Skeletons in the Closet

Cute ones!

ha ha. I'm lame. I couldn't resist.

Cody has wanted these pajamas for two years.

 We ordered them last year, but they shipped them to the wrong house and he never got them!

  We went to Tanger outlets yesterday in Lincoln City and found these!!

We also got to stop by the beach. Bonus.

This is Macey's new funny face she loves to do. It is funny:

 I survived a shopping trip with these crazy kids and they did really good. I'm proud of them.

This baby skeleton, who is pushing 14 months, does not have a desire to walk yet. I'm pretty sure when she does she'll be an expert on the first few steps. It's kind of her style.

She says two, maybe three words: mom, dog and hello (on the phone). But she has an amazing ability to communicate with the magical word of mom.

MOM said in a demanding urgent yell means more milk. No please implied.

Mom said in an exasperated way means oh brother mom you're lame.

Many many more variations all usually meaning look at me or I need something.

It's a good thing I love her. Actually, it's pretty cute.

She found me, looking like that, as I am blogging.

she found that food on the floor. poor girl. it's rough being the youngest baby...maybe her mom will clean up and feed her breakfast.

Miss Macey starts Preschool

 She has it all figured out...first we got pictures. Outside per her instructions.

I love that she chose her ugly ripped pink crocs with dirt on them. They're her current favorite shoes.
Once we made it to the classroom I waited for a couple minutes for her to get settled in.

 She glanced back at me and said "Mom you should go now."  

Really loud. All the other moms waiting there snickered.

What kind of mom hovers over her children anyway?

Yes, me.

But Macey didn't need it. My little independent free spirit.

There she is marching around the playground. Luckily one of Cody's friends from church is in her class. I kind of think that's who Macey gets along with best at the moment - Cody's friends!

I would like to say it's crazy how fast she's grown up. And it is. But in all honesty I kind of look at this and think
Huh. She's only in preschool?
She already LOVES it.
Her teacher asked if she's always so cheerful.
Apparently when she's at school she just beams all day.

A sample of vocabulary from the running commentary of Macey:
"You made that? That's incredible. I'm so delighted."...etc. etc.

I just love her word choice. All pronounced with W's for L's. It makes me smile.

Gathering Together with Grandma

Grandma Bonnie came to visit. A miracle in and of itself considering the chaos she left to join us. Their basement flooded the day before, and this trip was sandwiched in between a vacation and another trip:) Her luggage did not arrive - it was late the next day. To top it off her mother in law's husband passed away the morning after she got here. We so appreciated this visit that was squeezed in between everything else.

We headed out Thursday night to an "adventure." Gathering Together Farms. Ben was less than excited because I didn't have much information other than a burning desire to see what this restaurant was. Everything they cook is grown right there. Oregon organic extraordinaire. We didn't even know if they had meat! But lucky for Ben, they did. I had salmon, he and Bonnie had some nice cut of steak or cow of some kind. Shows how much I know. I must say this is my new FavoRiTe place to eat. I wish I could cook like this. The kids amazing pizza was even cooked in an enormous stone oven.

The next day we headed to the coast to the aquarium. The kids saw a statue and immediately ran to pose:

There is a fun kids area

Love this quote:

Little Fishermen

Then we headed over to Passages of the Deep

Surrounded by water

and fish and sharks!

Then to the 'tide pools'

The next day Ben got to join us!

We headed to the real tide pool

Nothing says I Love You to Macey more than holding her hand to go down perilous steps. She's a lucky girl

 We stopped at the Chowder Bowl for delicious chowder.

Mackayla was astounded at what her food could do.

Then we went whale watching!

Yaquina Bay

You can't see the whales much from this picture, but we saw them:)!

We also helped pull up the crab traps they set out. 

There it is full of crabs with the stinky bait in the middle

Dungeness Crab

Red Rock Crab

We all got a turn holding them!

My hair goes Crazy in Newport humidity

Notice all our crabs have their pinchers tucked in?

Go figure that Ben and Macey got a feisty one

His little pinchers were going 'buck wild'

Do you see him about to pinch Ben's hand?

That's how Macey felt about it

I don't blame her. He got Ben. Ouch!

Finally, we made it to the beach.

Nothing makes the kids happier than going to the beach, digging in the sand, and looking for treasures.

We had SO much fun seeing grandma. The kids love you coming to visit. All of us do!

Who's coming next???! Seriously, come visit. It's definitely the first, but may be the last, cool place we ever live!:)