Jared's 1st day of soccer!

Jared had his first soccer practice two weeks ago. He LOVED it! Prior to that first practice, he'd pretty much had zero experience with the sport, but he was THRILLED to get to try it out. The first games won't be until September, and he CAN'T WAIT!!







His coach requested we ditch the ball cap, and find some shorts without pockets, because Jared kept fiddling with both... *grin* (I won't comment on how I used to get in trouble for doing the same sorts of things during sports... ha!)

Sunsets!

On top of a gorgeous day Friday at the ocean of the week we were on vacation, we were also treated to a gorgeous sunset (only one the entire week!). The misty stuff had gone away by late afternoon.





(and this would be the 2nd of two pictures of me...)




I love the halo-type ring around the sun in this one




The sun started to morph into weird shapes as it reflected on the thin cloud layer on the horizon


I didn't want to share TOO many sunset pictures, but I have some where the sun looks like the top and bottom buns of a burger, another where it looks like four stacked pancakes, etc. It was very cool!



After the sun had disappeared below the horizon, it was neat to see some of the color in the sky with the moon glowing in the sky above
.

We actually saw the moon turn this funky yellow/orange color and sink below the horizon as well about 1.5-2 hours after the sun did. I tried taking pictures but it wasn't bright enough for me to not use flash, and using flash messed it all up (an experienced photographer that knows how to use her camera settings would probably have been able to manage it...). I am not sure I have ever seen such a thing before!!!!

Lincoln City, OR -- Part Four

Day 4:

We spent the morning at the Outlet Stores, and scored AMAZING deals! Carters and Osh Kosh were both having nearly store-wide 40-60% off sales, and THEN, if you spent over a certain amount, you got an extra percentage off! I spent more than $75 and got an extra 30% off (at both stores!!). They show on your receipt what you saved, and we ended up with $26 jeans that cost just shy of $8, and a $34 jean jacket that we got for $15, $32 thick hooded sweatshirts for just shy of $13, etc etc etc. I spent less than $200 and got all three kids TONS of stuff (I think there were only two things I ended up paying more than $10 for!!!!). I wish I could find deals like that everytime I shop!!

We spent the afternoon back at the beach




I have no idea what he's looking at here, but he kept stopping what he was doing and looking up. This was about the 4th time he'd done it when I decided to take his picture. He was hearing voices from above or something... LOL!!


Day 5:

Corey and Vicky had joined us on vacation late evening the night before, so we headed down to the beach fairly early in the day, in order to make the most of the time we had left.

Friday (day 5) was probably the prettiest day we had the entire week. Gorgeous blue sky, not a cloud to be seen in-land, quite warm... But there was this weird misty/foggy stuff right on the beach (not even along where the houses/cabins/hotels were, JUST right on the actual beach), to where you couldn't see very far in any direction! Didn't stop us from enjoying our time, though.

We still flew kites


We played Frisbee






We still played in the water


Jared did magic tricks by pulling a "never-ending" rainbow jump rope out of his pocket (over and over and over again... LOL)


Connor had fun with his sling-shot airplane


But he didn't have much fun when the sand fleas got in his swim trunks
'

He had laid on his belly, facing the waves, to let the water lap up at him at the highest point of the waves. At one point, a slightly larger wave came up and while it didn't go up over his face, it came up high enough that the wave ended back behind him and he got pretty wet along his body. He jumped up super fast and did a weird little scream, and we figured it was just because the water was cold. He paused for a tiny bit, and then started hollering more intensely and grabbing at his crotch. We STILL thought it was just the chill of the water, until he started yelling that there were crabs pinching him. Danny ran down and pulled the swim trunks down in front, and sure enough, there were several sand fleas (we think that's what they were!) climbing around on his boy-parts!! Dan yanked the swim trunks all the way off and started plucking them off Connor. Thankfully, he's none the worse the wear... Apparently the wave was forceful enough when it came up to scoop the waistband of his swim trunks down a bit and toss in a few sand fleas that got stirred up in the churning waves??? Craziest thing ever! Poor kid! I feel bad now for taking his picture while he was standing there screaming, but at the time, we thought it was pretty funny that he was screaming over what we thought was just the cold water!!!

Later that night, we had a fire on the beach and made s'mores. I have no idea why I didn't document this portion of our trip, but I got caught up in having fun around the fire and totally forgot about the camera! I did have Vicky take my picture with Dan as we were getting organized for the s'mores. One of two pictures of me from the whole week...

