First time touching the ocean. - Oregon post.

Our third day started with us stopping at Danni's house again to pick up Hannah's Nettie doll that had been left there accidentally. Props to Danni for noticing it and letting us know before we drove past her house again.

We drove from Portland to Newport that day with a stop in Tillamook at the cheese factory.


It didn't need to take us an entire day to get from Portland to the coast, but Matt has a very relaxed vacation philosophy. When I was a kid, my dad would throw all ten of us kids in the van with all of our camping equipment and drive us on a three-week vacation all of the way from Oklahoma to Montana with stops along the way at National Parks, family visits, and reunions. I remember looking at the calendar for the trips and being in awe of the military precision he'd planned things with. It was necessary.

But a trip from Idaho to the Oregon coast for a week is so much easier. I planned the first two days carefully, but traffic and weather ended up tweaking those plans a bit. After those days, we had no real plans - Matt wanted to see the docks and boats and I was demanding a real seafood dinner - so we were taking it slow and easy and Matt refused to make solid plans and I was going to have a nervous breakdown.

Then we got to our campground, checked into a yurt, and walked to the beach.

It was cold and windy and the ocean was loud and large and it was beautiful. Hannah touched the ocean for the first time.

And I converted to my husband's vacation philosophy. The next three days were absolutely amazing, filled with "Why don't we..." and "Wouldn't it be fun if we ..." and "Let's drive down there ..." and "I'm going to sit on this beach for the next few hours ..."

The campground we stayed at was suggested to me the day before we left by a lady in the Leonberger rescue group (trying to help me re-home Butterfly). It was a wonderful campground, Beverly Beach. It was near the town we were exploring, right next to the beach, and had yurts, which was a nice compromise for my husband, who likes hotels, and me, who likes tents or campers.

The kids loved it, of course, and it was warm and dry.

We spent the two nights here and if we come back, I want to stay here for a week and spend most of that at Cobble Beach. But Cobble Beach is two posts away.

For this night, we were just glad to have a warm place to dry off and showers nearby. We needed to dry off because a sneaker wave got Hannah and me - and Ains a bit, but don't ask her about that or you'll see a still fuming three-year-old - on our beach walk. So Ains got to touch the ocean for the first time too. I think Matt even helped Gray put his hand in, but I was too busy trying to keep Hannah from getting washed away while looking for fossils in the rocks along the water's edge. Dang dinosaur movie.

Fun fact. Little kids *really* want to sleep on the top of a bunk bed. Really, really, REALLY want to. Until everyone's set up and tucked in and they realize that they're not next to Mother. Then Daddy gets to sleep on the top bunk.

Oregon trip, continued.

Our day in Portland started out with a trip to OMSI - the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. OMSI is an amazing museum built with kids in mind.


We had meant to go to a planetarium show there the night before and then to the museum itself and a dinosaur show the next day, but since we got stuck in traffic the night before, we had to do it all in one day. This ended up being a blessing in disguise since the day we did it all on was $2 admission day with $5 shows. Absolutely amazing. The special pricing hadn't been mentioned on their website, so we just lucked into it. Saved a ton of money.

Most of their exhibits are hands on and quite a few are built strictly for playing. It was obvious that the people who designed them believe that children learn through play.

This exhibit was a large sand and water box with houses, bridges, fences, and animals in it. It was designed with water coming out of several 'hills' at one end and working its way down to drain at the other end. There were always about ten kids working in this box at a time, moving all of the things around and rearranging the terrain to let the water flow in different areas.

If a kid near you moved their sand, you could find your bridge flooded downstream. If someone left and their sand stayed still, you might end up with a lake. So much fun. For some kids, this was their favorite spot. There was a little girl there when we arrived and she was still there when we came back through after our dinosaur movie.

The day we were there, there were two main exhibits in addition to their normal ones - a paleontologist themed exhibit with a huge tyrannosaurus skeleton (still not sure how we got out of there without getting a picture of that)

and an astronaut themed exhibit that the kids didn't show too much interest in.

In the paleontologist exhibit, you could watch paleontologists at work cleaning real fossils (they were working on a stegosaurus leg while we were there).

There was something for everyone there.

Ainsley's favorite exhibits were spread out throughout one floor of the museum. She gravitated towards any exhibit that had to do with the human body. This real heart had her mesmerized.

And this puzzle. I want one of these puzzles.

And the 'How babies are born' exhibit.
She stood there for over seven minutes and then had to go back through the whole baby exhibit twice more.

Hannah, loved the infrared exhibit.

She was startled that Nettie didn't show up on the screen. Even if she is a doll, she's real, so shouldn't she be on the screen with the rest of the real humans? They had a hand cooling and warming station so that you could see the effects of that on how you appeared on the screen.

Then there was the very powerful and kid-friendly microscope.

And the animal track matching game.
Grayson enjoyed the playgrounds scattered throughout the museum.


The museum had a little kids section that was so well designed. There was a sand play area,
and a water play area. A train track to play with, a building blocks area, an experiment station. A nature play area where the kids could climb into the homes of different animals built to their size and even become a family of chipmunks.


It was the eagle's nest that Flat Kathryn ended up liking the most.

She's so quiet and very easy to please.

The dinosaur show was at the 'OMNIMax theater' in the museum and it was like nothing I've seen before. The seats were nearly vertical and the screen went over the top of your head. As we climbed to our seats, Hannah said "You may need to hold me up, Mother. I've got vertigo."

After the planetarium show, we headed out to visit an online friend, Danni, from On The Way To Critter Farm, who lives in the area. We had so much fun with her. (All of the following pictures are from Danni, bless her heart. My camera battery was dead.)

The girls got to meet their first llamas.

