Noble Moments: Vacations

Showing posts with label Vacations. Show all posts

Cooperism - Packing List

Channa dropped Cooper off for the week as usual and asked if there was anything she needed to remember to pack for him since he wouldn't be home again before the upcoming trip to Disneyland. He whipped up a little reminder list for her.

1. stuffed animals (Cheese and hiss) names of favourites... the rat and the snake
2. two fresh outfits (underwear included) unlike the outfits where they aren't included?
3. snacks (choco bars, ect.) I suggested an apple. He told me his mother would handle the snacks, thanks.
4. extra blanket (says utah) for cold nights we convinced him the weather would be SOO much warmer in California
5. push-up tools
6. exersise stuff his therapy of the last 4 months had exercises including push ups... we determined it might be odd in a carry on for the flight, so he had a slight reprieve from certain exercises. The trip was getting better and better sounding in his opinion.

Canada Trip - Day 5

Day 5 (Perused the farmer's market, checked out the natural history traveling museum, hit Tribune Bay Beach, 181 photos)

Another leisurely morning. With drizzling rain off and on, we opted not to go on our scheduled hike and to play 'hitting another beach', by ear. As it turns out the overcast morning and few drizzles were good for perusing the farmer's market, checking out local handicrafts, dreaming of beautiful overpriced items, watching magicians and musicians, enjoying fresh warm ginger and cranberry scones thanks to Jill, checking out an awesome traveling natural history exhibit on local wildlife, chilling out at the park while some finished their shopping at the market and generally relaxing. By 2 in the afternoon we determined that the weather was going to cooperate for another day at the beach. We headed to Tribune Bay this time (beach for the tourists), and dropped everyone off. Jill, Emerson (asleep) and I ran back to the cabana to grab some lunch and snacking things to ward off the hunger monsters.

Once back at the beach with everyone we ate up and played. This beach offered; sand castle building, more snorkeling, more crabs, starfish, jellyfish, some dead fish, barnacles and sea anemone's, even better wave jumping and swimming, and would you believe it.... Better RELAXING!! maybe it was simply MORE relaxing!.

Bailey, Caleb Amber, Sarah and Dory were completely worn out and were all caught napping.

Sandcastle building occurred.

Even young Emerson tried his hand at sand play... if he had only managed to get off the blanket...

Waves were jumped by father and son.

There was some beach combing

There was gazing off over the water and soaking in the tranquility of being completely disconnected from technology.. (or he was having withdrawals.... but I don't think so.)

Hey, I was even there... and on the beach... (yes I'm the one who isn't a fan of sand.)

More snorkeling occurred.

Sea life was found, dead and alive, and also alive and then dead... but it was all shared with others either way.

Some were oblivious to the sand magnet that they'd become while they showed anyone and everyone their thumb jelly fish.

The jelly fish song was sung... a few times... and lucky Emerson was the most ~~captive,~~ captivated audience!

~A jelly fish, a jelly fish, a jelly fish fish..... Arms up, knees together, head back, bottom out, wrists together and ....a jelly fish, a jelly fish, a jelly fish fish.....~

It was evening before we left the beach. We enjoyed spaghetti and garlic toast for dinner while discussing our tales of the sea.

We tried to see the phosphorescence after sunset. (when you look into the deep waters of the ocean after dark and can see the glowing fish, charged from the sunlight of the day). Unfortunately the moon was totally full and bright (gorgeously so, over the ocean), but not cooperative for viewing phosphorescence.

Once again we fell into bed, babies fell asleep in cars on the way home from the beach, transferred to the cabin and slept through the night with ease!

How I spent my vacation.

Dear blogging world,

We went on a vacation. We were gone for just over two blissful, fun filled weeks. Did you miss me? Of course you did. You'd like to know what we did? That might take me a while. Life started as soon as I set foot in the door. From now on, I'm coming home from a vacation three days early and not telling anyone that I'm back. (oops, I just told you... forget about that!) Here's the list of things we did while we were gone, the list that needs to be blogged.

