Craig's 53rd - Megan's 21st Birthday

Craig, 53 and Megan,21 celebrated their birthday on Sunday at a pool party near McKenna's house.


Kris and Carter (in a life preserver) and Craig and Rayder (in a green floatie)


McKenna's husband Steven with his son Carter and Kris and Melanie's son Rayder.


Austin taking it easy.

Whitney and Rod talking about Zija, no doubt.

Megan and Melanie. Melanie is a month away from delivering their second son.

Alissa, Austin's wife, is enjoying my peach cobler.

McKenna with her son Lorenzo.

Grandpa Craig playing with Rayder, Alissa and Austin in the background.

Rayder and Carter playing "chicken" while Kris and Austin are holding them.

The boys are really going at it.

One more scratch!

The cutest kids ever: Alex and Elle.

Chris and Kendall wanted to play "chicken" too. Chris is held by April, his girlfriend and Kendall is held by Steven.

Kendall (Megan's husband) playing with his nephew Carter.

What a fun party. Thanks for the invite Whitney and Craig.

Rod and Alex Hiking to the Uintah's

While we were at home and in Oregon, Rod had a Zija "Break the Bank Tour" in the southern states for three weeks straight. The minute he got home, he wanted to take Alex to the mountains and hike around. They had planned an overnight campout but the weather man said that there would be thunder and lightning storms so Rod and Alex decided to do a day hike only.

And so they headed to the Uintah's.

Alex climbing a cliff. Now, if I would have been there, this wouldn't have happened. What I don't know won't hurt me, right?

Wall Lake. Beautiful scenery.

Father-Son bonding time.

There was a lot of snow still, they said.

Oregon Trip - Day 7 Going Home

We got up early on Sunday morning and started our trip back home. We stopped in Hood River for lunch and some snacks and then in Boise for dinner. When we got to Twin Falls, Idaho the traffic came to a stop suddenly. All we could see was a big plume of smoke in the distance. When we got to drive closer, it was a brush fire right next to the road. Quite scary. Luckily we didn't have to turn back but were able to drive through it all.

When we got closer to Utah border, we saw an amazing lighting storm that seemed to be in the Salt Lake area. Sure enough. Huge rainstorm and lightning and thundering everywhere. Because it was so late at night (past midnight) there were not a lot of cars on the road. But there was a lot of standing water on the road that we had to go through and it totally slowed us down. It was scary at times but we got home safely at 1:30am on Monday morning. That was over 14 hours of driving time and 910 miles in one day.

Next year we fly.


Brush fire by Twin Falls, Idaho.

Thank you Katie for a wonderful week and thank you Ron and Karen for lending your beach house for us to use.

Oregon Trip - Day 6

Last day at the beach!!! Sadness!!! "Le Creperie" on 2nd was the choice of the breakfast place on Saturday morning. The actual name for the place is Crêpe Neptune. The boys ordered crepes and smoothies and Katie and I only had smoothies. Totally yummy. Then the boys wanted to go play some basketball at the nearby elementary school while Katie and I went to the beach to get a last minute tan...from neck up. It worked. We both burned.


Breakfast for boys.

We had to return the rented skim boards on Saturday afternoon so the boys wanted to try the beach bikes next.


Of course they couldn't just ride the bikes along the beach like regular folks. No. They had to have a sand/mud war. Boys!

Alex is ready to fling his handful of sand at Carsen.

Carsen's face says it all. Such happiness in mud.

Watch out people! You don't want to get anywhere near these boys.

Exhausted Alex. They still had to bike the bikes back to the shop. About a 3 mile ride. Their thighs were burning after.

Happy and muddy.

Carsen, don't you throw that sand at me!

Mud happy.

They are done.

That was fun.

After the boys returned the bikes, we went to Dooger's for dinner. Then we decided to build a fire one last time on the beach. Once we got our fire going, there were 3 cute girls who were carrying their bundle of wood to the beach and made a place for them right next to ours. We assessed the situation for a while and decided that the girls don't have a clue how to build a fire. We told the boys to go and ask if they need help, which they did. Carsen and Alex went over and started the fire right off with our lighter, where the girls had brought a box of matches. The boys came back to our fire until the girls asked the boys if they liked Smores. And that's when we lost the boys for the evening.

When our fire went out, Katie and I left to go pack and clean the house. The boys returned a few hours later with stories about the senior girls from Washington. They had a great evening and a nice way to say farewell to the Oregon Coast with an evening spent on the beach with a great fire, smores and great company.

Sadly no pictures of the girls but they were super cute. Did the boys ask their numbers or last names so they could "friend" them on Facebook? No. We need to teach these boys some tricks of the trade. They need to enter "Katie and Marja's school of dating".

Oregon Trip - Day 5

The boys decided to wake up at sunrise on Friday morning so we could go look for some shells on the beach. It also happened to be low tide so there should be lots of things to collect, right? WRONG! Nothing had washed up onto the beach during the night. Only broken shells here and there except until we got to the Haystack Rock and there was a plentitude of things to see, but nothing to collect.


Early morning


Chilly morning. Carsen and Katie looking for shells.

Alex's feet were freezing.

Mother and son.

Mother and son.

Alex found a star fish. Couldn't put that into a baggy.

Carsen looks so happy to be there.

There were a ton of star fish stuck to the rocks at Haystack Rock.

A pool of star fish

They were everywhere.

Sea Anemones

Mussels covered all the rocks.

After breakfast we drove to Seaside which was 8 miles north from Cannon Beach.

Sand Volleyball tournament. Tons of people.

The main sand volleyball court.

We decided to go play some miniature golf at the local Fun Center.

Carsen is ready to putt as Katie looks on.

Then it was time for some Go-Carts.

Carsen is leading a few laps...

Until Alex passes him.

Back to our beach...

Houses along Pacific Rd.

Alex posing with his skim board.

Carsen

Carsen with his skim board

Alex enjoying the beach.

Carsen and his Baywatch run on the beach

Alex running on the beach.

The day is done. The boys are heading back to the house.

Done with the board.

Neighbor's flowers

Alex wanted to warm up in the sun. Yes, in the middle of the road.

Keep your eye on the cars, please.

Katie is enjoying her book on the front veranda.