Favorites: Things To Do around Corvallis Oregon - Day 24

**I wish I could squish this little corner of Oregon into the weather here in California. But then, of course, it wouldn't be the same. At. All. ...Sigh. I just love all the things to do in Oregon and hate the rain.
I'm pretty much not an Oregon expert, but this is what we did and loved for the year we were there.

My top five favorite things were: 
1. The Beach
2. Gathering Together Farms
3. Picking Berries
4. Waterfalls
5. Clamming and the Aquarium in Newport

The Coast - Newport, Oregon

**Downtown is just fun to walk through and go into the candy shops and watch the seals.

**Whale Watching - We mostly just did simple trips but once we did go on a whale watching trip and it was awesome to see those whales and even catch and hold some crabs.

**Oregon Coast Aquarium - see the shark tank, feel sea stars and sea urchins, and tons of other ocean life. Much smaller than Seattle's but it definitely holds its own. We loved it and it entertained our kids and us for hours on end.

**South Beach - always a good place to find sand dollars. More quiet than Nye Beach and had awesome camping yurts on one side of the beach that I wished we could have gone to. (That darn working every single day thing for Ben really cramped our style!)

**Nye Beach - Main beach downtown Newport. There is a good foot rinse at the entrance. A great restaurant is the Chowder Bowl (I think better than Mo's). Oregon beaches are beautiful. They have so many seashells and I am a little bit obsessed with seashells.

**Yaquina Head - there is a lighthouse you can go up (babies can't) and a tidepool. Go at low tide to see tons and tons of sea stars and sea urchins.

**Clamming - right under the Newport bridge take a clamming rake and a Big bucket on a negative tide day. Oh, this was so much fun!!
**If I would have had a husband, and not three kids, I probably would have done some glass blowing, gone to some of the artsy stores and tried out more restaurants! In Corvallis the fog and rain clouds can get bogged in, but if you drive over the mountains towards the coast it can be sunny!

The Woods
**Hiking and Waterfalls - Alsea Falls is near Corvallis and beautiful. Bald Hill, Finley Wildlife Refuge and Mary's Peak have hiking and trails (we never did do Mary's Peak)

**Multnomah Falls is a Must See. We went in the winter and I was so sad we didn't make it back in the spring. Green walled cliffs line the drive there. It was the prettiest drive I've ever been on driving there in the moving van in May.

**There are obviously many evergreens...so our 9 foot christmas tree was $5.

**Truffles grow around these parts but they're rare and we never found any in the woods. Not that we would know if we did, but we went looking nonetheless. I am still really curious to know what they taste like.

Corvallis -
**Go to the farmer's market. Bring swimsuits in the summer for the fountain at the end.
**Berry Picking - I think there are a few major places there that have berry picking - Radke's and Blueberry Meadows. We went blueberry picking all the time. We also went strawberry and raspberry picking. Store bought berries are just depressing now compared to berries that fresh. The whole experience just makes me happy.

**Run on one of their million trails. Pretty much the whole city has bike trails or bike lanes on the roads and there are tons of running and hiking trails all over.
**Get custom made shoes at Soft Star Shoes. You would miss the shop if you weren't looking but they measure and trace your foot while you're there and handmake, in the store, your very own pair of comfy real leather shoes. I found out about them from a friend whose little daughter had two adorable shoes custom made, each one a different color!

**Go to Many Hands Trading. They buy handmade items from small tribes and people all over the world.
**Go see some of the covered bridges in the area.

**OSU events

Philomath-
**Gathering Together Farms - a restaurant with fresh ingredients grown right there and expertly cooked. I can't say enough how much I loved this place.

**Go to the secret park river spot by the library:)

Tulip Festival



**Portland is a really long drive but I'm glad we made the trek there a couple times - there's the temple, the zoo, the children's museum, voodoo donuts, the science museum. I don't feel like I really got to see the city that much but it's a cool city that would be fun to explore. Multnomah Falls is up that way too. And about an hour past that is Ape Caves by Mt St Helens, way worth the drive!



List of things I didn't do that I wish I would have done:
1. The treehouse hotels
2. Silver Falls in Silverton
3. Seen more of Portland
4. Multnomah Falls in spring or summer

Ha. Macey seems to be my little model for all the pictures!
Honestly I think it was a blessing to live in such a fun, unique place for us during a really busy time for Ben and a really poor time of life!

rematch

Cody and I played chess tonight.

I won.

Afterwards, he was getting a little emotional

because we're still working on that competitive thing.

But I still said, "I'm awesome." (see bottom of post below)

That upset him more. He cried.

I am awesome, right?;)

Today we finished reading 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon with the kids.

To celebrate we went to the store to get root beer and ice cream for floats.

Macey told one random woman within earshot that we were getting root beer floats because we finished reading the Book of Mormon.

Then today at the park with preschool I overheard her chatting with the nearest grandma at the park telling her that the reason it rained so much this weekend (flash floods in some areas!) was because her mom and dad prayed for rain.