Another 2 day drive with 8 kids, and even more stuff.
Surgery boy traveled under the influence of pain medicine.
Drove through the night and traveled in matching outfits this time
Used our cool new passports at the border.
Ferry boat ride from the mainland of Canada to Vancouver Island.
Slept in the rest area near the ferry terminal.
Gasped at Canadian prices for food.
Took 2 smaller ferries to our final destination.
RELAXED.... ok.. that didn't last long... ADVENTURED!
Visited 8 different beaches; some of them more than once.
Went boating
Most of the kids caught a fish.. some even caught sharks!
Collected sea shells, rocks, jelly fish, mussels, sand dollars, crabs and star fish
Visited with cousins.
Ate too much yummy food
Picked blackberries at every available moment
Had great fish and chips
Built sandcastles
Skipped rocks
Learned about the tides, geology and the ocean currents
Went exploring in the woods
Used outhouses
Swung on the rope swing over the pond
Hiked to the largest rock
Hiked to the big tree
Played at numerous parks
Showered outside
Played games
Observed marine life in tidal pools
Watched sunsets and sunrises
Marveled at the beauty that surrounded us
Watched a meteor shower
Learned about phosphorescence
Discovered unique pieces of driftwood
Read books
Told jokes
Picked blackberries for cobbler and ice cream topping
Sunbathed
Slept in many different locations
Walked along the docks
Attended a marimba concert
Visited the farmer's market
Watched Doug's band practice
Jumped the waves
Skim boarded
Experienced party island
Created party boats
Steered clear of enormous red jelly fish
Played bocce on the beach
Kept Whittaker out of the sun
Were eaten alive by mosquitoes and some even were stung by bees
Found lucky money
Saw lots of wildlife
Ate lots of goodies
Visited with friends
Played on Bailey's marimba
Carved walking sticks
Invented a greek mythology game
Celebrated Whittaker's first birthday... three times!
Fought over someone elses' dinghy
Found a sun star
Got very dirty
Had fairy tea parties
Went snorkeling
Learned to diaper dive
Founded the early morning waker's club
Gave Whittaker a bottle for the first time
Met Sadie and Ava for the first time
Rode a double decker bus
Fed seals at the Oak Bay Marina
Visited with Auntie Adele
Took a trip down memory lane
Revisited the haultain house
Revisited Willows school
Water park
Inner harbor and down town
Begged a bridge to go up and down
Beacon Hill Park petting zoo
Enjoyed a freshly caught salmon dinner
Enjoyed many Eden made meals
Swam at Grandma's pool
Visited with cousin Sheila, Greg, Alistair, Ronnie and kids
Looked for the Cadborosaurus at Gyro Park
Attended a fashion show
Blew bubbles
Savoured ice cream at exorbitant prices... (dreamed of home and the freezer full of ice cream)
Hung out with Rhyanna for a day
Walked on the ferry with the kids
Unsuccessfully watched for orca whales
Ran around on the grass at the border and walked through the peace arch
Waited in an extremely long border line
Made 5 stops before Seattle
Had a blissful slumber in Pendleton once again
Played Marco Polo in the hotel's outdoor heated pool late at night
Ordered pizza from the hotel room
Only left one sweater and a pocket knife behind
Returned home exhausted
Made lasting memories
Had a fabulous time

I knew you'd appreciate a little tidbit, even if it's just a list. I bet you thought I'd make a list of 100 things.... but I have to keep something for a surprise!

Determined not to lose sleep over the lack of blog entries,
Nova

Adventures must be contagious

After reading the travel log of our trip to Oregon, I must have made it sound so wonderful that it inspired Paige and the kids to pack up and take a road trip of their own!

They did just that. They packed up their things and headed north.. and west. I've been getting updates from them. They didn't start with an exact plan... or map and they're continuing in the same manner. She rarely knows what towns she is in, has passed or is headed toward.... she says she's just waiting until the voice in the GPS tells her to do something else. I on the other hand have mapquest pulled up on the screen and as I chat with them on the phone try to figure out the route they are traveling. It isn't exactly a common route. I'm sure it's a scenic one though.

Paige hasn't ever driven a road trip before.... and from the sounds of things... this may the last! I can't tell you how many times she's considered turning around and heading home since it would still be a shorter drive!

As of now... they've driven out of TX, into OK... up into KS and then west to CO... currently they are midway across CO. They're glad to be passed all the miles and miles of fields and slaughter yards. The red rocks are a nice new change of scenery.

I've heard fun chatter in the background so I think they're having a good time... and I've overheard a few mentions of a photo op, so perhaps we'll get to see some photos soon?!

Memaloose

Our favourite rest area on the way home was Memaloose Park. As we pulled into the rest area we noticed a very friendly squirrel just in front of us. We teased... oh look there's a 'mema' loose in this park. The kids took the bait.

'What's a mema?'

--That is. Isn't he cute?

'That's a squirrel'.

--It's probably related but look at the sign. Mema's on the loose park. There are so many of them loose in the park that they shortened the name to Memaloose Park.

'Really? Look there's another mema over there on the wall.'

They were extremely friendly. Especially one 'mema'. A hurt one. This poor thing had a maimed paw. There were lots of them on the loose.

We enjoyed Memaloose Park and will forevermore be on the look out for some cute mema's on the loose.

