"Is Mild Spanish for Not Hot", August 2012

 

For those of you that don't know, Roc loves salsa.  The other day we went to a local restaurant and started enjoying some chips and salsa.  Because Roc loves chips and salsa he had his own salsa that he was eating.  By the time the food came Roc had finished his salsa and wanted more so he asked if we could get more, we said that it was fine so he asked the waiter if he could have more salsa and the waiter asked if he wanted hot or mild and he said he wanted mild.  After the waiter left Roc turned to me and asked "is mild the Spanish word for not hot?"  We had a good laugh.  For those of you who are wondering the same thing I did check and found that it comes from several origins including: Old English, Germanic, Latin and Greek (notice no Spanish).

Last Free Weekend Before Football Games August 2012

Calvin understands how to take advantage of our time at the coast!

 

 

Roc is now in football and school starts in 4 days which means that this was the last weekend to get out of town, so we took advantage of a sunny weekend and made a day trip down to Brookings for some fun in the sun.  We were not the only ones, the beach was packed with people but even with the all the people we still were able to find an area of the beach to kick back and relax, we even found a wide slow water flow that the kids went swimming in (it was warmer than the ocean).  The only down fall to the entire day was that we did not plan on the kids getting wet so yes we had to stop and get a change of clothes form the local Fred Meyers (the kids were happy with the swimming and the new clothes!).

Porter Dressed as Calvin August 2012

 

In case you can't tell Porter was accidentally dressed in Calvin's clothes.  Porter and Calvin both use the same size diapers so why can't they wear the same size clothes?  And I'm sure that nobody is wondering but yes it was Ryan who dressed him!

Football Time, August 2012

Roc got his football pads for his first year of tackle football; do you think he is excited?

Porter is even excited about the upcoming football season.

Porter was so excited about the upcoming football season that he wanted to show his dedication to football by not even taking off the helmet for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, he made the catch.

 

Porter found a tractor to play on while Roc was play running.

 

The start of the football season started with getting football pads followed by a fitness camp.  After four practices without pads the kids will finally get to put the pads on and see what they can do with them.  Roc's team has 15 kids with only 3 that have ever played before.

 

 

 

Calvin's First Teeth August 2012

Calvin got his first tooth and soon got his second one.  Thank goodness for teething tablets and tylenol, he was surprisingly not bad during the process.  Here's hoping to it being the same for the rest.

Emma's 10th Birthday

Celebrating Emma's 10th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.

 



Porter's favorite ride.  He was kind enough to share a turn with Calvin,



 

Taking a break from the games to have lunch.

 

Clearly it wasn't only the kids enjoying the games.

 

Opening presents at Nichole and Brian's house.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the present opening.

 

 

Of course Emma had to put her new clothes on immediatley.

Singing Happy Birthday.

 

Blowing out the candles.  Thanks to Uncle Brian for making a special extra big cupcake.

Calvin doing his own thing while we all ate cupcakes.

 

 

This year we had the oppurtunity to spend Emma's birthday in Portland with Aunt Nichole and Uncle Brian.  We went to the zoo and the next day Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Scott came and met us and we went to Chuck E. Cheeses.  Have to say it was alot more fun than we thought it was going to be and Roc wants to go back for his birthday.  Here's to many more fun birthday's

Vacation to the Oregon Coast, Summer 2012

 

Oregon Dunes Outside of Newport Oregon

 



 

We had heard about how fun the dunes were.  Little did we know that you had to hike up a hill to make it to the dunes and beach.  It was crazy but worth it when you reach the top and all you see is beach and ocean as far as you can see.

 

 

Darlingtonia Wayside Botanical Garden, North of the Oregon Dunes

 

Ryan found this garden on the internet.  These weird looking flowers can actually digest insects. It was really interesting and the kids actually acted interested.

 



Heceta Head lighthouse



Emma, Roc, Porter and Ryan hiked up the mile trail to the lighthouse and found out that it was under construction when they got there.

Roc's first photo that he was allowed to take from our camera, taken from the Heceta Lighthouses

 Roc recently has become quite interested in lighthouses and wanted to see as many as possible on our trip.  We tried to accommodate as much as time would allow but alot were closed or under construction.

 

The Devil's Punch Bowl

 

Emma trying to take a closer look at the punch bowl but her height made it only possible to look into the sky

Calvin seems less than enthused about the sites

 

 

 

One of my favorite places we visited in the coast growing up was the Devil's Punchbowl.  Not only for the way the water crashes at high tide but being able to feed and play with the chipmunks.

 

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

 

Finally a lighthouse that is open!

The kids enjoying activities at the lighthouse learning center

 

Everyone took 15 minutes to watch an educational film about lighthouses.

 

Dock from Japanese Tsunami in Newport Oregon



The dock was almost a mile away from the nearest beach access point.  We figured that it traveled across the ocean so we could at least take the hike (stroller and all) and walk out to see it before it was removed.

The pictures don't do this dock justice.  It was a massive chunck of concreate for the life of me I have no idea how this thing floats at all and am amazed that it was able to make its way all the way across the pacific ocean.

The dock was massive.  We wanted to see it and also try and make it a little educational.  It was pretty impressive that it made it all the way from Japan.

 



Tillamook Cheese Factory

Porter had the most fun pretending to drive while at the cheese factory.

While the rest of the family enjoyed Tillamook ice cream cones Calvin only got to indulge on his usual treat.

Tillamook Air Museum

 

 

 

 

 

At first when Ryan suggested we stop there I was not overly excited but when we went it was actually pretty cool to learn about all the different ways the airplanes were used in the military and to aid the coast guard.  We spent nearly 3 hours there and still didn't see everything.  Just means we will have to go back next time we go that way.  One of the most impressive aspects of the Air Museum is where it is located, it's in an air hangar designed ot house military blimps during the Second World War. The structure is massive with no vertical pillars.

 

 Oregon Zoo Portland Oregon

 

Deal was if he stayed with us he could walk, if not he had to be in the stroller.  Needless to say he wasn't walking long.

 

 

We did tell the kids that they would have the opportunity to explore uncharted territories, this is not exactly what we had in mind!

You can see how happy Calvin is,  I think he has a surprise for mom!

 

Yes that is a cockroach!

 

On our first day in Portland we went to the zoo, one of our favorite places to go.  Once again we had the opportunity to have Nichole and Brian come with us.  We had fun even through the rain here and there.