Spring Break recap

Monday. It's dreaded for different reasons at different stages of life. When in school I had to get myself psyched up to go to classes after two blissful days of rest. When I was working I had to get myself back in the groove of completing tasks and attending meetings. Since I've been staying home with the kiddos I have to get myself ready to go solo for the majority of the day and the attitude changes that occur in my children when daddy isn't around after a couple days with him here. I still don't understand that phenomenon. Now that I have one in school I have to actually make myself look human and leave the house!

Spring break was a nice break from loading the kiddos up twice a day for school drop off and bus pick up. I was hoping to use the break to gently ease Aurelia in to a different nap routine that jived with Malakai's drop off and pick up times...but that didn't happen in the slightest. She barely napped at all actually. 

We took some time to play outside a little longer than usual. We took a trip to the library to stock up on new reading material. We watched tv before lunch (our usual rule is no screen time until after school). I even went out on the town on a weeknight with just Aurelia and hosted an essential oils class!

On Friday Ben took a day off and we headed to the coast, which was a bit windy but not too bad for Oregon in the spring. The boys have been asking to go to the beach for weeks. My mom came with us (it was her idea to go in the first place actually!). We had coffee at our favorite place, visited with my grandparents, and spent some time on the beach. 

{4 generations}

{attempting an aloof model pose. ridiculous}

{a little better, but they didn't want to stop playing to pose}

Ben played with the boys, my mom took pictures and I huddled up to shield Aurelia from the wind while she dug her toes in the sand for the first time and we watched the boys dig. It was a whirlwind trip but a much needed little getaway. 

The rest of the weekend we spent getting things done around the house/to the car and getting rest for two of the kiddos with colds. By the time we went to bed last night all of the clean laundry was actually folded and put away. I can't remember the last time that happened!

Now today, back to the routine of getting barely anything done before the day is coming to a close. Keeping up with our schedules and the chaos that comes from trying to have a schedule with 3 small children. But I love it. I'll be a little sad when our next break gets here and Malakai will have finished his first year of school, all the kiddos will be a little closer to their first/next birthdays, and our summer will go by in a blur of celebrations as it always does. 

Easter 2014

Easter usually happens for us in 2 parts, so we get to celebrate all weekend. It's a mix of rejoicing with our church and our families in different settings. 

The past few years on Saturday we've had a egg hunt for the boys and then brunch at Ben's parents' house with his siblings and my parents + siblings as well. Everyone gets a chance to see the little guys do their thing and then we all eat and fellowship. It's a great time and something I really enjoy every year. 

Egg hunt in Grandpa + Grandma's backyard

Opening their eggs and Easter "baskets" (book bags!) 

Usually we try to have the boys decorate eggs during the week before but we just didn't get to it this year, so we brought a kit with us and did it after brunch. It worked out okay but it was rather rushed and Kai didn't really seem to be in the mood. 

Sunday morning the boys woke up early and I was planning on sleeping in a bit until I realized their Easter baskets were set out for them to find. I popped up quick to snap a few pictures, but they were so fast I didn't get anything good. Shortly after we headed to an earlier service at church. This was our first Easter at our current church and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterwards we headed out to Florence where later that afternoon we would celebrate with my extended family at my Grandpa + Grandma's house. Prior to that though we met up with some friends at one of our favorite coffee shops since we don't see them nearly enough and any day now they are moving too far away. It was a nice visit, albeit quick. 

Later that afternoon we gathered at my grandparents' place to eat and watch even more kids hunt for eggs. The beach is only a couple blocks away from their house so we all walked down and had the egg hunt right on the beach. We added beanies and water shoes to the boys' Easter outfits, which I found hilariously adorable. 

For the most party I followed after Desmond and Ben kept an eye out for Malakai while they ran all over the place. Malakai took off with the bigger kids up the hill. I love that he's getting old enough for adventures like this. While Desmond was easier to follow, he had a harder time keeping his eggs in the basket. His method cracked me up, he would pick up an egg, open it and put the candy in his basket and put the egg back in the sand. Pretty smart, but I had to follow after grabbing all the empty eggs so his unsuspecting cousins didn't run along to grab the empties. 

They had a blast running around after all the eggs and playing in the sand at the same time. We got quite a bit of sand in our baskets, but thankfully most of their candy was wrapped. They also took about half the beach home with them in their shoes. I'm not the biggest fan of sand, but it was all worth it. 

Desmond enjoyed finding driftwood and "digging for treasure" with Malakai. I'm told in the picture below where my sister and Ben are laughing that Malakai handed Des an egg that was filled with sand. Brothers. 

