All About Alex!

Happy Saturday! 

 Hope you all are enjoying your weekend so far.

Today was Alex's first T-ball practice & meeting of his team and coaches.  Luckily it didn't rain! :)

 He seemed to have fun, but today was alot of going over rules, safety, then taking turns hitting the ball and running........probably painful when you are 5.   As we get more into it I'm sure it will be more and more fun.

 And...this is a couple of months late, but I wanted to share a couple of pictures from Alex's "kid" party that we had at "Out of This World Pizza".  First of all, the cake.  We didn't really have a theme, so I just went with the space idea - that the pizza place already had going on.  I ended up getting the cake from Costco.  I was really happy with what they came up with - because I (of course) had to go off the menu (they didn't have anything space-ish).   I quickly sketched something out and added it to my order form. 

It was a TON of cake for way less than 1/4 sheet at other stores. 

I think they did a great job - don't you??

 Here are Malia and her friend Mia  - trying out some of the girl goodie bag treats.

 Here's Alex opening his cool wrestler guy.  Love the look on his friend's face as he checks it out!

  

Then, as soon as his party was over.......we headed to the beach for a few days on Spring Break!    Sometimes I wish I was 5 years old. :) 

How are you enjoying your weekend?  I think a trip to Costco is in my near future,

and then some vegetable garden planting.

:O) Linda

Two Trips - One Week

Hello & Happy Friday!!
Last week was so abnormally hot here in Oregon (about 105 degrees for several days), and we DO NOT HAVE A/C! I decided to take the kids to the beach for a couple of the worst days. The weather there the first day was warm, sunny & beautiful! The next couple of days were cool and by the time we left, misty. I LOVED IT!! I felt guilty for not being hot, knowing how miserable it was back home.


Here are a few pictures from the beach. My sister and niece Kelli were there, along with my niece Kim, her husband Brandon and their son Carson, and my Step-Mom Jan.





Carson is about 3 weeks older than Ella. Alex really had fun playing with him. I think he was happy to get some "guy time". :)









Thanks to Dad/Jan and Kathy for letting us stay at your homes!

The kids and I came home for a quick pit stop. I repacked and we headed out the next day for Riffle Ranch in Madras. It's my brother in law's boss's place (I'm not sure if that's grammatically correct). I was so tired from the first trip, so I wasn't sure about hitting the road again. I'm so glad we did! It was lots of fun, and like a family reunion. The only missing people were my Dad & Jan and my niece Toni.

We had lots of fun, played games, had a bbq, went in the river, talked, laughed and enjoyed the peace and quiet. No tv!





A view from the covered deck/patio (looking out at the Deschutes River).

Alex, Malia, Niece Tara, Carson, and Niece Kim -- Sitting by the sprinkler.

Lots of family in the river. So cold and fun!!

Nephew Kevin fly fishing.

Some of the yurt/tents. Fully equipped inside with real beds!! I think there were 8 all together. We slept in the house, but most of the others slept in these. Maybe next time we can try them. They overlooked the river.

The "barn", which is really a super cool house that looks like a barn on the outside. It even had A/C. Thank goodness!

A family shot - right during the thunder and lightening storms that moved in.

Sunset on the "rocks"(!? not sure of the correct term - canyon?)

One on the many pics I took, trying to catch lightening on camera. No luck. Pretty though.

On the way home we stopped and took pictures by the tee pee. It was hot. No one was in the mood.

Okay, this should have been 2 posts. Maybe more pics later.

Have a great weekend.
Linda

(not sure why all of the white space is showing up between the pictures. I have tried forever to get it right. URGH!)

Memorial Day Weekend - A Trip to the Beach!

Happy End of May!
I can't believe Summer is right around the corner. The weather here has been HOT for this time of year. I think we hit 88 degrees over the weekend. Ugh. Makes me wonder if I can go through another summer without A/C. Looks like I will have to find a way to suffer through. :)

Today we went to my Niece Kim's son's FIRST BIRTHDAY party. It was a perfect day and a fun bbq party! We all had a great time, Carson is a cutie!! The kids had fun on a great tire swing and little pool too. Of course I forgot my camera, but there were plenty of others there. I am not worried. I can't believe Ella will be 1 in less than a month. How fast the past year has gone by.


