Spring Break 2011

We just returned from a very mellow and relaxing mini vacation along the Oregon Coast.  While it rained a fair amount of the time, we were still able to get in quite a few hours of sunshine and beach time.  I don't know what it is about the ocean, but I could just watch the the tide go in and out for hours.  I will miss those grey blue waves and sandy beaches.

We stayed in a yurt in Nehalem Bay State Park, which is about 25 min south of Cannon Beach along the prettiest stretch of Highway 101 I've ever seen.  We had the luxury of heat, electricity, hot showers, and a modest arrangement of furniture.  The trip was pretty much flawless except for one minor detail- it was too wet to create a cook fire, and we realized once we arrived that we didn't have an attachment on our cooking stove to hook up to the propane.  We tried to make macaroni and cheese one night on our space heater, of which I refused to eat after one bite because the texture of the noodles was mush.  Lucky for us, we brought along plenty of food that didn't require cooking!

White Rock on a nice spring night

 Last Friday afternoon we decided to head up to White Rock, B.C. for a couple of hours.  It only took us 20 minutes to get from our front door to our parking spot in front of the beach.  It was a great night to cross the border!  We spent a couple of hours on the beach at low tide, just before the sunset, and had fun playing with a vintage camera app on our phones.

Metsker's Cabin 2011

For the past seven years I have been making trips to Packwood, WA, to stay at Matt's cabin with the rest of the gang.  This year we encountered new territory, as the Terps brought along Kyah.  She now holds the privilege of being the first of MANY kidlets to make the long trip to the cabin, an honor I'm sure she will lord over the rest of the kids many years from now.

The boys all brought their air soft war gear so of course there was plenty of shooting, along with some snowshoeing along the Pacific Crest Trail, an epic snowball fight, lots of lounging and eating, and playing games.  It was a terrific weekend!

If you look closely in this picture you can see about 20 elk crossing the river!

Whirley Ball

This post is coming a little late, but a few weeks ago we celebrated Brett's big 3-0 down in Seattle playing Whirley Ball.  I had no idea what this game was before I walked through the doors to the playing arenas, and when I found out I giggled with glee!  It is pretty much the coolest sport ever invented!  Whirley Ball combines bumper cars with lacrosse and basketball and it is physically trying and oh-so-fun.  If you have something big to celebrate in the near future you should totally throw a Whirley Ball party. 

Wondering how to make a bad day even worse?

Step one:  Decide to go to the mall

Step two:  Make sure it's on one of the busiest days of the year, when it will be a sure bet that all the good parking spots will be gone and there will be lots of screaming kids.


Step three:  Make sure a seagull poops on you right before you head in the door.

Family Christmas Celebrations

In Spokane:

Isn't my nephew ADORABLE?!

In Centralia:

Christmas Events

This year we planned ahead and made it to a few Christmas events that we've wanted to see for years!

We celebrated our sixth anniversary at The Nutcracker (the small local production in Bellingham), and continued celebrating the following week at Handel's Messiah.

We also visited Zoo Lights in Tacoma with Matt and Chelsea.

 
So fun!