Oh, those were sweet things.

And their first donkeys. Ainsley *loved* the donkeys.

Their favorite animal, though, was the bat in the barn. For ten minutes on the way back to the hotel they were singing their echolocation song. I never thanked you for that, Danni.

Danni has the coolest toys.

These hats have velcro on them and you throw soft balls at each other's heads. Now Ainsley wants a play veterinarian kit just like the one Danni had.

It was only my second experience meeting someone from 'online' and she couldn't have been sweeter or better with my kids.

As we were leaving that night, Hannah said "Can she be one of our every day friends, Mother?"

She was that nice.

Everyone but Matt fell asleep on the way home. Thank goodness.

Readjusting to the rhythm of daily life.

Milking, riding bikes and scooters, crafting, gardening, laundry, and so much playing ...


We're getting back into the swing of things here.


How did we survive without dress-up clothes for an entire week?

And Mod Podge.

I've got pictures to get up from our trip for family that wants to see them, so bear with me as I get them put up throughout the week. Those posts will be picture heavy - but such *cute* pictures, so it's worth it. Right?

About mothers.

We're home. I have lots of chores, unpacking, and blogging to do and I realized that today's Mother's Day.

For the past few months, I have wanted to do a lovely, stirring, heartfelt post on this day about the women who have been important in my life, but I have neither the time nor the energy for that.


I'll have to save the post for another time. I wanted to talk about the influence for good that all of my aunts and grandmother had in my life, even though they only saw me once a year for a few days. I wanted to talk about my sisters and the source of strength they've been to me as we've all grown out of our childhood and the mother we had and into the mothers that we want to be. I will, in a future post, talk about a cousin who became a close friend and a motherhood mentor -though she likely doesn't know it - and, randomly, another cousin's wife who has - though she definitely doesn't know it - been one of the best examples for me of a calm and loving mother. I can't forget the midwife who was there when Ains and Gray came into this world and who treated birth like it was a normal, natural part of life and not necessarily a medical event. Then there are those who I've never *really* met - the close group of online friends who were a source of support and information and laughter in this mothering journey, especially when Gray went into the hospital. And all of you, who I've met through blogging (including the two of you who I *have* been lucky enough to meet), who have given me ideas and who let me see the kind of supportive, struggling, empowering, and really fun mothers you are.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you, in the States or outside of the States. Thank you for being a part of my life, and maybe I'll get around to writing that post next year.

Right now I need to be in my garden.

Crossposted on It Blows Here.

A real vacation.

Family vacation time. It's not often with my husband's job that we can all go on a proper vacation as a family. For the next week, we are doing just that, traveling to the west coast of Oregon. Last night we made it as far as Pendleton and were lucky enough to get a hotel with a swimming pool.

We have one of my friend's kids traveling with us - Flat Kathryn - and she came to the pool with us. Unfortunately, she forgot her swimsuit, so she had to stay by our towels the whole time.

She's a good sport.

This morning we went to the Pendleton Woolen Mills which was very cool. In the store we saw some beautiful blankets. This one was my favorite. The bottom of it is silhouettes of people looking at the stars, the top is constellations. Beautiful. Expensive, but beautiful.

The kids found little stuffed lambs and had the good fortune (or the good sense) to show them to their daddy before me.

"Baa Baa Black Sheep is telling you to buy this shirt, Mommy."

This very pretty $85 shirt.

A few minutes later, I hear laughing and turn to see some ladies giggling because Ains was dragging this huge sheep by its ear.

What are you doing with that? "Baa Baa Black Sheep needs a mommy to nurse on. It's a weequiament." It is a requirement, sweetie, but we're not taking that sheep home.

Then we drove farther west to The Dalles area and visited an area with some beautiful waterfalls.

We saw our first moss-covered rocks, which was more exciting than you'd think because a moss-covered rock is the main character in one of our favorite books.

And a very exciting thing happened - Grayson finally did his first real sign. Train.

We had to stand there and watch the entire train go by while he signed 'train' the whole time. Very exciting.

At the next falls, Ains found "the stwangest thing in the whole wowld."

In-between the cracks on the rock wall, behind the moss, were worms. Living in the wall.

"I can't beweeve they're weal! They're weally weal!"

Multnomah Falls was the last one we stopped at. It's a two-level falls with a bridge going over the bottom one.

We hiked up to the bridge and looked over.

"Holy crap!" is what that little chihuahua is saying.

Then we went back down and had lunch in the Oregon drizzling rain.

For the record, I didn't do that to him. When I put a stocking hat on his head, that's how he wears it.

Everything grows so much faster out here with this much moisture. At home we're just now getting dandelions. Here they're already one foot tall.

On our way out, Hannah saw a sign that sent her into a high-pitched squeal. "That sign says Ains on it!" So we stopped.

Our next plan was to go to a planetarium show in Portland and we were on schedule to get there an hour early. We never got there because there was an accident fifteen minutes outside of the city that kept us sitting on the interstate for over an hour and a half.

So we'll try to do the planetarium show tomorrow. That left us with a free night in Portland. I wanted to go to a bookstore I heard about in downtown Portland. It's called Powell's and it's the biggest bookstore I've ever been in.

It covers an entire city block and is four stories full of books. When you walk in, this sign, telling you where to go for which type of books, greets you. And they give you a map. And laugh at you for being a country girl who takes a picture of their sign.

I dropped everyone else off in the kid's section - Matt's a good sport -

and went to explore.

It was overwhelming.

After we each got a book we wanted, we headed back to the hotel.

Don't mind them. They think that umbrellas are necessary in Oregon whether it's raining or not. It's a fashion statement.

It's too much.

Much too much help with packing for our vacation.