 

We had neglected to get a family photo the day before so I'm thankful that my mom snapped this one on the beach, even though we are disheveled and mis-matched, it's a great memory. 

{April 20th, 2014}

We headed back up the house to "de-sand" and the boys got another set of Easter baskets from G'Pa + Mima as well as more treats from Great Grandpa Rob + Great Gram Rhea. We stayed to visit for a bit and then headed back home, tired and content. 

Seaside mini-vacation

Over the summer some of our best friends, Michael + Megan, invited us to go on vacation with them to Seaside. They were gifted a week stay at the World Mark Resorts the previous Christmas. We didn't have enough vacation time to go during the week in October so we joined them during the weekend at the tail end of their trip.

We were excited about having the minivan in time for the trip, but the check-engine light came on the Thursday before. I took it for a quick free diagnostic and it was having a cylinder misfire. We knew we didn't have time to get it looked at before leaving, but Ben's parents generously loaned us their Tahoe for the weekend, so we were still able to go!

On Friday when Ben came home from work we loaded up and got on the road as soon as possible. We made a stop about halfway through at Bridgeport Village to eat a picnic style dinner I had packed and let the boys move their legs. They have a great play structure in the center courtyard. We climbed back in the car and headed to Seaside. It seemed like it took forever, it was nearly 8pm when we arrived. 

Once we got there we moved some things around to accommodate our needs in the extra room to get settled. We let the boys stay up late to wind down from their excitement and visited with Michael + Megan. Things got complicated when we went to put the boys to bed because I had packed only half of the baby monitor. Thankfully my techno-guru husband figured out that we could do a FaceTime audio-only call between our phones and mute one so we could hear them but they couldn't hear us. It worked great!

We stayed up late talking and poor Ben had to go in several times to soothe Des back to sleep, but once we went to bed he stayed asleep for a good long while. The next morning the boys came running out to the living room, where we were sleeping on a murphy-bed, wanting to play. We were SO tired. 

After a leisurely morning and a great breakfast made by Michael, we decided to head out to the beach. It was a short walk from our room to the beach access since the entire resort is right on the Seaside Promenade.

{the view from our room and a view of the resort from the beach}

{lots o' selfies}

In addition to half the baby monitor, I also forgot sand toys. So we brought some dishes and big spoons with us instead. They worked well-enough and the boys (all 4 of them) had a blast playing in the sand. It was warm and only slightly breezy, a beautiful day on the Oregon coast. 

We ate a really late lunch after cleaning off all the sand before heading out again. Michael + Megan had planned to take the boys on the carousel by all the shops down the street. Malakai only wanted to ride on the bench so he had to wait a couple rounds, but Desmond went on right away. He looked nervous when it started moving but got more comfortable and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Afterward we walked by the shops and Michael bought a bunch of deep fried desserts that we all tried. The consensus was that they were disgusting. Desmond fell asleep on Ben's shoulder on the walk home, so we let him snooze while we relaxed and thought about dinner.

The boys ate dinner and went to bed a few hours later. We ate a really late dinner and stayed up talking into the night. 

Sunday we woke up to clouds and fog that wouldn't burn off. We relaxed most of the morning. The boys colored, played video games and read. Michael made paper airplanes for Malakai and he was instantly hooked.

{checking out the foggy beach}

We took the boys to the small play area and game room at the resort and then decided to go for a walk on the promenade.

{caught instagramming}

{Michael, Desmond, Megan, Ben, Malakai, + I}

Malakai got sick of walking pretty quickly but we enticed him to go further by pointing out the swing set on the beach. Megan got this adorable picture of us that I just LOVE.

On our walk back Malakai + I found a caterpillar. After Kai tried holding it, Michael set it free.

{the boys LOVED air-hockey, Megan + I keeping each other warm, Kai with his new friend}

We relaxed some more back in our room until dinner. Megan and Michael made some amazing meals  (including Puerto Rican style plantains!) and introduced us to some yummy snacks over the weekend. Megan also read stories to both boys a few times which they loved. She even brought a childhood favorite of her own to share with Malakai called Mr. Pudgins.

After dinner we packed up our circus and headed home, but not before Megan loaded us up with a ton of food to take home with us and the most amazing brownies of all time!

{sunset from our room, back on the road}

We loved every minute of it and count ourselves blessed to have such awesome friends that would invite us to come share in their vacation with them.

Camping with a Toddler (while pregnant)

Over the 4th of July Holiday weekend we went camping, as we usually do, with some of my family. For as long as I can remember we camp along the Oregon coast. For the past 10 years we've been going to Carter Lake with is near the dunes, 2 miles from the ocean, and right on a small lake. It also has generously sized camping grounds so we get two next to each other and camp all together.

