Oregon (part 2)--heading to the beach house

From Rita and Clem's house to Yachats, Oregon (where we were staying) was like a 2 1/2 hour drive.  And it was a drive with about a billion places to stop and have fun on the way.  We only chose a few stops b/c we actually wanted to make it to our destination.  Wow though, the whole Oregon coast is just amazing.

First stop--seeing the elk just outside of Reedsport.  There is a huge elk preserve and there are dozens of them.  We got lucky and they were right near the viewing area.  So beautiful.
 

 

We planned to tour Sea Lion Caves but the sea lions weren't actually in the caves.  Good thing my kids enjoy a fun gift shop.

We stopped at Heceta Head beach and lighthouse.  If we would have let them, the kids would have stayed at this beach all day.  Really though, I could say that about every beach we went to for the whole 4 days.

 

I love this picture I took of Annie.  Man, she loves the ocean.  Mary and Andrew are the explorer type, always looking for shells, crabs, etc.  Whit and Annie preferred to get wet and race the waves.  And if Annie has a minute, she is happy to just stand and stare.

 

Andrew LOVES (or should i say LOVED) finding crab body parts.  This beach was full of them and he was going overboard.  Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of shells at this beach for him to see that there are more awesome things to find than crab body parts.  Once we got to Yachats and he discovered sand dollars and star fish, etc, etc, and realized that crab body parts are actually just smelly and kind of gross.

 

 

 

We did hike up the light house too, and hit a few letterboxes before we finally made it to the beach house.

Oregon (part 1)-- pre-beach house

Our Oregon trip was perfect.  We had the best time and so much fun seeing everyone and doing lots and lots of stuff.

A super awesome part of our Oregon trip was that all the Singers were together for the first time in 7 years (and we have a few more Singers since then as well).  We had 3 nights at a beach house with Rita and Clem, all 4 boys and their families.  After that, we had a few days with everyone.  Beforehand though, we had just Rita and Clem and Dan, Wendy and Taya in Roseburg for a few days.

Matt, Dan and Grandpa took the kids up shooting somewhere up in the mountains like 45 minutes away.  The kids really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

They revisited the site of Matt's Eagle Project...the trail has seen better days (like 20 years ago--geez we're old)

We headed to River Forks Park for a picnic too.  Can I just say that Roseburg is beautiful.  I remembered it was pretty but was reminded over and over again of just how pretty it is.  

 

 

So pretty, huh?

We picnicked and played a while and then headed down the river and the kids swam a bit with Grandpa and Uncle Dan.  Kayaking down the river were some friends of the Singer family, so Bro. Hall gave the kids rides.  They loved it.

 

 

Oh and they love Uncle Dan too.

Next up, heading to the beach house....I took like 600 pictures on this trip, so I'm gonna have to break it up into a few posts.

Whit's Ear

Where have my blogging skills gone?  Ridiculous.

Back to summer, the first part of August to be exact.  We did go on an awesome vacation--maybe it's time I posted about it or something.
From Nan-O-Rama in Missouri, we headed to Oregon for a two week vacation with the Singers.  The trip started out with an adventure.  Right after we got through airport security, Whitney told us that the back of her earring was bothering her.  When I went to look at it, her earring back was sucked into her ear--the largest part of the earring back was in her ear.

We got to have the airport EMT people come visit with us while we waited to board--nice but UNHELPFUL.  They had nothing with them, no first aid kit, no nothing.  This was a Saturday (of course).  We arrived in Portland after 11pm (of course).

We stayed with Nate and Brittney that night up in Salem and then Rita picked us up Sunday morning.  Everyone was feeling awesomely exhausted from a late night and then an early feeling morning with our time change.  Rita drove us the 2 1/2 hours back to Roseburg where we dropped most of the clan off at church and then headed with Whit to Urgent Care.

Whitney was excited to get to ride in the front seat of Grandpa's truck--it's a rare treat for a kid these days to sit in a front seat, you know. ;)

She excitedly layed--I don't think there was a nervous bone in her body.  I was sure nervous though, probably b/c I knew there would be a shot and some snipping.

 

Success.  It got out and miraculously, after a week, we put an earring back in and it hadn't closed up.  She's only had them pierced like 5 months, so I was sure we'd be getting that side repierced.  A pleasant surprise and the worst part of our trip was over.

Nan-O-Rama

Kellie and the kids left and then we had 6 days before we headed on our whirlwind vacation to Oregon and Missouri.
 First stop, Missouri for our surprise 80th Birthday party for my nan.  We called in Nan-O-Rama and it was in the works for just under a year.  All of her kids, most of her grandkids, and 25 of her great grandkids were able to come.  I can't believe we were able to pull it off and surprise her.

We had a layover but didn't get off the plane.  The pilot let Annie take the hot seat.  Fun!

Besides Nan-O-Rama, the kids had to take advantage of the jacuzzi tub--always a highlight at Nanny and Papas.

 

Bonnie had lied to Nan telling her that she had an order of 250 cupcakes to fill.  Fortunately Megan and I were in town for a random visit so we spent a full day making and decorating cupcakes.  Lesson learned--Bonnie is amazing (I already knew that), and 250 + many minis is a heck of a lot of cupcakes.

They turned out so great!  My favorite?  Chocolate with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting.  Yum!

And a trip to St. Louis isn't complete without Steak and Shake!

Then we told Nan we were all heading to the zoo for the day so she wouldn't try to come and see any of us.  We spent the day setting up for our big surprise Nan-O-Rama dinner.  

pickle girls

beautiful cupcakes (the rest of the room was so beautiful too)

All the great-grandkids stood in line by the door, waiting to surprise Nan.

Surprised she was.  She was surprised and mobbed by just seeing all the family at the door.  Then after about a billion hugs, she looked into the room and saw tons of friends and family there.  It was like surprise all over again.

The kids sang some songs, we had a nice program and ate yummy food.  It was a great night.

The night ended with cousin sleepovers.  We got the older girls this year.  Happy cousins.

The next day, was Nan-O-Rama part 2.  We rented out a roller skating rink for the morning and had a big birthday party.

 

Of course since it was for a birthday, we did the Limbo and Nan got a turn in the Party Machine.  What a fun way to spend time with the whole fam.

 

great-grandkids.  25 present.  28 total at time of party and 31 by the end of the year.

12 grandkids (just missing 2)

3 kids!
Happy Nan-O-Rama Nan!!!

Cousin Time in Boston

We were ready for Boston.  We had snacks and water bottles and all that stuff.  Fortunately the Freedom Trail kind of helps break up the day itself so we had amazingly awesome and non-complainy kids this day.  Perfect!

First stop--U.S.S. Constitution Museum
 

 

 

 

Old North Church--actually had a lady give a little presentation while we were there so we learned some cool facts.  I can't decide if our own family pew at church would be better or worse...

oh shoot...lazy again.
CANOLLIS!  We stopped at Mike's Pastry and got canollis.  The kids had never had one before and we were all in heaven.  I loved that the line was actually short so I got to look in all the glass.  It only made me want more food though...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swan Boat ride.  I love the Public Garden in Boston--it's so beautiful.

Then a water taxi and back to tour the USS Constitution before we headed home.  Seriously a perfect touristy day.