Beach Trip Part 6: Beaches, Finally

Fine, we won't do fireworks. GOSH

Hello old friend. I wore the chicken boots just for you.

Mr. Photog

We dropped the girls back at the house, then went off for more beach time. We drove through Nehalem Bay State Park and met a very kind police officer who told us not to bother paying the day use fee - not worth it. Thanks, Officer! 

We drove to the Short Sand Beach trailhead on Highway 101 then and enjoyed an easy and beautiful hike to the beach. 

The gorgeousness!! 

Looking south

Looking north. Love that heavy mist.

Dipping my toes in Short Sand Creek

Back in the ocean, feeling totally blissed out, when the wave landed...

Wet my pants. Time to hike back. We took a different trail back to the highway.

The thing with highways is they all look the same underneath.

One last shot of Short Sand Creek

We mightily enjoyed this excursion. Then we took giant naps.

Beach Trip Part 5: Going To Town

There were many fun times to be had. 

Pet store:

Hubby enjoyed the farty noises this toy made

Feeding the shop pup a treat

Clothing/Jewelry/Funny Crap Shop:

I bought a dress for Baby and a pair of teensy sterling silver earrings, and Roz bought socks and a pin. 

Adorable bookstore:

T-shirt store:

These Highway 53 stickers are dead on. We're going home a different way tomorrow. 

Beach Trip Part 4: Saturday Morning

I feel like, so far, I'm a big liar for titling these posts with the words "Beach Trip" because we've been here over twelve hours now and still haven't slapped eyes on a beach. Of course the sun went down as soon as we arrived, so that didn't help. 

However, I can't complain about the view, at all. The sunshine was an unexpected bonus.

I made breakfast, we ate, and now we're all chilling in the living room and trying to decide how to spend the day. Here's some post-breakfast idyll....

Yep my bangs are doing things.

We miss the rest of our people. Earlier we learned that H couldn't trade shifts at work, so he and C won't be able to come spend the night. Bummer. Next time, for sure. 

Beach Trip Part 3: The House

Quite lovely. 

The girls are playing Yahtzee, Hubby has set up Netflix, and now we're talking about dinner. Life is sweet, my dudes.

LATER: We miss our WinCo. One incredibly expensive grocery run later, we've decided to eat what we bought at the store and forego trying any of the restaurants here. YIKES. 

I made burritos for dinner and we watched the newer Mary Poppins movie, which I fully expected to hate, and fell in love with instead. It's so beautiful and well done!

Beach Trip Part 2: The Drive

Driving west on Highway 26. THE MAJESTY.*

The drive was mostly fine. Two things of note:

1) About 30 miles away from our destination, an engine light lit up on our dashboard that we'd never seen before and had to look up on Google (which to me was scary enough): the throttle control warning light. Don't look it up, it's scary. We pulled over, turned the engine off, read what the throttle control light signifies, and decided to continue. Turned the engine on and the light didn't pop on again for the rest of the trip, but we're still a bit wigged.

2) After turning off 26, we drove down Highway 53 to the 101. It was beautiful - absolutely foresty, misty, green, dare I say moist gorgeousness - but the road was extremely curvy, with steep banks and a tiny, sometimes nonexistent, shoulder on MY side of the car. Bella loved the creepiness of it (I did too) but Hubby and Roz were not fans.

Eventually we made it to the little town, which we realized we'd driven through before, and found the house.

*This is only funny if you grew up listening to the radio in Tri-Cities during the 80s. And maybe not even then. 

Beach Trip Part 1: Peaches Come From a Can

Yep now it's stuck in your head too. HA.

We (Hubby, daughters, and I) are heading to a new-to-us Oregon coastal town. A free beach house stay was offered to us by one of Hubby's soccer friends and we'll be spending the weekend there. We're taking our time getting out of town and probably won't arrive before dark, but you know what? It's winter break and we can take our time. 

B & L and the baby are staying home, and H and C will hopefully come over tomorrow and spend the night. We have instructed them all to feed the animals and abstain from any wild partying without us (especially the baby; she's quite prone to naughtiness). 

Stopping at Starbucks for lunch, then we'll be on our way. Tune in often for updates!

Merry Day After Christmas

Spending a quiet day cleaning up after the festivities and reveling in another 365 days before I have to do Christmas again. 

🍒

"Don't ask questions you don't want answers to"

Somehow, sometime, somewhere, a screw was embedded in our tire, and on Sunday, we woke up with a completely flat tire. Hubby put the spare on and I took the car to our favorite tire place today. As always, imaginary shenanigans ensued.

How I spent my evening

Gran-ing the best grandbaby ever. 

She's awesome to watch TV with.

Coffee Thoughts

I bought myself a cup before work today, then was happily surprised when B brought me a mocha and one of those bacon/cheese/caraway seed biscuits from River Maiden. 

However, I'm still quite the lightweight.

Second cuppa coffee =

 1) Thinking how much I need my own personal set of Oompa Loompas following me around to chastise me for my questionable choices ("What do you get when you drink like a fish?*") 

 2) Humming the Oompa Loompa song ad nauseam 

 3) "Man, did they move bonnets"

Other things from today:

"It eats the sushi on its payday or else it gets super cranky again"

"'Falling Headfirst into a WinCo Freezer Bin Because The Two Bags of California Blend They Have Left Are At the Very Bottom' is the new working title of my autobiography"

*Disclaimer: The "drink like a fish" example is not applicable to me. I know how y'all worry.

Awake Since 2:45 AM

Listening to Philly Soul is doing a not good job putting me back to sleep but is keeping me content.

Later: At work, someone put on Christmas music, which was fine until a) the music was an a cappella group and b) the song was Mary Did You Know, which to me is right up there with Christmas Shoes for Stupidest Christmas Song Ever.

I'm almost 1000% sure that MARY HAD NO IDEA. There's only one thing worse than Mary Did You Know, and it's Mary Did You Know, a cappella. Gahhhhh.

Later still: I left my warm and cozy bed to produce soup for my offspring. The martyr is strong with this one.

Because I'm an Exmo and Exmos Are Evil

Quote of the Day:

"If I'm going to go to hell, it'll be for something a whole lot more fun than drinking coffee."

And now, an anecdote:

I was mocked at work today for using the word "summoned". 

 "It's like you're 'summoning' the Devil!" 

...which is the next natural step after drinking coffee, btw.

In other, more Christmasy news:

Finally, we have matchy Christmas stockings. 

We'd been piecemealing for probably a decade, and now, especially with two new family members this year, it was time to step up our game. 

Thanks, local Target stores! It took a village!

Embarrassing.

(Resting Loaf Pinch Face)

FYI: Her parents are responsible for the pic. I'm just the blogger.

"'In bed with a Starbucks brownie' is the working title of my autobiography"

When Grandparents Party

We attended my company Christmas party tonight at The Grocery Cocktail and Social, downtown. 

We ate well and had fun and won free stuff. Quite a swell evening. 

Sleepy Smiles

Total Whiner

::::wrestling with R::::

"Ow! Mudder! You can't kick me in the mouth anymore!"