great as well.

Cheers

What a wonderful time we had

This past Tuesday morning we left for the Oregon Coast. Rory, the kids, my mother-in-law, and myself packed up the van and away we went.

It took quite a bit longer than we had planned to get there but the drive was absolutely beautiful once we hit the coast. I did all the driving (9 hours) and found myself driving in pockets of monsoon like rain but all in all the drive was great. We (Ror and I) were blessed with kids that are great travellers, I remember back to my childhood and I don't think I could have handled that drive as a kid but they don't complain, I think they like the adventure.

We arrived in Lincoln City and the pictures began. In 2 days we took 117 pictures, I am so thankful for digital cameras!

Here are a few of the pics from our first night there.

The first night was quite funny, we were staying in an old house, it was built in 1929 and I am not sure if some of the old residents weren't still around! The house had 5 doors (not sure why) but because Brendan is still in a wandering phase we decided to split up the sleeping arrangements to be sure Brendan didn't walk out one of the doors. So here I am in the back room with both kids in bed and I can hear doors banging in the main room. I get up to check it out and nobody I am staying with is awake, but the banging persisted. Then the smoke alarm starts to beep, not like it was warning us of a fire but just a beep here and a beep there. In the morning I chalked this all up to the wind and an old battery in the fire alarm until.......the t.v. turned itself on. We were all sitting in the living room just watching the water out the large windows when all of a sudden the t.v. turned on, can't explain that one :)

After a walk on the beach in the morning we took off for the outlet malls. Some really good bargains to be had but in all honestly I can't shop with the boys so I didn't even try. It's Rorys birthday next week so I wanted him to find some clothes, he hates to spend money on himself so I was happy that he found some cargo shorts, track pants, and shirts, he got them all for the price of the tracks pants here at home, awesome.

This log reminded us of a turtle!

We then went for lunch at an Oregon coast favorite called Mos. Really good food but I think the balloon hats they made for the boys (Rory included) was the highlight of lunch.

Next we went back to the beach to fly a kite, dig in the sand, blast off a rocket (Christmas present of Trevors that was tons of fun to do on a large beach as it blasts off 50 feet), and just enjoy beach time. The wind was so strong, the sand was blowing, and little Brendan could sometimes barely walk but he loved it.

Cooked dinner at the house, got the kids ready for bed and then enjoyed the finale of American Idol as the surf pounded in the back. (Yeah Kris!!!!!!)

It was an incredible few days and we all can't wait to get back, the next time we go we decided it will definitely be for at least a week.

Since we arrived home very late on Thursday we decided to keep Trevor home for one last day off school. Night of the Museum 2 opened on Friday and Trevor has been waiting for about a year since we heard it was coming out, they filmed it here in town so we knew about it coming out pretty early. Trevor loved the Night of the Museum and was literally counting down the days till it came out. So we decided to trick him, I can't imagine that we have many years left to be able to do this. We didn't tell him where we were going just that we were going out for a drive, we live a block from the theatres so he quickly realized where we were going but then we told him that movies don't start till the evening and that we were only going there to have lunch at Burger King, he actually bought it until we went to get the popcorn, then he figured it out.

It was a great movie! It was really weird though, about 1/2 hour into the movie all of a sudden everything was upside down and the talking was all weird, I thought I was losing my mind because nobody was saying anything, then the theatre manager came in and said that in 10 years he has never seen this, they put the movie on the reel backwards, they could not fix it though so they moved us to the Imax screen and we all received free vouchers, totally worked for me!!!!!

So now life returns to normal, I will be making my lists and getting organized for next week. I start my new job on Monday so our schedules will definitely be changing.

Have a great weekend

Cheers.

Mini family vacation - Oregon Coast

I have finally convinced Rory to join us on a family vacation. Since his car accident the anxiety he feels has stopped him from joining us, however lately Trevor has really been making some comments that this has not gone unnoticed on his part.

It made me sad to think of all the experiences Rory is missing out on and the experiences the boys are missing with their Dad. So we are going to take a mini step and go away for 3 days to the Oregon Coast. We did this back in 2006 when Trevor was just 4 and to this day he has always asked to go back. He has asked for this more than Disneyland or any other vacation he has been on.

We are renting a house right on the coast, the deal was unbelievable as they are still charging winter rates, so even though it is just the 4 of us, and Rorys Mom, we are renting a house that sleeps 10. Here is the house

From what I understand there are 22 steps down to the beach, they are steep so it may not work for the boys and Rorys Mom but the idea of being able to walk out the back door onto the beach has me so excited!

We are leaving on Tuesday morning (avoiding the long weekend rush) and will return on Friday. The plan is to take our time getting there and enjoying the coast along the way. It is a 7 hour drive but with all the stops I plan who know when we will arrive :)

Should be tons a fun, just hope the weather cooperates! So I probably won't be posting until I return as I have quite a bit to get done this weekend before we go so until then...

Cheers :)