Well, speaking of how fast time flies, these pictures were taken last weekend at Pacific City. I thought I should post them before we are technically into June!

The weather was beautiful (but windy the day these beach pictures were taken). The kids had a slight cold, and Ella started sounding croupy (is that a word) once we got down there. Ugh. I was worried (mostly due to Alex having a bad case of croup when he was 1.5, and having to spend the night in the hospital).....but we did our best to make it go away with lots of remedies!

Right about the time these horses were going by I dropped my camera in the sand. You'll notice a spot on the rest of the pictures. I may have to take it in to get it out.

Anyway, it was neat to see horses on the beach. It doesn't happen too often. I do remember when we saw a runaway horse shooting down the beach a few years ago. That was exciting!!

The water was cold (of course), and Alex didn't want anything to do with it. Malia on the other hand went for it. So typical.

Ella missed out on the actual beach this trip....too sick. :(

And here is a good shot of Grandpa Chuck (my dad) and the kids. Alex thought it was funny to close his eyes for every picture.

Nice.........................

Okay, one last tidbit. There are always deer that we watch for at the beach house. They come right up to the house looking for food.

Here is a video we shot of them being **hand fed** pancakes. Luckily no one was trampled.

That's all for now. I'm tired. I apologize if this is rambling and crazy. ~Linda

Our Trip to Pacific City - Memorial Day Weekend

We were so excited to get away for Memorial Weekend! We hadn't been to the beach since Thanksgiving......that's just about 6 months!! (I'm sure you can all do the math, not sure why I had to tell you :O)). We stayed with my Dad & Jan and had a great time. Saturday was gorgeous (that's when all of these beach pictures were taken). So many people were out on the beach....which isn't that normal for Oregon. I was feeling huge and hot, but the others climbed the gigantic sand hill (dune?) and got to check out the view from the top. It is really a lot bigger than it looks in these pictures. Poor Rourke, I think he climbed it 2 or 3 times with Malia (part of the way with her on his shoulders). Needless to say, lots of napping happened later that day.















There was driftwood that apparently someone had made into a teeter totter, which was fun for the kids. I never see those anymore!





The huge rock, I think it is called "Haystack Rock", eventhough there is another "Haystack Rock" in Cannon Beach (up the coast)........anyway, I love this rock! From one angle it looks like a Native American Indian head, but from this angle it looks like King Kong's head (profile). Can you see it?? My dad even found the profile of the Grinch on one portion of the rock. I can't see it in the picture, but I could see it when I was there.

The weather turned cloudy and drizzly on Sunday, but we saw lots of deer and rabbits right from Dad's house. The kids loved it!

Hope you all have a great week~
Linda

Pacific City In July ~ 2 Trips

July was a busy month! These pictures are out of order......I took the kids to PC in early July with my Mom, Sister Kathy & Niece Kelli. It was beautiful weather there and was close to 97 degrees when we left (that was when it was sooooo hot back in Portland). We had a fun time on the beach and went down to Lincoln City to shop at the outlets and have dinner at Mo's. **Yum!**

In mid-July we headed down for a quick weekend trip for Dory Derby Days. Here are a few pictures from the parade on Saturday. The weather wasn't all that great, but it actually didn't rain during the parade. It was a good day for C-A-N-D-Y......and the parade etiquette was much better than the 4th of July parade in Hillsboro. :)

aNotHer bEacH tRip!!!!!!

Hello~
I thought I would post some (okay, a lot) of pictures from our beach trip at the end of May. We had a great time. The weather was nice (most of the time) and Dad, Janet & the The Derrah's were down too. We flew kites, saw deer (look at how close the deer was to our driveway), climbed up the sand dune, saw whales in the ocean (from the top of the dune/cliff), had a bbq, went to the annual rummage sale at the Senior Center and enjoyed the beach!

I love the pictures of Rourke & Malia climbing up the sand dune and especially the one of them coming down. Oh, and we almost had our car towed for parking in the wrong place on the beach.......

Bye for now~
Linda