October Fun

October 2020

I'm glad I have this space where I can document pieces of our life. I hope my children will find it fun and comforting to come and read once they're old. I wish my mom would have documented parts of her life ... from her youth and young adult life. I would have loved to have seen things she was interested in back then, homelife and everyday outfits.

Carving a pumpkin can be such hard work but the end result is usually worth it (as long as one doesn't mess it up, lol).

My daughter's cat Lila was curious about the pumpkin smell, so she jumped on the table and began sniffing.

She gave the pumpkin a few licks and she was done with it. 

So, Riley hollowed out the pumpkin and Jacob carved it for him. Dad's are the best!

I like to make Halloween fun and special for my children. One of our favorite treats is a cookie cake. I make sure to buy one every time. 

And another family favorite for Halloween is ordering pizza and wings for dinner.

We had an early dinner so we could go back to a local pumpkin patch and do the corn maze. 

It was nice that it wasn't too busy. We started out quite sure of ourselves thinking that we would know which direction to take but .....

.... we soon realized that we were lost. We let Riley lead, so he thought it was hilarious that we didn't know which way to go.

So, dad had to take over leading. 

I on the other hand like to hang back a bit to take in the moment, look for bugs on the corn stalks, birds in the sky when they do happen to fly by, and as I rounded a corner I looked up and spotted Mt. Rainier. She's a giant!

Still lost by the looks of it. Ha ha!!

Eventually we found our way out. That was a fun time. It was now time to get home to get Riley ready to go trick or treating.

I don't recall what his costume was called but it was an ugly scary one. He was obviously happy with it. 

Oh, the jack o'lantern on the right was the one Jacob carved for Riley. It turned out looking good. Good job dad!

We walked about four blocks. Not many people were giving out candy because of the pandemic, but he got enough to be satisfied.

After we checked his candy and he ate a few we settled down on the couch and watched "It's a great pumpkin, Charlie Brown". A family favorite!

Memories, one of the few things that can never be taken away from us. Make lots of them (and document them).

They chose me from my brothers: "that's the nicest one", they said. And they

carved me out a face and put a candle in my head. And they set me on the doorstep,

and the night was dark and wild; and when they lit the candle then I smiled and smiled and smiled.

On Board the U.S.S. Turner Joy Destroyer

I like to plan outings but once in a while it's fun to not have anything planned and just head out and be spontaneous. Even with the constant cloudy and cold weather in January, we still like to head outdoors and enjoy the day.

We drove to Poulsbo and stopped at Sluy's Bakery. It's always hard to pick which pastries you want to get, they have such a large selection. Everything looks good. After the bakery we drove to Bremerton and Jacob asked if we wanted to board the military museum ship. Of course we wanted to. We find our military and our history very interesting.

It's a good thing we visited the museum ship at this time. It allowed us to really take our time exploring the entire ship without it being crowded. 

She is one of the most complete naval museum ships offering a unique historical naval adventure taking visitors back to the Vietnam War.

It was definitely cold.

Conference room

Such a tiny shower. I hope they had constant hot water.

No restroom door. Yikes.

Post Office. 

The POW/MIA table has been in place since the end of the Vietnam War.  

The galley

I wonder if meals tasted as good as they sound.

Medical

Interesting story

Sleeping in these bunks would probably have given me claustrophobia. 

Also, going up and down ladders is a bit challenging given how narrow and steep they are. You also have to be careful not to bump your head when you're going up.

This was such a fun experience. Riley really enjoyed seeing the different rooms and learning about the ship's history.

Your freedom is brought to you courtesy of the 

outstanding men and women who serve and have served this 

country with honor, dedication, pride, and sacrifice.

A Christmas Outing

December 2019

I had a cold early December. I wasn't feeling well so I put on a Christmas movie - Die Hard and began writing out Christmas cards. I made sure to drop them off at the Post Office as soon as I was finished. I like to get presents and cards mailed out to family and friends in early December so I can enjoy the season with my husband and kids. 

Friday, December 13, 2019

Jacob took the day off from work. The day was one of those perfect cloudy Winter days. 

Jacob made his delicious breakfast; hash brown casserole, bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy! So good!! After dropping Riley off at school we went to U-Village to get the last of the kids presents.

We stopped by Macrina's Bakery and got an Americano and a dessert. I believe this was an eggnog cheesecake. 

And I got this pastry stuffed with almond paste. They were both so good.

After picking Riley up from school we had dinner at BBQ Pete's. Our favorite spot for BBQ ribs.

In the evening we drove to Bellevue for the Snowflake Lane event. It is held nightly all through December. It gets super crowded. We try to go to it every year, luckily it's never rained hard on us ... just a light sprinkle. It's always been very cold though so dressing in layers is a must!

We always get to this event about an hour early so the sidewalks weren't full of people yet.

About fifteen minutes before the show begins the event staff goes around giving away these candy cane lollypops (Riley loves them) and take pictures with the characters.

