My Granma used to say this. I think she’d use in the context of checking out a new place. I use it to describe what Dad does to exit a vacation residence. We’ve been waiting 10 minutes strapped into seats waiting for dad to complete his search of the house. Dad missed a toy last year at Zoe’s. Like the Olympics, Dad’s competing.
August 24, 2008
August 22, 2008
Cannon Beach friday
It’s Saturday morning now. Everyone is bugging out to the beach. I put Laura down for a nap. So I get to hang out for awhile until she wakes up. Low tide is coming up. But oddly, I’m ok with the opportunity to pause. I’m even leaving the dishes for the moment.
Uh oh…Wayne says Laura’s babbling. I guess I’ll be forced to have fun versus journaling about the fun and adventure we had yesterday.
Friday was Wayne’s day. He took our most sun drenched day and declared it kite day. We drove the hour north to the International Kite Festival in Long Beach, WA. Wayne said it’s always been a dream of his to go there. The visions of hundreds of kites in the air will stay with me for my life time. It was truly beautiful.
We didn’t arrive in Long Beach until 11am. It started as festivals usually do, the race for a space. We were lucky in that we got a parking area close to the boardwalk. It was nice to be able to go back and forth to the car. We started with a shake down trip to get a lay of the land. Our first view was of a 20+ stacked kite stretching up above the dunes, reaching the morning moon. It seemed surreal as the wind blew. We knew we were in festival land when the food smelled fried. Fried oysters, calamari, salmon, cod, fries, etc.
The girls were hungry so we had kettle korn. It was my parents intro to such a thing and they liked it. It fended off the munchies for a while and kept Laura (who didn’t nap on the ride up) occupied in the stroller. We walked up on the board walk to watch the view. There was a fun announcer explaining the different kites. I got to see kite ballet. There was an 80+ man who flew 3 kites at the same time. He was so entertaining that he took attention from the rest of the festival and had to be asked to stop flying.
Wayne took the girls down to the beach to watch a kids fling about Cat and the Hat (which Sara has been reading here at the beach house). Mom and I pushed the stroller back to the cars to procure lunch. We picnicked at the festival area and Sara got cotton candy (Laura’s first).
This is where we all split up. Mom took Laura on the Discovery trail in the dunes to let her sleep. Sara, Dad, and I wandered among the kites while Wayne went down to the beach to fly a kite and talk to other kities. Dad drifted in and out of our company, photographing as inspired. Sara and I watch a huge crab kite consume some tourists and helped them out. Wayne took Sara to the beach to fly kites for awhile and I got to photograph with Dad. That was nice.
Finally, we wandered down to the beach. Sara and I had lots of fun playing in the surf. The girls had all worn bathing suits all day for this time. We didn’t get that wet (the water was cold) but it was fun to get splashed. Laura woke up and Dad helped Mom get the stroller on the beach. Laura saw the sand and started running around in circles and cackling with glee.
The tide started to come in and we decided to call it a day. We all had battle wounds from the day. Sara has a rash on her leg from falling in some prickle grass. I got sunburned behind my knees and on my nose. Laura had a bad heat rash on her neck. Wayne just felt “bone tired”.
Despite all that, we decided to do a town run. We really wanted to go to Cannon Beach town on Thursday afternoon, but ended up exploring Ecola State Park instead. So we took our opportunity. We didn’t arrive until 5pm. We started with dinner at Pizza a fetta at 231 Hemlock. It was pretty good. Laura was silly tired and kept climbing on me. It was a little hole in the wall and good for the kids. Geppetto’s Toy store was open. What a cute little place. We found “sea cucumbers” for the girls and bath animals for Laura. Sara got a horse set complete with grass, tree, and corral.
We tried to get to a kite store, but they were all closed. We found an idyllic playground instead. It was right next to the Cannon Beach Christian Conference center. I got some brochures. Don’t know if I’ll go, but it looks very cute.
We got home tired. Wayne unpacked the stuff and I took the girls upstairs for a bath. We were having such a great time, trying out all the new toys. Laura was relaxed, too relaxed. She pooped in the tub. Out everyone came. Laura started shrieking as I wrestled the poop infested toys out of her hand and scooped the kids up and headed for showers downstairs. It took awhile for the shrieking to stop. The kids weren’t as enamored with the shower, but we eventually got them clean. I put Laura to bed at that point. No one wanted to clean up the poop in the bath. It sat there for about an hour before I girded my loins and dealt with it.
Eventually I slept.
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Dad quote
“to be or not to be”. Dad and Sara have been bantering this around. Dad says it’s better to be.
Laura is saying more words. Beach, hat, and Za za for Sara. Elmo= elno in laura language. 2 words together is elno bugs, lw’s favorite episode. She loves reading her bug book. Ants are fascinating enough to say. She also says crab, interestingly.
Friends
Sara made a friend at Hug Point making castles in the sand. She made one Romeo and Juliet style on our balcony with the adjoining beach house with Dana 7yo. At ecola state park, Sara asked me to find her a “4yo girl who would play chase and be my friend.”. High expectations. She played chase with her Mom instead.