Lincoln City, OR -- Part Three

Day 3 of our vacation brought DADDY (he'd had to work Monday and Tuesday, so he drove out after work Tuesday and arrived in the middle of the night Wednesday)! Daddy's first goal was to get a decent kite, so after breakfast, we headed out and got this:


The boys enjoyed taking turns with daddy's help


Daddy had to hold onto Connor or it would drag him!


Emily's kite was a tiny plastic Barbie kite which she was a little too old for, so we got her a cute little kite (pink with a rainbow colored heart in the middle) that we assumed would still just be a simple "stand and hold the string" style of kite.


However, once I tied the string on and let it up into the air, the kite went WILD whipping side to side, doing weird loops, and pretty much dive bombing anyone in the nearby vacinity. I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face! We eventually figured out that if you move your hand from side to side while holding the string, then the kite will fairly nice just weave from side to side, but it would still occasionally gain a mind of it's own. $15 for a week full of laughs seemed pretty good to me! hahaha!!!!

Connor felt more in control with his own kite:


Emily had fun goofing off with grandpa


And feeling the wind in her hair!


That night, the tide was really low, so we got to inspect some sea life. We got attacked by a rougue wave in the process!


We'd been standing on the other side of that rock (Em hadn't quite walked that far around yet), and you can see how far back the water is in the above picture. We had our backs to the water, checking out sea stars and anenomies and muscles, etc, and suddenly, BAM, big wave snuck up. Connor almost got shoved right into the rock, and we all got a little wet (the boys more so than Dan and I since we're taller!). I whipped my camera up above my head and prayed I wouldn't lose my balanace!!

Lincoln City, OR -- Part Two

On the second day, there were lots of attempts at kite flying, despite the lack of wind


Lots of digging with Grandpa


and being buried


Lots of sandy feet


Lots of running towards the water


(doesn't it look inviting?)


And lots of running back out again






There was even a bit of this


We also spent some time at a neat park on Devil's Lake, which was only a few miles down the road. We had no clue it was even there during any of our past visits!

(more pictures tomorrow!)

Lincoln City, OR

We recently got back from a week in Lincoln City, OR. It's a trip we have taken nearly every summer with my IL's, and we always have such a good time! Danny prefers the East Coast ocean beaches, but the kids and I really don't know any different so we LOVE going to the West Coast ocean! Even if you do generally need a sweatshirt, we still have a blast. There is nothing like standing on the ocean coast. It's so peaceful and calming, and I have wonderful memories of it from my own childhood, and it's fun continuing to build those memories with my children!

We arrived around 5:30pm Monday night, and the kids and I wasted no time heading down to the beach!

I thought the mist/fog along the water looked neat












I will be sharing more pictures from our trip throughout the week.

Overnight Camp

Emily attended overnight camp the first week of August through our local YMCA. She was gone Sunday-Friday of that week. We were able to email her while she was at camp, but she was not able to reply (they print emails for the campers and pass them out at dinner time). The campers were able to send snail-mail letters if they'd brought pre-addressed and stamped envelopes. I sent some with Emily and told her she'd better write to me at least once!! We got a letter from her Thursday of that week that said it was Monday (24 hours into her stay at camp) and she was having the best time of her life. LOL! I loved it.

On the Friday we got to pick her up from camp, we were waiting at the campfire (parents and siblings got to attend the final campfire to see a bit of what camp life was like) and she walked in with her group. I was so happy to see her! We gave very tearful hugs and kisses before I had to send her back with her group. After she was sitting down (two rows down from us), the boys rushed over and wanted to give her loves as well.




They ended the campfire deal with a song about having made new friends and whatnot, and how next summer, I'll meet you right here (coming back and reuniting with camp friends, etc.). I am a sap on a good day, but was an emotional wreck during this song, with all the emotions tied into missing Emily and seeing her again after a whole week. ha! In my defense, there were LOTS of other mommies wiping tears! They have a sign at the entrance to the campfire area:


After the campfire, we got to enjoy a BBQ meal, and then our campers got to take us on a tour of the camp and talk to us about the different stuff they did. Em took us straight to her cabin where I posed her with her two leaders, Banana (left) and Sass (right):


Em slept on the top bunk right behind their heads in the above picture. It sounds like she had a wonderful time, but she did miss home. She flip flops about whether she wants to do it again next summer or not. One day she says she can't wait, and then the next she says she'll miss us too much. I'm sure that by the time next summer rolls around, she'll be dying to go back. I think us having been away from her so recently while we were in Jamaica had something to do with her missing us this year...

I sent a disposable camera with her to camp figuring she'd take all sorts of pictures of her friends and her experiences, but she took a whopping FIVE pictures, which I haven't developed because we haven't used up the roll yet!!