People get very excited once it starts "snowing". Just have to make sure to keep your mouth closed or you'll end up inhaling soap suds. Ew.

I forget why he was laughing so hard but I love his expression.

Mrs. Claus

It was a fun long day but an enjoyable one.

It is good to be children sometimes, and never

better than at Christmas, when its Mighty Founder was a child Himself.

The 4th on the Oregon Coast (2019)

A favorite holiday of ours is Independence Day. Naturally, we like to honor it while having fun doing so.

We began our Independence day mini road trip the day before, July 3rd.

The anticipation on getting on the road is exciting to me. I like to journal our experience and usually begin it with the time we left home and the temperature. 

We left home at 9:00 am, on a cloudy 62 degree Wednesday. We stopped for breakfast in Tacoma. Our first sightseeing stop was in Astoria just before 1:00 pm. One day while researching things to do I came across this long set of stairs that I thought would be cool to walk up and down.

This type of stairs are called "pigeon steps", they are found between Jerome and 11th Street. Walking down these steps wasn't hard but walking back up was somewhat challenging. First because it is a steep hill and second because the grips are so close together which makes it challenging for an adult to walk up the stairs.

Pretty views of the Columbia River.

Easy walk down. 

I was going to post a video I took of us walking back up these steps but it wouldn't load. I didn't stop to catch my breath until a little past halfway. Riley did too. Jacob made it all the way up without stopping but he said once at the top his heart felt like it was gonna explode, lol. It doesn't look challenging to walk up until you try it yourself.

Next visit was to the jail house that came out in The Goonies. Although we had stopped here before we didn't go inside the museum. This time we did.

Riley's mugshot. 

Data's clothes and bike.

They had a list of all the movies that were filmed in Oregon which was pretty cool to see. I hadn't realized that Coraline's setting was Ashland, in Southern Oregon, with many scenes depicting familiar mountains, houses and neighborhoods. Coraline is a favorite movie of mine. 

Whenever we go on road trips especially to Oregon we make sure to buy bottled water in WA because OR charge double for their bottled water. It's ridiculous! Anyway, our next stop was Warrenton which is a few minutes from Astoria. We ate lunch and were back on the road.

On my notes I wrote down an interesting observation, one that I hadn't noticed before. I wrote "traveling along the 101 smells like mold and vegetation, which reminds me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride". Thought this was funny. Interesting because this type of smell is not always apparent to me along this road. Must be a summer smell? Who knows.

 

We like to pull over at Neahkahnie viewpoint in Arch Cape. It has such beautiful views.

If I'm not mistaken, this pretty area is in Wheeler. Wheeler is a very small town. The most recent census is from 2010 which recorded a population of 414. Whenever we drive past here I can't help but admire the brown of the dormant grass, the green of the pine trees and the gray skies. I like this combination. There's this small motel that sits right on Nehalem River. I would love to go kayaking there. 

We arrived at the Tillamook Creamery at 4:23 pm. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before but this building is new, about a few years old only. It's a pretty building. This place is a must stop when you're traveling on the 101. And what makes it even cooler is that they also sell food, so one can kill two birds with one stone. 

They have lots of ice cream flavors but given that they are so popular they often run out of flavors which is disappointing. So it's always hit and miss.

Now, with a satisfied sweet tooth we continued with our sightseeing.

One day I was scrolling through Instagram and came across a picture of partially buried tree stumps with low clouds in the background. I asked the person where the picture was taken and he said Neskowin Oregon. I had not heard of Neskowin, not even seen a sign for it when we've driven on the 101 so I looked it up. Sure enough I found it and made it a point to stop and visit next time we drove to the Oregon Coast.

This time I told Jacob to drive slow so we wouldn't miss it and was excited to see a Neskowin exit sign on the side of the road. There's a parking lot with restrooms. That's always a good thing. You have to walk a little bit to get to the beach and the first thing you see is Proposal Rock.  

To the left of Proposal Rock you'll see the petrified forest stumps. It's quite a sight but it's even a better sight if you go during the winter when the weather is moody. Those are the best kind of pictures to take of nature in my opinion.

This place quickly became a favorite of mine. I'm sure we'll visit many more times. 

And like expected the ocean water was cold. It is safe to say that beaches on the West Coast/PNW are always freezing. Seeing people in the water makes me shiver but they must be some brave souls risking hypothermia and getting stung by stingrays, at least in Southern CA. My daughter was stung twice by the same stingray one 4th of July many years ago in Coronado.

Have to make sure we remember to take pictures of the two of us together for memories sake.

Sightseeing is abundant along the Oregon Coast ... so many places to stop and experience. It sure makes time speed on by which is always a bummer.

By early evening we were tired and hungry. We stayed the night in Newport. In the mood for some comforting food so we looked up Mexican food and found a decent taco shop where I ordered rolled tacos and an horchata. Yum! We arrived at our hotel tired and grateful for a good nights sleep.

This was our view from our hotel room.

Grateful too to be able to experience sunsets at the beach. Such a pretty sight.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

-Jacques Cousteau