Oregon trip

After repeated failed attempts to embed the sideshow here, I managed to post it to the top of my blog...who knows how long I will keep it there. So it is now a function on my blog, rather than a post. It was a great trip with some great memories.

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.

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.

Day three...

After another tasty breakfast of oatmeal we were back to the beach...This time Oscar stuck around for breakfast before taking off.
This is him in his "chipmunk" pose (look familiar grandma Edge?). It was a bit chilly and foggy.

Oscar demonstrated his large lettering skills.
After enough of the fog we decided to head back north to the Oswald park beach. This time we packed a lunch and had all day to spare.
The opposite side of the cove from yesterday we found even more awesome tide pools.
Oscar and Pop's loved exploring the rocks and consented to pose for yet another pic.
Poppy on the other hand was all to happy to pose for me. She really came into her own this go around. She stayed out of the waves but the sea creatures were her thing.
She and Oscar made a couple of sea stars into their "pets" and had a great hour long pretend game in a little tide pool where they were their owners and would bring them things to eat.
After spending most of the day at that great beach we headed back to camp in time to shower, avoid the neighbors Latin/elevator music and went to dinner at a yummy Pizza shop. Poppy was so worn out that she fell asleep and wouldn't wake up the entire meal! This is how Ricky ate his dinner.
Then, after a meander on the dock we headed back to camp to snuggle into bed and watched "The Incredible's".

Day two...

Here we go...day two. Oscar was up at the crack of dawn and pulled the all-to-willing-and-ready dad along with him. Poppy and I on the other hand were happy to sleep a bit longer, make us some oatmeal and then venture to the ocean. Poppy, a bit apprehensive after the previous nights tumble, kept a very conservative distance from the shore and was happy to build me various cakes.

(Ricky feeding the birds what was left of our squirrel-eaten pitas)

The boys took a very long walk before coming back to humanity. They found a cool wooden shelter, that even later when we thought we would walk to find it again, ended up cutting back because Poppy couldn't make the distance (remember, she doesn't want to get strong legs).
We then ventured to Cannon beach which was 18 miles north of our campground. The camp ranger gave us a nice tide pool map and boy were we glad to have day trips where we could escape to the underworld of the ocean.
Although cannon beach was pretty and has haystack rock, the tide pools were mediocre compared to the others we would find.
Poppy found a lone crawling sea-star that they could touch an feel. (always making sure to put it back safely)
(It was a bit foggy here in the morning, and a little chilly, but the boy loved to explore.)
On our way back to the campground we decided to stop by another tide pool stop. Oswald park. There was a .5 mile trip down tot he shore. It was the beautiful green and lush trail with a bunch of hideout trees.
Oswald beach had a TON of surfers. In fact we have now decided that if you want to find the BEST beaches, all you need to do id follow the surfers!
Look at this place. It was such a beautiful cove with fresh water streams flowing into the Ocean.
The moss and tide pools were amazing! The kids and dog couldn't get enough. We hadn't packed a lunch this time around and we were certain we were coming back to this beach the very next day with food to hold us until we were all fully content.

(Typical edge family photo!)

(Smiley dog checking out the awesome moss!)

After leaving the beach and heading back to the camp ground and re-grouping, we ventured over to the Manzanita town farmer's market. It was fun to see a friendly farmer's market. We had some delicious blueberries and crapes for dinner. After hanging around we found our way back to the beach. Oscar and i walked the beach back to the campground and daddy and Pop's went in the car.
As he and I were walking down the beach he would randomly say, "mom I want to go back to camp." The very next moment he would want to go explore another batch of driftwood. I kept reminding him that we had a couple of miles to walk back... he then was off running down the beach again.
Once back in camp we all showered, had some hot cocoa and finshed watching Star-Wars before snugguling down to sleep.
Another fun-filled day on the beach.

To all of you who actually read this entire email, I salute you! This is really my way of clearly documenting what we did and where we went. Not to mention, I hope to make all of you a little jealous to the point of making your own trek to the coast...you won't regret it...that is unless you need fancy things and parties to keep you happy.

Day one...

After a 7 1/2 hour drive we arrived at the Nehalem State park campground, set up camp and headed to the beach. Here is the view right before you come over the top of the dune ...
And this my friends is what our Ocean vacation is ALL about.
Oscar can hardly hold back long enough for us to set up camp before he is leaping to the shore. Poppy, the more cautious of the bunch tried to follow suite but was quickly swept off her feet into the frigid water. She lasted about ten more minutes before it was imperative that I take her back to camp to change. It was at that moment I decided that I in fact DID not over pack. She was going to use up what I brought for sure!

This particular beach seemed to get pretty windy int he evening hours so we would venture back to camp and go find some place yummy for dinner.

This night we found a little restaurant who served a bowl of chowder the size of my head. It was delicious and yes, I ate the entire bowl full, a roll, salad and some of the tikes fish and chips. We all had our fill of dinner and headed back to camp to cozy down to watch Star Wars #6 while we snuggled in our sleeping bags.

This was just the beginning of the late night dvd movies and snuggle time under the star speckled sky. Lucky for us, our tent is equipped with a huge star gazing cealing.