Little missionary:)

 On a side note: I think the reason Macey constantly interrupts me -it's been kind of a struggle to get any kind of communication in when she's around- when I'm talking to adults is because she prefers talking to adults and wants to be in on the conversation, or, dominate it. :)

 Target Practice

 At work out class the last couple of days the kids have all made a snail colony. They take it pretty seriously.

 Gross!!!
They are so proud.

I love doing a coop preschool. Until it's my week. This week was mine. I actually enjoyed it (as much as you can enjoy your house getting trashed and trying to do five things at once at all times.) I think the kids are adorable and they get along so well and I'm so glad we did it. Macey loves it.

Their curriculum is a Mother Goose preschool curriculum and a cd came with it that Macey jams out to all day.

 On the way home from school today

Creamy Pear

Creamy Pear Smoothie

3 cups water

2 Pears

2 small handfuls of walnuts

1 avocado
Juice from one small lemon

a few spinach leaves

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Blend together. It tastes just like creamy pears. Yummy and just healthy enough to feel good and not so healthy that you plug your nose to drink it.

We had eggs and peanut butter pancakes tonight. I think Trader Joe's has the best tasting eggs.

I added a huge spoonful of peanut butter to our pancake batter. It was a simple success.

A Booklet About Love

[with accompanying translations below]

People I Love:

1. mom 2. dad 3. grandma and grandpa 4. cousins Clayton 5. Macey and Mackayla 6. Aunt

Things I Love:

1. soccer 2. sports 3. tv 4. ocean 5. fish 6. baseball 7. chess 

Places I Love:

 1. Hawaii 2. islands 3. legoland 4. Disneyland 5. places 6. ham (....??? I guess if chocolate was a place I would live there.)      

Macey loves mazes. I used to draw her some but now she draws them.

We played chess tonight as a family.

Ben and Cody had beat

Macey and I soundly the other night.

Macey had watched quietly and when she couldn't stand it anymore she surprised us all by suddenly sitting up and silently taking my turn and killing their queen in two moves. And then she added, "It's okay mom, you will learn how to play better." But they still won.

Macey didn't really want to be on my team tonight, but she was for support anyway.

They won again. I decided to play just Cody to humble him.

He won again.

He gloated so bad I finally explained to him how to be a gracious winner.

He said ok and I figured he at least understood until five seconds later

he enthusiastically looked at me and said "I'm awesome!"

This Week's Randomness

We finally got our garden spot in our little community garden. 

It started out full of weeds and we will see how it ends up! I can't wait!!

 We spent a weekend afternoon this last weekend riding bikes, playing handball and riding the wiggle rider. Macey's getting good at bikes and Cody's getting good at handball!

 Sunday night I helped with the baptism preview for all the kids turning eight this year. I am so excited for Cody to do this next year! 

And on the top of those strawberry shortcakes is Trader Joe's real cream - AMAZING.

 Mackayla and I went on a walk one morning. We found this little bush with tons of these fluffy plants that look like something out of Dr. Seuss' books. 

Too cool. {the plant and the baby}

 During Macey's dance class we watched our little friend and watched all the cars. It reminded me of Cody at two and how we had to comment on every truck, bus and plane that passed. It's so sweet and fun and boy.

 Speaking of boy, Cody has been catching lizards on our walks home. These are blue bellies.

  Earlier this week the kids were all huddled around something on the stairs. I asked them what they were doing and they said watching a spider. It was huge! So I stayed calm and freaked out and told Cody to throw it in the toilet or else it would make babies and we would have tons in our house. He announced, "Oh! I think it was making babies on the stairs." I stopped and asked, "How do you know?" "Because it was sitting still in the corner over there." We're good. on all counts. And he threw the spider in the toilet.

 Macey's preschool class went to Chik fil A today. She loved it. 

I dropped off Mackayla at a friend's house while Macey was at preschool and Cody was at school. We are doing a babysitting swap...the most ingenious thing ever invented. Why have I not done this before? Actually last year I really tried and it never worked. I went shopping BY Myself at Target

and then went to Cody's class to be a mystery reader!

It's the little things.

Zoo and Safari Zoo

Our passes to Sea World and the Zoo also got us into Safari Zoo, but we didn't have time to do it with our whole family, so the kids and I swung over after school one day before they expired.

It was a quick visit and probably our favorite animals were the baby lions Ken and Dixie.

We saw all the animals on the tram ride.

I needed a zoom lens.

 We got back just in time to see the cheetah run.  

You can barely see him behind the fence - he's running 70 mph!

This is his best friend a dog named Yeti - they are together 24/7. He runs the course first to show the cheetah it's safe.

 Macey is imitating the hidden bird behind them. 

This is San Diego Zoo - we went there first with everyone, but the pictures loaded backwards and I'm feeling lazy.

 The koalas are so cute curled up in a tree sleeping 

 There are only four zoos in the US that have pandas. It is pretty cool to watch them eat as they peel the outer layer off the bamboo.

 The baby panda wasn't quite as good at it

 Ben made so much fun of me for wearing this everywhere. It's like a fanny pack for your wrist. But it is perfect for traveling at a park - it carried our tickets, my license and a credit card and some cash.

 I barely caught a picture of these two