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August 21, 2008
Cannon Beach Thur
The weather is fickle. The sun is pouring through the windows making the upper room hot for the first time this trip. I’ve been following Mom around closing windows as she opens them due to the cold. This morning was supposed to be “clearing”.
Dad convinced us to go for a hike. I was reluctant. I wanted to hang on our own beach. Dad took us to Hug Point, just south of Cannon Beach. Sara and I got out to use the restrooms and got drenched. The downpour was impressive. It soaked through my jacket. All us Powers were dressed in full rain gear. Most everyone else came out after the rain was done in normal clothes. Laura was excited to play in the sand. She insisted on following me around the point. Sara made a friend over feathers and sand. The boys bonded over waterfall photography.
We headed home for lunch.
The afternoon hike was to Ecola State Park. Wayne and I thought we would go to Cannon Beach and explore, but Ecola was deep in a old growth forest. I was on kid duty trying to make sure no kids fell off a cliff. I had the best time with the kids in a little hollow away from the cliffs while Wayne photoed. I played hide and seek with Laura and Sara. It was kind of idyllic. We decided to head home after that.
This was Dad’s day. 2 nature areas at once.
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August 20, 2008
Cannon Beach-wed
Tuesday’s storm continued to blow on wed. Though it was fun to do storm watching, we had cabin fever. We went into Cannon Beach to walk out to Haystack rock. The wind was fierce. The kids were troopers and wanted to walk into the blasting rain and mist. At the rock, we saw a baby seal trying to beach itself.
That evening we watched 3:10 to Yuma.
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August 19, 2008
Cannon Beach Tues- Rainy morning
We just woke up and the day is rainy. Wayne and iPhone had predicted a huge winter storm. That prediction has been downgraded. Maybe we will actually hike on the beach. The combo of rain and sand and kids haven’t seen so palatable. Maybe we’ll have pancakes with rain “rat droppings” as Mom refers to chocolate chip pancakes.
this was the day we stayed inside all day. It was actually one of the best days. Wayne made a kitty puzzle with Sara. I read about lightroom and damed some of my past photos.
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August 18, 2008
Cannon Beach-mon
Monday starts to seem far away by Friday. Then there was rain and now there is sun.
Seaside day. We had a beach side town day. The rain came down in a fine mist. The travel part of the day started with Norma’s, a Roadfood. We got there around 11am and beat the lunch rush. The chowder was nice on the cold day.
Sara had steaked out the toy store to buy her souvenir. She got a white stuffed animal flying horse and picked out a tiger striped cat for Laura.
Laura saw the carousel at the center of the mall. She decided to remind me what almost 2 yo is all about. We got at the front of the line, but all laura saw was a door closing her access to her beloved carousel. She began her high pitched fussing. It didn’t stop when she got on. It took a few minutes for me to figure out that she didn’t want me sitting up on the horse with her. So I paid for a ticket and didn’t get to ride. The carousel master even helpfully came over and told me he’d have to stop the ride if Laura kept fussing. Laura enjoyed the ride until she had to get off and more crankiness ensued.
We walked along the promenade with all the crowds. Mom and Dad retreated to grocery shopping while Wayne and I sought ice cream at a candy shop. The rain started and the shop didn’t have any seating. We took our 3 chocolate extreme moose tracks outside in the rain. Laura wanted a whole cone to herself. I was reluctant to give her a whole cone. She refused to take a bite or a spoon. So we walked thru the rain with our 3 cones and a shrieking Laura. There were many interesting stares. Finally, I whiddled my cone down to a manageable size and gave then whole thing to
Laura. Happiness.
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August 8, 2008
VA RCS picnic
8/8/08 The day the Beijing Olympics began. It was also the date of our summer VA Rehab picnic. To be fair to all, the picnic was in Federal Way so some American Lake folks could come. It meant we had to travel a long distance from Ballard. I made sure the kids got an early nap. We picked up Wayne downtown about 3:15pm. Traffic was already up and running. It took us a while to find the pavillon, but the place was perfect. There were swings on one side and a huge wood structure on the other. The water looked inviting, but we decided not to mix water for an already long journey.
We joined the buffet in full swing and I got hot hamburgers off the grill. Laura kept grabbing at the watermelon. In typical kid fashion, I spent most of my time running after kidlets versus socializing. Eventually, I figured out that the crowds had thinned. Everyone had moved to the baseball field to watch the annual game. This is where I got most of my photos. Wayne played with the girls on the side lines with lots of balls while I wandered around and photoed people. Kevin’s family got the most points for photographicness (is that a word?)
Left tired, but happy. Fun day.
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August 5, 2008
Night out on our block
We had a really nice block party tonight. We had a large turn out and Engine 18 even made an appearance. And yes the update to wordpress now let’s me post from my phone!
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August 2, 2008
Sara date
The neat thing about wordpress 2.6 is the location based blog from the iPhone. For instance I am writing this while having a nice little breakfast date at Besalu with Sara this morning.
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