A quick excursion

After leaving the restaurant and driving towards Portland for about 15 minutes we saw the signs for Tigard, OR. Mum had lived here for a while when John and Jim were little. She had sent us the address for her old house if we happened to be in the neighbourhood and wanted to swing by for a lookie-loo.

Why not? We weren't getting a quick get away. The traffic was horrendous already anyway, it's not like we could avoid it, but we could have a quick excursion to fill some of the time.

I had asked Channa if the voice on the GPS unit could be changed. I should have chosen a less important time to goof off with the unit. I changed the language and the voice. Oh dear.... it gave some instructions in French but I didn't catch what the instructions were. Oh dear. My job as navigator assistant was in jeopardy. I was madly running through the menu and trying to switch it back to english and to the lovely lady's voice. Once we were back in business we had definitely gone off course. I had also simply typed in the city name and not the actual house address. We ended up in the center of town and then it told us we had reached our destination. I entered the house address while slinking deep into my seat with the glares of some of the passengers and a driver piercing through me.

At least it was a nice little town to be detoured in. And it was only a ten minute detour. Just think of it as a little bonus adventure!

Back in business, I redeemed myself with the navigation. The address Mum had given us didn't match up exactly. The numbers were off by one. So we questioned which house was it? The homes were all situated in a wooded area up on a hillside overlooking the valley. It was a lovely location with large lots and massive old growth trees all around. A sweet little curving road led up to the homes. Walking distance to a shopping district... although that probably wasn't there when Mum lived there.

This is the one we think is the house.

The driveways.... this one was especially steep.

The mailboxes. The street and the for sale sign... We were bummed there wasn't an info sheet.

The view from the area then

The view from the area today.

The house on the other side of the street that may have been there then.

The house at the end of the street as you turn to go up the hill from the same era.

No idea if we actually found the house or not... but we like little adventurous excursions.

Sweet Tomatoes

We got a late start to our departure day. We hung out at Diane's until it was time for lunch. We went to Sweet Tomatoes. Fitting I think. Four years earlier David Scott (I hear he just goes by David now) and his family came for a quick visit to SLC and we went to Sweet Tomatoes with them also. It was great fun, and very filling.

We had a full tank of gas, full bellies, fond memories, had already said our good byes at the farm and now had one more set of farewells to bid to our lovley hostess and her family. The boys aren't fans of being photographed so I did my best to do it on the sly.

It was now about three in the afternoon. We were getting a rather late start to our drive but a few hours behind us would be good and we didn't want to risk being caught in Portland rush hour if we left any later. So we were finally off, heading home after a great week's adventure.

Signs

It's difficult to read this sign but it says "congestion". Can you see any congestion? We had to assume that travelers were being warned about nasal congestion. Whittaker certainly had some.

In reading this sign aloud, we got remarks from the children. Why did you swear about a day for Daddy? oops!

That was a tough sign for us... because the proximity of the seaside gave us angst knowing how exciting that might be for one particular passenger. We stared at the sign with the wheels turning in our heads until a car pulled up behind us and we made the turn to the left.

This sign was run for us. We had stayed in Pendleton. If you multiply the numbers next to John Day together you get John C.'s age on his next birthday. 'John Day' reminded us of the previous John Day Dam sign and we got another chuckle. The street sign... hmmm perhaps if we turned here we'd end up at Channa's house!? Railroad Crossing... it sure had... this was where we had stopped at our favourite pit stop and the train and blown it's whistle for us and the conductor had waved. This sign was like a little journal of our trip all in one spot.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

The end of a visit always comes too soon.

Once the hugs began... Jacob wanted in on the action. He even hugged Nancy goodbye.
We hugged, we waved and a few tears were shed. We knew we would have to return to visit again, it's so much easier to leave if it's see you next time rather than good bye.

And so with that, the big white van with it's eight children departed from the hilltop farm and history had been repeated. Tucked safely away were new memories, new friendships, and a special jar of 'hot cocoa paste a la Oneta'.

Stowaways!

For ten people traveling in a large van, we packed only the essentials. However differing views of essentials still left us packing a lot of stuff. Our trip home we were a little heavier. Our essentials plus a few stowaways we picked up along the way.

Generosity, Spoiling and Talent. Every time I turned around Diane had a little something for the kids to play with. She had some clothes for them, some frisbees, some rubber duckies and little car toys. But of all the things she had for the kids, the evening she offered them a stuffed beanie baby, will be well remembered. She had many too choose from. Channa and I did our best to guess which they would choose and then we called them one by one to choose their top two favourites so that we could be sure to give each one they wanted. I won't tell you which they chose... yet... perhaps looking them over you can match the beanie to the child who ultimately received it. There was one that was wanted by four children, and two of them when the saw it immediately commented on it and said, "(***)will really want that one, I won't pick it so they can have it!" We were so impressed by their thoughtfulness. The fourth was easily swayed by our excellent mind control efforts!

