Day 3: Finally the Beach

 The whole trip Brandon asked if we were "in California" yet.  Once we crossed the Oregon/California border the routine conversation went like this:

B: "Are we in California yet?"
Adults in the car: "Yes, we are in California"
B: "Are we at the house yet?"
Ain car: "We are in California.  Now we have to get to the city called Los Angeles.  Just like Seattle is a city in Washington state, Los Angeles is a city in California state."
B: "Oh.  Are we at the beach?"
A in car: "No, we have to get to the house yet first."
...
B: "Are we in California yet?"....
It was just too much for his head to wrap around.

I forgot to mention when Bryan and I were driving from Lynden to Salem, we started playing the license plate game.  Bryan very impressively was able to name 49 of the states and had the shape of the one he was missing in his head and knew it was a midwestern state, just couldn't put the name to it--it was Minnesota.  Anyway, I was impressed he could still name them all.  Of all the states, there were only eight we were not able to find throughout the week.  And of the majority of the ones we did find, we found it rather interesting that the majority of them we found in Washington!  How odd is that?

Anyway, when we woke up Sunday morning, one of the first things Brandon asked me was, "Is it time to go make sand castles with daddy?"  No, we went to church first, then we enjoyed lunch at Auntie Gail and Uncle Bob's house with Great Grandma, then it was time for a very needed nap.

Except for Mom and Cheryl who went to the beach right away, the rest of us were pretty much in a coma for the next three hours.

Then it was beach time....

 

It was fun watching Grandma teach her grandsons how to play on the beach and in the ocean.
Having grown up in LA, there are some precious memories of her passing another fun passion on to the next generation.
 

These three went boogie boarding.  The waves were wild and the rip tide was pretty impressive so they had to keep walking up the beach and riding the waves back down to us, where the life guard would make them get out again. 

Sheer abandon and joy at riding the waves!

 

 

We were all having so much fun at the beach we had a late supper.

 



Reading the Wallstreet Journal was a very important part of every day.

Our professional griller of the week--if you ever need something grilled to perfection, Andrew is the one to call!

Snuggled up with Grandma and reading books--is there anything better after a fun day?

We were officially in California, on the beach, on vacation, and enjoying every minute of it.  We were also very much so looking forward to all the relaxing excitement the rest of the week was to hold.

Blessings on your Friday.

Day 2: The Endless Road

Saturday, September 1
Let's just say 17 hours in the car is a very.long.day. and leave it at that!

We drove out of Andrew and Cheryl's driveway at 4:50am.  I stayed awake long enough to catch a glimpse of the sun coming up and then we all (as in those in the back seat) took a good two hour nap.

Cheryl studied and read much of the way down. 

It was quite smokey in some areas.

 We borrowed a DVD player from a friend and it seriously saved the trip with these two boys.  They did amazingly well!  (Where were such things when we were kids and had all those miles upon miles of deputation driving...hmmm...)

Mt Hood was beautiful.

Lake Shasta hardly visible through the smoke.

"Peet Stop" for lunch and good RUN!

And this is what made the trip down seem endless--the long, very straight, very unchanging valley.

Finally supper time.  We had all agreed it had to be In-N-Out, so supper was a little late, but it was worth it!

No one was very happy with me at this point--we were all ready to eat, but the picture was worth the groans.  Such delicious memories!

We arrived at the house around 10:30 pm very exhausted and very ready to not be moving.

Sunday our beach vacation began and we were all excited for it.

Day 1: "California, here we come!"

Name that movie line...

We couldn't figure out why Brandon was SO. EXTREMELY. EXCITED. to go to California, until one day that line popped into my head and it all made sense.  Lightening McQueen went to California for the big race!

As a family, we had been trying to get to California for a vacation on the beach for five years, but for various reasons it never worked out until this year.  Don and Sally made reservations for a house a block and a half from the beach and we were all thoroughly excited for this vacation.

Brandon and Micah had the express privilege of flying the first leg down to Salem, OR in the bonanza with Bumpa and Grandma.  They were both very excited about the opportunity, until it was time to get in the airplane.  It finally clicked in Micah's head that I would not be in the airplane with him as I had been in the past and he wasn't going to have any of it.  He screamed!!  I finally got him in the plane with ducky and am told he calmed down once they hit the runway.  Then he became his normal fascinated-with-everything self and soon fell asleep.  Brandon of course was all about the airplane ride and at one point told Grandma he wasn't interested in a snack because he was far too busy looking at all the clouds.

The bonanza and explorer both ready for the race to Salem...I wonder who would win?!?

And they are off into the air and we are off onto the road.  Their trip was an hour and a half.  Ours turned out to be eight hours with lots of stop and go traffic.  They boys had a great time swimming in uncle and auntie's pool and feeding the chickens.  Bryan and I had a great time talking, playing games, and enjoying the very silent back seat.

It was a "Blue Moon" night which I learned means there are two full moons in the course of a month. 

Bryan and I arrived in Salem around 8pm.  After visiting for a couple minutes, Bryan went to bed since he was going to take the first stretch of driving and the rest of us packed the explorer for our very early 4:30am departure time. 

Photo Drop

Well, we've had a busy summer!  I've taken lots of pictures and this morning finally finished editing them up to the end of August.  There were several occasions I wanted to blog individually but since so much time has passed and I have California pictures to edit and post about, this is going to be a one post catch up.  Here goes:

It was one of those random days I was having a hard time with Micah missing a hand and struggling to do something.  I had to quick run out to the shed for a minute and my eye caught this spider--missing two legs.  It was a God-reminder for me that sin, depravity, disabilities has touched every area of life, even the animal kingdom.  Yet this spider was still able to spin it's web and it was a good reminder for me that God will equip Micah perfectly for the work he has planned for him.



Great Grandma (my mom's mom) from Colorado came to visit her sisters for a week and we got to spend some good quality time with her as well.  Dad and Mom just happened to be coming through again for their final night's stay before heading out east while she was here which was really neat.

The one day dad and mom were back in town they helped me pick 30lbs of blue berries.  I'm pretty sure Micah ate at least half that amount off the bushes!

The beginning of August Don and Bryan both had birthdays.

One week Bryan asked me to go out to one of their bigger job sites and take pictures for their website.  The boys scored some excavator time with their daddy, too.

This picture of Brandon just makes me smile.  ;)

Brandon's birthday.  What better way to start the morning then licking the batter of your cake before breakfast!

And that takes us to the end of August.  We had a spectacular time in California and I'm very excited to get started editing the 980 or so pictures from the week, but now I really need to get some "real" work done.

Blessings on your day.