She DOES So Like Wet Feet And Sand!

We stopped at a beach alongside the road, fully unprepared for the whole experience. Dressed in jean shorts, socks and tennies.

It's like we grew up in the Midwest or something.

But we soon got our feet in the sand, much to the dismay of The Little Girl In Pink:

Oh, she did not like wet feet and sand! She did not like them, Suz-she-am!

She eventually put up with the awful beach enough to walk around a bit.

With scrunched up toes:

Then I moved her on to the next part of her initiation--water:

Which--after the initial shocking cold of it all--she grew to become quite fond of:

An understatement for sure.

You will continue to see beach pictures until I am out of stories. Might as well get comfortable with the coast.

Hoo Hair

Our little jaunt down the coast included a visit with our (and Sister Susie's) friends--our friends who traveled to China with us to adopt their twin girls from the same place.

The twins became triplets when Suz was around.

(I'll just let you imagine that level of cuteness.)

Bath time was a real hoot, with Pa Of The Twins being Chief Stylist:

Hoo Hair.

Hilarious.

And with a set of three?

Priceless.

Because About Once A Year, I Like Myself

Or at least like a picture of myself.

Maybe it's the cute accessory I've got in my arms.

Or maybe it's just a nice outdoorsy pic.

(Compliments to the Pa--it's a straight-out-of-camera shot.)

You'd never guess where we were headed.

Da beach.

Ser-prize, ser-prize, ser-prize.

Roadside Stop At The Ocean

We drove down the coast (DID I MENTION THAT ALREADY???!?!? YES??!?) over Labor Day weekend. It took a while for us to be able to see the water from the van--though our GPS confirmed there was a Big Blue Blob Of Water on the side.

I was in the driver's seat; Pa was the Nagivator. Each time he'd spot a trace of water he'd holler, "GIT REDDY TO PULL OVER, MA!" So I drove like a drunkard until we finally found a spot designated for gawking.

And gawking we did.

First time at the ocean (the ocean!) for most of us.

It was a bit cool at the water's edge.

It took the twins boys a while to warm up to the greatness of the ocean.

Pa and I even spotted a whale, shooting water out his spout and everything. Didn't happen to catch that spectacle on film.

But we did catch a little of this:

A clown fish, for sure and for certain.

Lots more pictures to come.

Move Over Cheese, Now There's Something Fattier

Cheese is great and all, but it doesn't really cut it, especially when compared to the most glorious food known to man: Ice Cream.


(Great example of paralysis of analysis right there.)

Pa and crowd showed a mite bit of self-control in their portions, but *I* went whole hog. Or cow, as the case might be.


That huge scoop? On top of the homemade waffle cone?

That might have been mine.

Wild mountain blackberry, in case you're wondering.


Campers has shown an out-of-the-blue affinity for mint chocolate chip ice cream, confirming to us once again that he is a small clone of his Uncle J:



Then there's the other side of the gene pool, displaying his full G-O-O-F status:



He was doing his cold face, in case you were wondering.

And then our Princess, who didn't get any ice cream but smoked a piece of cone instead:



Pure bliss for us all. One flavor down, 30+ more to try.

Say "Cheese"

We toured the Tillamook Cheese factory on our trip down the coast. Because frankly? Anytime I hear the words "free samples," I AM THERE.

And secondly? Anytime I can squeeze a little "school" in during vacation is just BONUS.

Here are the girls, outside the visitor's center--and super glad to be out of the van:

Here Campers watches the cutting of the cheese:

(I am so childish.)

And the reward at the end--lots of little cubes of cheese to try:

And then on to a whole store of cheese to buy:

Which I would have bought, but we were traveling. Oh, and I can buy the stuff at my local grocery, anyway.

And! There was ice cream to be had. More on that later.

Air Must See Um

On our drive down the coast, we passed a big Air Museum:

Being a Question Asking Machine, Campers immediately wanted to know what would be found in an Air Museum.

Pa, being a Joke Making Machine, said that there were bottles and bottles of all different kinds of air. Air from a balloon, air from space, air from just outside the door.

He continued by saying that it wasn't a "mew-ZEE-um," it was a "MUS-see-um."

I couldn't figure out what was worse: Pa's dorky jokes or the boys' gullibility.

Tough call.

Oh, You Know. The OCEAN.

Stood on the beach of the Pacific Ocean this past weekend.

First time any of us (besides Pa) have done such a thing.

Yeah, it was good.

Even if I did haul a bucketful of sand home to put in the washer.

Lots more pics to come.

Gene Pool

Campers took his first swimming lessons this summer:

Though I wouldn't actually call them "swim" lessons--more like "get used to the water" lessons.

Regardless, he grew to like the water, especially after we bought him some groovy goggles.

Which leave great goggle marks--my favorite part of each swim lesson day.

He'll take more lessons over the next year. In his "free" time, he's currently working on the back float. Mostly we need to get a little fat on that boy so he can float.

Whose gene pool is that, anyway?

(Not mine.)

How I Plan To Shed 10 Pounds

AND scare small children at the same time.

Photo taken by Pa while he was riding his own bike.