So how well can you match them up?

Paul the Walrus, Snip the cat, Pugsly the pug, Canyon the cougar, Almond the bear, Scaly the komodo dragon, Hiss the snake. Only two were renamed by their new owners.... one for allergy reasons, the other for affiliation purposes! Almond became Berry Oso, Canyon became... wait for it.... BYU!

But where does the talent come in? Nancy had a handmade afghan for each of us!. Again we were called in to choose the one to our liking. Each had different colours and patterns. So lovely. No worries of anyone being cold on our drive home with these. They immediately went to each of their beds and have quickly become favourites to grab and wrap up in for a movie.

Stops along the way.

Of all the places that we stopped as we traveled to Portland in our youth, Yard Birds was one that will always be remembered. Why? Was it that we loved to shop? No. Was it that we couldn't stop anywhere else to stretch our legs from our long drive? No. Was it the allure of the strange looking black birds? Well? Was it the fact that we could choose any flavour of ice cream we wanted whenever we stopped? DEFINITELY!

Well for me that was the reason. But then I have an ice cream obsession. It's ok. I'll seek help if it goes beyond obsession.

Before we left for our trip, I googled yard birds. Since traveling as a child I didn't recall exact cartographic locations, I didn't know if a yard birds would be along our route or not. If it was, I was planning to take the kids for an ice cream cone.

My googling turned up a lot of interesting trivia and information. Locations were only part of the information I gleaned. The most devastating was; Yard birds has gone out of business.

No returning for a reminiscing stroll through the store.

No searching for the big bird to signal that the store was coming on the next exit.
No ice cream.

I did however see this mailbox in Vernonia and it made me think of Yard Birds all over again.

Yard Birds was a great store for forty years. 1950-1990 It began as an army surplus store and grew to be a little bit of everything store. There were many locations throughout the state of Washington. Chehalis is the one we frequented. It was also the flagship location.

The tell tale bird was a 'misshapen, gawky cartoon bird with hunched shoulders, gloved yellow claw hands, and a large beak' . Each store had it's own version of the bird. Each were decidedly different. One was large enough to be an airplane hanger for one of the store owners.

A janitor for 30 years for Yard Birds, 'Rich', grew attached to the birds over the years. It had been his job to retrieve the birds from some strange locations when local pranksters would make off with one of the smaller birds. When the store went out of business, he received permission to haul away the birds. He now has a collection of many of the stores 20 birds. One of the larger ones burned down along with the store in the 90's.

My research also turned up these two tid-bits. I shopped at yard birds T-shirts are available. The property, including the Yard Birds store is for sale. A paltry $4 million.

Something for Everyone

After resting for a night at cousin Diane's and then napping most of the morning away, Whittaker had forgiven us for strapping him into his car seat for two days and decided to be his happy self again. I was very grateful for this.

The girls had gone off searching for fairy adventures in the forest. The boys had made fast friends with Austin and were off playing, careening and generally running amok in the fashion that little boys in the country do. Caleb had gone off with cousin Greig and Matt on a 30 mile cycling adventure in Portland and later he had a driving adventure with Channa and was feeling pleased that there had been things to do for him on this trip instead of just kid stuff. Channa was all a chatter about food and cooking and reminiscing. I worried that all I would be able to do was to snap photos of everyone else enjoying the trip while I kept Whittaker occupied. So when he decided to be content, I was pleasantly relieved. In fact, Whittaker even made a friend. Christian.

There is 5 months between the two. I love their little legs!

Only 1 pound difference between them.

Christian was very generous to share his toys and his floor space with Whittaker.

Caleb had already had his grown up fun. He took a moment to include the babies in some playtime. Not sure who was having more fun with the toys.

Nature Walk Adventure, part 2

The spit bugs were exciting. We were off to be wowed some more by the incredible discoveries that yet awaited us.

We discovered that when you tap some of the tall wavy grasses, a dusty substance 'poofed'.

We discovered some interesting leaves.

We found an interesting hole in the ground.

On a whim we decided to see how deep it was so we could guess what type of creature lived in it.

We later determined it was a snake hole...

(thankfully no one was at home)

We attempted (some more successfully than others), to whistle with a flat, wide blade of grass. This took us a while and left some of us light headed. But it was fun.

We solved a mystery. OK.. so we discovered a mysterious track in the wet ground. We found another, and another.

We followed them and deduced that a deer had visited in the night, had wandered through the meadow area and then sought shelter in a small grove of trees. From there... well we lost interest as we discovered other things...