Day 12 - Slip, slidin' and sleddin'!

Today was so much fun, we all had a blast. We woke up to about 5-8 inches of the white stuff on the ground with a slight dusting coming down. The kids squealed with delight (and so did we :)) and we couldn't get breakfast made fast enough. We ate in the condo this morning. Hannah and I whipped up yummy pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, fresh marionberry yogurt and OJ. A great start to a busy day! I have to say that I LOVE staying in a home instead of a hotel. Between the flexibility of being able to prepare meals at "home" instead of always eating out and the availability of a washer and dryer, makes this mama to a family of five, very happy!

Here are some photos of the day (in no particular order). See ya'll tomorrow!!

Day 11 - hmmm, finally posting

Well, I have been "saving" all the posts in drafts because Bob wanted to add some witty comments however, I believe if I keep waiting on him to add anything, you'll never know where we were, what we did or how our trip is going so here are the posts.

Day 11 - Snow Day!

Day 10 - Bend Bound....

After cleaning up the motorhome, wrapping up lose ends and having breakfast we finally made our way over to Bend around noonish. Snow was supposed to be coming in and I didn't want to drive over the Santiam pass in the snow nor did I want to have to deal with chains on the tires if I didn't need to. We timed it perfectly and was able to get over the pass before the inclement weather set in. Made it all the way to Sisters, OR before stopping for gas and a minibreak. Temps went from about 34-40 in Salem to 24-28 in Sisters. Brrrr......lovin' it!

Arrived at the new place and LOVE it! 2-4 inches of snow on the ground and the kids couldn't even get in the door before they started a snowball fight! After we got settled, the kids went back out again fully gloved and clothed properly this time and played once again, made snow angels and just ran around having a grand ol' time!

Time for dinner, I'll catch up more tomorrow.

Day 9 - Ready to head out

Our last day in the homestead with Shay and Derek. She turned us on to VRBO.com to look for a place to stay in Bend and I think I have found a new love! Vacation rentals by owner is the site and I may never stay in another hotel ever. We found a great 3 BR, 2 bath place completely equiped in Sunriver, OR for the same price as a hotel just about anywhere. The guy who owns the place lives in Portland so we met him halfway and picked up the key and dropped of deposits, etc. I'll be interested to see the place in person tomorrow but the photos look amazing. Very excited about this find. Bob and I will be checking out VRBO for places to stay for the remainder of our trip!

Rain set in today and temps dropped once again, a great day to stay by the fire. Shay and I caught up, swapped photos, recipes and old memories of days gone by. The kids played, we hiked out and about and had a good day! Still no complaints about our trip!

Day 8 - Hanging in Salem with the fam...

What a LAZY day. The kids are up to their eyeballs playing with their new toys. We are still stuffed from the great meal last night and today is a day to just catch up on old times.

The highlight of our day was heading to Cinebarre (a movie theater where you can eat a sit down meal, drink a beer and catch the latest flick all without ever leaving your seat) - so we watched Sherlock Holmes. It was awesome. I LOVE Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law was equally as good. There was some serious bromance going on, lol. The relationship between Homes and Watson remided me so much of the relationship of House and Wilson in the tv show House. All in all a good movie.

That was about all we could muster for the day! Back again tomorrow folks!

Day 7 - Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Today was a wonderful day spent with family and friends. Santa found the stockings we left for him and filled them to the brim. He sure knows how to make those kiddies happy! Granted, it was a small Christmas in terms of gifts but meaningful in terms of spending time with those we love!

We wrapped up the day with a delicious meal of ham, turkey, potatoes, corn casserole, homemade sweet tea and some yummy desserts! What more can you ask for? Life is good and today was exceptionally good!

Day 6 - back to Salem

Well, we didn't get up to Seattle like we had planned but we have romped, hiked, played and stayed all around the northwest part of Oregon so far and the kids aren't disappointed in the least, so it's been a great trip! Sometimes when you try to plan too many activities it gets to be overwhelming so allowing the kids, weather and whatever the day brings to plan the trip has been refreshing and fun!

Today we finished up our laundry, checked out and headed south. Tillamook Cheese Factory is always a fun stop and once again the kids loved checking out the cheese process and hanging out. This made a nice rest break along the journey. Next we headed to Pacific Beach over to our favorite brew pub - the Pelican. The restaurant is situated right on the beach and about 100 yards off the beach is an absolutely enormous rock monolith that is simply amazing. There are also these great sand hills that my kids love to run up and down and when I say sand hills, I really mean mountains as they are not hills. We got there just as sunset so here are some photos of the monolith and the kids!

We have been checking norad Santa tracking all day and it's time for us to get home, into our new Christmas jammies and ready for the man in the red suit to arrive! Great place, great fun, great chili and beer but time to head out on our journey once again!

Day 5 - OMSI

Late morning. We have not been on a schedule and have had leisurely days on this entire trip. It's been nice and very relaxing! Breakfast at the Pig N' Pancake (per Shay's recommendation) and it was delish! We've tried to eat out no more than once or twice a day and this was a worthy meal out! The kids thought the hot chocolate was 2 thumbs up!

Headed over the pass into Portland, driving through our first snow, it sure made it feel like Christmas is upon us!

Getting into Portland after lunch made for a short day since it is dark by about 5pm these days. We headed for the OMSI - Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Since it closes at 5:30 we decided to hit the museum and catch an OMNIMax show on Bugz in the Rain Forest, after seeing the Bugz show (which I fell asleep in), I wish we would have caught the show in the planetarium instead, oh well, the kids had fun. The OMSI is a really neat place and they have so many exhibits and hands on things for you to touch, see and interact with, the kids had a blast!