Last year was Kai's first camping trip and this was his second. I was somewhat nervous after the sleeping issues we had with him last summer and being pregnant this time around. Plus, he wasn't yet walking, just cruising last time! Although we did a fair amount of chasing him down we had a great time overall.

We packed up + arrived Friday evening. There were a lot of mosquitos and it was much colder than it had been in town so we put on some layers of clothing + bug-away spray. Then we went to check out the lake just down from where we were camping, which ended up being Malakai's favorite place to walk to. For the entire trip if he saw someone walking that direction he chased them so he could tag along.

That night getting Malakai to sleep was fairly easy. He cried a bit while Ben tried to calm him down but then he fell asleep on my chest. I had to wait until he was in a deep sleep to move him off of me or he would start hollering all over again, but after that he slept the whole night with no problems between Ben + I on a mattress in my parents' pop-up tent.

The next morning we were up bright + early at 7am. After hanging around camp we put on our swim clothes and headed to the lake. Malakai loved the sand and the water. He would have dove right in if we let him. There were some people fishing nearby and a lot of big kids in the water so we stayed close to the shore. He ended up getting so sandy that we had to give him a cold water shower before changing him for his nap. Since we didn't have a contained place for him to sleep Ben or I napped with him in the late afternoons. Having a later nap time worked well with how late we'd end up going to bed. It would stay light til nearly 10pm and then we'd break out the s'mores and not really get to bed til 11pm or 11:30 each night.  The second night he laid himself down in between us, said "nuhnight" and was out within minutes. What a milestone!

Malakai loved on Aunt Deedee + Uncle Mark's dogs, especially Chief, my cousins made up a game similar to pictionary to pass the time, and we snacked all day every day. Malakai also had an obsession with the step on the pop-up tent and enjoyed his mega blocks, play tent and sand toys from time to time.

On Sunday we vetoed the 2 mile walk through the dunes to the beach and found the drive up access. There was a small dune to climb which left me a bit breathless but it was a ton of fun to watch Kai experience the ocean. He wasn't too fond of the waves but he enjoyed looking at it from afar and playing in the endless piles of sand. He made a habit out of crushing everyone's creations. He wore himself out so much that he fell asleep before we even started the car to head back to camp.

That night some of my family were planning on heading about an hour north to see an early fireworks show but that all changed when the boys discovered a fire on the beach. Right behind our campground is a giant dune that once you get to the top you can see the ocean about 2 miles out, which is where the fire was, in the grass. Everyone (except myself + Kai) went up to see what was going on.

911 was called but the authorities got mixed up and were told the fire was at the lake when it was at the beach. My dad showed them where to go and my brother and his friends actually went down to the source. Apparently some girls were camping in the beach (illegal here) and started a fire in the grass with their camp stove. They were too scared to put it out so they called 911 but then stuck around and were trying to put it out once it had spread. It went from 2 acres to nearly 4 acres quickly and some of our camp neighbors said they finally got it under control around midnight that night. It didn't sound like anyone was hurt and thankfully we weren't close enough to have to evacuate.

Monday I attempted a new camp recipe. Usually for breakfast we roast biscuit dough over the fire and smother them with homemade strawberry jam, which we did the first two mornings. Our last morning I wanted to try making omelets on the camp stove the way my uncle makes them. They started out great but apparently I needed thicker zipper bags because 2 out of 3 of them broke. I think we'll be sticking to biscuits in the fire.

After breakfast we cleaned up camp + headed home. We got home around 3pm and were unpacked and showered by 5pm. The entire weekend flew by and was a complete success. Malakai was so busy the whole time that he slept great and sleeping on a semi-firm mattress kept me from having too many aches + pains to enjoy myself. (unfortunately today after a night in my own bed I woke up with spasms and really bad sciatic pain).

Next year, with a 3 year old and a 9 month old we may just visit the campers and make it a daytrip. We'll have to wait + see!

How did you spend your holiday weekend?








P.S. this trip would not have been nearly as successful without the help of our family and especially Ben who spent a lot of time chasing after Malakai. (getting me out of a camp chair takes too long for grabbing kiddo from dangers, ha!).

In Oregon it's the coast, not the beach

Just got done spending a couple days with my best friend from college. She's on vacation and wanted to go to the beach coast.
We visited with another friend who lives there and reminisced about how long it has been since the 3 of us were together and the good times we had in college- 6 years ago!

 After that we headed toward the ocean. It was raining, but we had made the hour trip so she jogged out to the water and back- I took pictures from the road.

We had a great time catching up and now I'm off to continue this busy week of mine. I have two bridal showers to go to...for the same bride!