Pinewood Derby X2

Having to manage the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby solo as a mom is akin to torture.  I had to attend all of the car workshops, carving/ drawing and sanding and graphite-ing the wheels.  Not to mention painting and adding weights.  UGH! It would have been bad enough with just one, but no, I had TWO boys in scouts this year so that meant I had to do it all twice. It was me, and a bunch of dads...  On top of it all I am over Cub Scouts as part of my responsibility as a counselor in the Primary Presidency.  So I had to be involved in the behind the scenes part as well.  Not that I dislike it so much, it is just that it was happening at the worse possible time.  We had just listed our house and I had to keep it to the nines, which is always fun...  I think that I am just burned out on all activity at this point anyway.

Here is one race, I think it was Ansel and he won this particular race:

 

A Very disappointed Ansel.  He didn't win the entire thing and he was not happy about it.

He did win and award for awesome pin striping... Not enough to help ease the pain of the loss.

At least they had fun...

Calder was awarded the "Best Design"

I guess that is when having a designer for a mom comes in handy...

Snow in March... again...eerily..

The last time it snowed in March was our first year here.  From then on my kids thought that was when it snowed in Oregon, even though it never did again, until this year.... Our last year.

How eerie that the first and last years for us in Oregon would include snow in March!!

There are other parallels that I can draw from as well, but maybe that will be for another post.

This year it didn't just snow one day, but three separate days.  And they weren't in a row either.  The first was March 13th, the second was March 21st, and the 3rd was March 22nd.

The 13th was the best, for the kids, because it meant they got to miss school, which, of course is always a reason to like the snow.

I got the boys dressed up and we took the sleds to the park for the day.

Yes, it is nice being the youngest, you get all the perks, like hitching a ride the entire way to the park.  Lucky kid.

And he knows it too!

So even though there was about 6 or 7 inches of snow, one has to remember that this is Oregon after all and the ground isn't frozen underneath nor is it dry, rather it is one giant mud pit.

So when they were sledding down the hill the snow quickly turned from white to brown as it mixed with the mud beneath it.  The kids didn't seem to mind, but I did.  That meant that instead of me just drying out their clothes I had to wash ever last bit of mud sodden fabric.  Ugh.  The things we do for our kids!!

It continued to snow the entire day, even while they were sledding too bad it didn't cover up the unsightly muddy snow.

The next snow day was just a dusting, but still unusual since it was almost the end of March that it occurred. 

The view of our For Sale sign from the top floor of our house:

Snow day #3 was even more impressive since there was 3 inches of snow and it was almost April.  I couldn't believe that we were having that kind of weather so late in the year.  Usually all of our trees are flowering by now.  We are about a month behind I bet.

This pic is my favorite.

Look at those little bare feet prints!!

Here's hoping that this is the last of the snow this year!

Please bring on the sunshine and flowers!!

Lincoln City Beach Trip with the Hunsakers...

To be away from the house while the floor refinishing was going on, we planned a fun getaway to a Lincoln City Beach House.  My good friend Shona Hunsaker really did the planning and organizing.  She goes to this place frequently and knew just where to reserve.  It was just she and her kids and me and my kids.  A fun getaway.

We left right after school Tuesday afternoon and headed straight down to the coast.

The beach house she reserved was AMAZING!!  I would totally stay there again in a heart beat.  It was just a few months old and was enormous.  It was 4 stories tall and had an entertainment room at the top with a huge flat panel TV, surround sound, xbox, cable and we brought our Wii.  That was a huge hit with the boys.  The 3rd floor contained all the bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms.  The second floor had the kitchen, dining room, and living room.  The first floor was a huge rec room.  There was a ping pong table, fooz ball, a flat panel TV, a fireplace, a bathroom and just outside the door a jacuzzi.

The kids were on cloud nine!!  They wanted to live there for real, not just visit and were completely entertained the entire time we were there.

We brought a bunch of Lego sets for the kids to put together, plus various games and a whole slew of Wii games.  There was no shortage of things to do.

Kaelan enjoying some delicious hot cocoa

Jacuzzi time happened everyday, sometimes twice a day

This is the view from the Jacuzzi:

Kaelan and Claire:

We had run them into submission at this point and they were content to just sit and veg out on movies:

The park just down the walk from our beach house:

The kids brought their scooters to scoot around on and we enjoyed a sunny day to actually go out and use them.

The night we got there was a stormy one.  We hit a snow storm going over the coastal range and it stormed away all night while we were in the Beach house.  It woke me up several times that night.

When morning finally came the sun was finally out and we went down to the beach.

The storm had whipped the sea into a frenzy during the night, and the beach was filled with mounds and mounds of sea foam.  It almost looked like snow drifts.  Snow drifts of bubbles!

The kids were amazed by it and, though it was only March 1st ventured out into the freezing waters just to enjoy and play with the foam.

It wasn't long until they were drenched in sea water and covered in foam:

They pounded the sea foam with huge rocks,

Used it as part of a zombie costume,

or beat it with sticks:

The tide was low and the kids were able to visit a nearby tide pool.

Soaked....head to toe!

Another SUNNY day (I can't believe we even had one, let alone multiple) I took the kids on a bike ride down to the local candy shop.  It was quite the exercise trying to keep them safe and together, but we make it there and back alive and unharmed, arms brimming with candies.

Seriously a great vacation.  Thank you Shona for being such an awesome friend. Tearing my heart out thinking about not having you around when we move.  Love you!