Coast Trip

Let this picture go down in the annals of Barnhart Family History as yet another one where no one can look at the camera at the same time.  I've quite honestly given up hope.

We started the day off at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  Foolish me, I thought for sure that on a non-holiday Monday, it wouldn't be terribly crowded.  Not.  I think every tourist of Asian, Russian and Norwegian descent was there, all at the same time.  I managed to snap off one shot, which turned out completely blurry, and I didn't feel like I could retake it because of the line of people waiting to pose their kids on the cow....  So this is what we have of the Cheese Factory:

In case you were wondering what their hours are, here's my PSA.  You're welcome.

Our next stop, Cape Mears lighthouse.  We checked out the Octopus Tree, which was pretty cool, and then Jake and I got to tour the inside of the actual lighthouse.

We went to the Aircraft Museum, with the intent of taking a tour.  Then I saw that it would cost $55 just to get in the door, so we said no thank you.  That's a a lot of money, just to look at stuff.  I did take some cool pictures from the road though.

We headed into Lincoln City about 3:00, and these 3 were already tuckered out...

Lincoln City, Mo's beachfront.

Camping

I don't do spur-of-the-moment well.

I am a planner, and a bit of a control freak, and just flying by the seat of my pants makes me a little squeamish.  So, when my hubs called from work a few Saturdays ago and said "Hey lets go camping tonight!" (meaning in about 4 hours) I started throwing out every road block I could come up with. Finally I relented, because dang it we haven't been camping in forever and he just wanted to go so bad.

It was worth it:

The property belongs to a friend of Brian's from work, and sits just outside of Philomath.  It's a huge open area, with a creek about 30 yards from our tent, plenty of tables, a rope swing, volleyball net and horseshoe pits.  It was quiet and secluded, and we spent 24 hours feeling like we were almost the only people on the earth.

 The creek was great for wading, and was the perfect hunting ground for boys looking for crawdads.

We forgot the air pump at home, and my sweet hubby sat and blew up our queen size air mattress, one puff at a time.

 The weather was so gorgeous, we left the rainfly off the tent and slept under the stars.

G&G Summer Camp Part 5 - Children's Festival

Our annual summer visit to Grandma and Grandpa's fortunately coincided again with The Children's Festival.  The kids went for the first time last year and loved it.  Luckily for us, this year it was about 15 degrees cooler than it was last year.  Also, thanks to Grandma's new robo-knees, she was able to attend with us, and scaled the hill like a boss.

Leah at the macaroni necklace table

Leah and I spent a lot of time in Mother Goose Land, while G&G headed up the hill with the big boys.

Sister got to meet the Festival Queen, and was dubbed an official princess.

meeting Mother Goose

When we finally met up with the big boys, we discovered that they had not been quite as productive with their time.  Jake had wandered around, not seeing anything he wanted to do, and Austin and Grandma had been standing in line at the same place, waiting to get a super face paint job.

I took over in line while Grandma and Peanut waited patiently, and Grandpa and Jake tried to find something (anything) that he wanted to do.

The final product - amazing!  

Jake finally settled on carving a face in clay....  Maybe next year we'll leave him home.  :)

G&G Summer Camp Part 4 - "Tucker"

Leah is a horse girl, through and through.  She has been somewhat obsessed with them for sometime, and it's not just cute plastic figurines she's into.  From a very young age, she has been comfortable around the big animals, and sits like a natural in the saddle.  As we drove towards Medford on our vacation, I told her that if she asked Grandpa he might take her to see the Clydesdale's that live up the road from their house.  

Shortly after our arrival Grandpa made good on her request, only to discover that they had been sold and were no longer in their pasture.  I was relating the sad tale to our good friend Penny, and she concocted a plan to have my kids visit her kids and see their horses.

Saturday morning we headed up to Josh and Kate's.  Grandpa got in the cowboy spirit and pulled out a hat I didn't even know he still owned.  Leah was in for a surprise - not only did they have a Belgian draft horse for her to see in place of the Clydesdale's (which were apparently also Belgians, my mistake) but Josh was prepared to give Leah a full horse experience.  He introduced her to "Tucker", and let her (and her brothers) brush him, help saddle him, and talked her through the whole thing, describing each step and piece of equipment.

Once the gentle giant was ready to go Leah got the first ride, and it was an extra special one.  Josh took her down into one of their lower fields, and sister got her first experience running on a horse.  Josh trotted her around the field several times, and upon their return Josh declared her "fearless!".

After Leah, the boys each got a turn walking up and down the driveway.

Someone came home happy, and tired.

Thank you Josh, Kate and Penny for such a wonderful morning!