Four if by sea ... or snow

With Jon having a few days off, we figured we were up for some adventure.

First, we thought we'd head to the snow ... Ian had so much fun (I guess he'd forgotten life with snow in Philly, LOL) Jon thrilled him by filling a cup full of fresh snow for the drive home. He sat in the back eating it like popcorn. it was a riot. HA!

Next, a drive to the coast for some whale watching. 12/26 - around 1/8 is great for watching the whales on their southern migration. We got to the Umpqua lighthouse and they'd already seen 8 - we saw a couple. We think, LOL We should have dug out the binoculars to be sure, but it was fun. From Reedsport, we drove north of Florence to Sea Lion caves - Apparently the largest sea cave. I believe it. It's enormous - you almost forget you in a cave - minus the smell - ha..ha... There were hundreds, possibly thousands of them. (which was funny, because that night I picked up the babysitter and when talking about the journey she said everytime they've gone, there have been no sea lions in the cave. seems impossible to me.) We headed home with two sleepy boys.

Here are some pics of the snow (up towards Diamond Lake off rt 138, about an hour away)

Pictures from the coast (Reedsport area/Umpqua Lighthouse & Sea Lion Caves near Florence)

One morning Ian was banging on the piano. I snuck down the hall to get some on tape - one I did without him seeing, this one, I got a closer look... enjoy. LOL

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Yummmm

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Festive Family Home Evening

Monday night we enoyed an evening of fun with some friends in the ward - it was a full house with lots of kids and tasty treats ... we loved it! We watched a video called The Nativity and then bundled up for some Christmas caroling in the neighborhood. It was great fun. We feel lucky to have met some great people here in Oregon and look forward to more fun activities like this!

Merry Chritsmas!

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Hiking along the Umpqua River

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Deck the Halls ...

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Wildlife Safari

About 7 miles outside of Roseburg is an AWESOME Wildlife Safari ... you tour the many acres via car and there's also a village you can wander with more to see. We ventured out there a couple of weeks ago (I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures.)

We saw so many great animals, lions, bears, zebras, giraffes, elephants, emu, buffalo, on and on ... we were amazed. not to mentioned a little weirded out by a much too friendly emu who got a little freaky with our car along the way. LOL It's a definite must see when you're in Southern Oregon.

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Pass the Ranch ...

The other night we ordered pizza from this great place called Abby's legendary Pizza. (Normally, I would think adding the word "legendary" to your name is a bit over-the-top and boastful, but it really is very, very good. LOL)

Anyway, when I placed the order, she asked if I wanted ranch and I said sure, why not. When it arrived there was a bag with 10 side cups of Ranch. Literally, a bottle of dressing separated in little cups. ha..ha..) I digress. I set Ian up at the table with his pizza and his own little cup of Ranch. meanwhile, I was getting Campbell's dinner prepared and heard a slurping sound behind me... This is what I saw...

Gross!!!!!!

A few pictures from our recent drive on the coast near North Bend/ Coos Bay ... We stopped at a state park, I think it was called the Empire Lakes...but have no idea. LOL I can tell you it was beautiful and we only strolled a small portion of the area. (yes, they were still in PJ's at this point, we'd left early and just put the kids in the car "as is" striaght from bed. ha..ha.

Later we found another great state park (and again, I'm not sure what/where it was - possibly Liberty State Park?) Regardless, there was a great lighthouse and turns out a great spot for whale watching. They say the best time is December - at the high point, you can spot around 32/hour. Crazy. Hopefully, we'll get back and see what we can see. (The boys were asleep, so we didn't do much exploring here... to bad, it looked like a fun place to play.)

Smiles ...

Another one of those "missed it" shots. I'd walked into the bedroom and found Campbell snuggled underneath one of the paws of the tiger. of course, by the time I grabbed the camera, he'd shifted. But,it's still cute.

We were in Eugene yesterday and saw the Bitners. Christina and I made a Costco run )... You can see Ian & Carson were enjoying an yummy ice-cream treat. It's been a year since the kids have seen each other - Ian was thrilled to run wild with the Bitner kids.

There's an elemenatry school down the street and we often stop to play when we're out walking the neighborhood. I Took a couple of pics with the cell phone while we were out ... it was a bit chilly that afternoon, but not too cold to play. ha..ha..

I Spy with My Little Eye ...

In that moment of uncomfortable silence ... I take the usual sneaky stroll down the hallway to sneak a peak. Sometimes around nap time, I'll find that he's gone off to bed. Other days, he's up to those no-good-2yr-old antics. HA! This particular day was void of mischief, just had a good chuckle.

Today I found Ian covering his Halloween costume in a blanket. Or so it seemed. Then it looked like he was stuffing the blanket into the car ... A closer look revealed ...

Yes... he was stuffing things into the car. His pillow was on top - I pulled it out to find ... teddy bears, cars, puzzle pieces and a couple of pacifiers. Yes, all of his favorite things.

I gues he thought he would crawl inside for a snooze -LOL What a funny kid.

Trick-or-Treat

The infamous Lightning McQueen costume we crafted for Ian.... It's great what you can do with construction paper, a glue stick and a box! :)

Our goofy goblins after a loooonnngggg night of serious party-ing! LOL Ian dressed as Lightning McQueen and you can see Campbell was a rough-n-tumble puppy. Jon and I made the race car - and while it took a little longer than we'd expected, we had fun doing it. We laughed last night, noticing the late hour, that if we've spent this much time on a costume for a 2yr old, imagine school projects 10 yrs down the road. ha..ha...

Jon was working, so we stopped by the urgent care to show off costumes on the way to Trunk-or-Treat at the church. It was fun to see much of the staff in costume. Jon went as Peter Parker, wearing a Spiderman shirt under his dress shirt. So covert. LOL

It was a fun evening, but we were all exhausted at nights end.