Knowing that we had an hour drive back to the coast, we didn't get to stay in the city for as long as I had liked. The kids were hungry and tired so home we headed. Tonight we found a great little pizza place off the beaten path, picked up a pie and headed back to our room for dinner and a movie. It was a great day and no rain!

Day 4 - Seaside bound...

Shay and Derak have to work for the next few days and only have Christmas off so we decided to head over to the coast and then north. First we headed down to Depot Bay - home of the World's Smallest Harbor and famous for whale watching. They have a great restaurant there that is one of our family favs, Gracies Sea Hag and Grog however we were disappointed to find it closed on a Monday, schucks, now where to eat in this tiny town with few options. Thankfully right next door, and open, was the Chowder Bowl which we decided to try. No disappointments there, the chowder was excellent and sure gave Gracies a run for her money.

We headed north to Lincoln City, passed through Pacific Beach, Tillamook and headed up to Seaside. We were lucky and were able to get 2 nights stay at the Shay's timeshare at the WorldMark Resort on the beach in Seaside, north of Cannon beach and south of Astoria (for those keeping up with where we are staying). Beautiful place on the beach.

Today was a lot of driving to get from Salem to the coast and north so we are in for the night and have great plans for tomorrow.

Day 3 - Monday w/ the fam!

Shay is off today so we decided to catch up on some last minute Christmas shopping for the kids. We grabbed a bite to eat at this wonderful little bistro, the Wild Pear. I had probably the best veggie quiche ever. It was filled to the brim with delicious veggies. I topped it off with a cup of hot chicken and rice soup that made for a perfect meal on a rainy cold day.

It was great hanging with Shay, however shopping was a bust as I couldn't find a few of the things I had in mnd. Oh well, this trip wasn't about big gifts anyway.

Making my famous Paul Prudhomme's chicken and pasta dish tonight for everyone. Now, off to take a mini nap and enjoy listening to the rain.

Day 2 - NW Adventure - Salem, Oregon

Well, here we are. We are nestled all comfy cozy in the motorhome outside of Shay's house (to give us some privacy) and enjoying catching up with the family. Surviving on only 4-5 hours of sleep the night before we all crashed soon after we arrived last night and enjoyed a blissful night of slumber! After leisurly waking up and getting ready (it was almost noon when we were finally ready, lol), we headed out to the local Public House - a McMenamins Brew Pub - they are famous here in the NW and this one was one of our local hangouts when we lived here. They have the best fish and chips! Once again, the food and grog did not disappoint.

Of course, the rain was here on arrival and is just as we remembered it. Hasn't bothered us a bit and are actually enjoying it. Being able to pull out all our hats and gloves has been great, especially when where we live it is a perpetual summer, 1 season year round with almost no rain.

Today has been a lazy day and we wrapped it all up with a night out with some of Shay's friends for a party they host every year called the Winter Solstice. Everyone brings a dish to share, they build a huge bonfire out back and everyone brings their bongos, drums, guitars and other instruments. At one point, they turned out all the lights, we lit candles and celebrated. It was a fun evening. Hannah and Christian loved being a part of the drum circle and Xander really showed his musical talents on the guitar tonight even impressing the 18 and 19 year old boys that were there playing along side him. We were very proud of him, he did great!

Again, early to bed. Tomorrow I am looking forward to spending some time with Shay shopping and hanging out. Fun times!!

The journey begins....

Today we begin a 2 week unstructured journey of the Pacific NW. Our plans are to use my cousin Shay's home as our base camp making day and overnight trips everywhere from Bend, Portland, the coast, Seattle, San Juan Islands and more.

Left the house at 7am this morning - decided to change leave time after the horrible traffic heading towards LA late Friday night. Good idea on leaving this morning as we didn't have one traffic problem, yeah for us!

We were going to stop but decided to make the drive straight through since the kids were being so wonderful and the traffic was so good. After 15 hours are driving we finally made it from San Clemente to Salem!!! YEAH.

The most eventful part of the trip was the gorgeous view of Mt Shasta all covered with snow, it was simply amazing.

We'll post more each day, stay tuned!

Manic Monday

It's raining, it's pouring...... and a perfect day to stay indoors and get many of the things done, I need to get done. You know all that dreaded wrapping - although I love making the presents pretty. Sometimes the package wrapping is better than the gift, lol!

Three quilts to craft this week, 2 for American Girl doll bunkbeds and 1 for Xander, his is long overdue as I was supposed to make it last year. Oh well, I am only one person with so much time. Speaking of time, I am down to the wire. We leave for Orygun as the natives say it (Oregon) next Friday and I couldn't be more excited. My cousin who lives there said that it was 34 yesterday but felt like 25 and rainy. For some of you that may sound like torture but for us, we live in a place where it is summer year round so we are excited about getting out our hats, gloves and rain gear. The weather certainly won't dampen our parade!

Lots to do before the kids get home. We'll be blogging our entire trip. Yes, I know we are intermittent bloggers, lol however you always know we blog on our vacations and with new laptops, life has become easier and more mobile so stay tuned for more updates!

Happy holidays - did you get your Christmas card from us yet? If not, send me your address and I'll send one right out! XOXOXO

Getting ready for the holidays!

It's official, Christmas cards are out! Albiet a week late for me they are done and out. I am so excited, these are my favorite cards yet.

The days are turning in to a big blur as we get ready for the holidays and ready to leave for our trip to Oregon. Very excited about driving back and looking forward to spending it with old friends and family. Hopefully, we'll get everything done in time.

Hope all is well in your world as you get ready for friends, family and the holidays! Please let us know how you are doing!

Much love. XOXOXO