PILA Month day 11

Day 11 - a photo of you recently and how it makes you feel seeing it now.
I remember thinking when I was a kid that I was never going to get to be a grown up. 16 seemed sooo far off, driving a car?! oh my gosh! Being a mom?! FOR-E-VER away!

And now 16 has come and gone a HALF a lifetime ago. Literally. I could cry I feel so old! Life feels like it is in warp speed, racing past me. How do I slow this ride down?! I don't want off I just want to slow it enough to watch and enjoy a little. I feel like by the time I realize it something is over. :( My dad says it only gets faster! Whose idea was that? I think we should boycott.

LakeView Farms

It's Lake View farms season! I can't believe it is already October!
We decided to attempt to go to the pumpkin patch with some friends today.
It was spitting raining fairly steadily most of the night and morning. It held back most of the time we were there, content just to keep up damp. Or in my case, make my glasses foggy. Joy.

We braved it anyway.

The boys in the "centipede"

A and Grayson as like two pigs in a sty?

The Buquet family strikes a dorky pose. :)

This is Jaxon's new "shy" look. He often does it when people he doesn't know talk to him. Many times he will duck his head totally down and hide his head under an arm.

That one is a little better.

Riding the train to get to the punkies. We rode the boat back.

Apparently Jax was hungry!

photos by Shelly B., Zack or I.

Oregon Coast- pic heavy

We were supposed to leave for San Diego on the 27th. We were supposed to be there for over a week and then while Zack flew back the boys and I were supposed to drive back, visiting my friends along California on the way. That didn't happen. We had quite a few large expenses come up last month and had to postpone that plan.

I had mentioned that a day at the coast might be fun so Zack started looking around, actually finding a nice hotel in Seaside with a room available on Friday night. We headed over in the morning. It was a bit overcast and breezy so instead of playing on the beach we went to the carousel for a ride,and play in the toy store.

and have some coffee and lunch of delicious clam chowder. That is where I found this flier- for you Dad... I love that you can rent HarDleys. LOL

After that rented a peddle car. The boys got a kick out of that, that is until we hit the first bump and Jax realized he was not in his comfy car seat. We went back to the hotel to get the Ergo. We drove around the side streets getting upclose views of the cute beach bungalows and little downtown of Seaside. It's a very sweet town.

Saturday we woke up to some blue skies peeking through the previous days clouds and knew that the weather man had lied, again. Happy for us! We headed to the beach.

Grayson got to fly his first kite with Daddy. He loved that, since he had been begging since his 1/2 birthday party to fly any of the 3 he got!

That is until the wind calmed down or they stopped running and the kite would attempt suicide by nose diving into the sand. Then we had a sad boy on our hands. Turns out he doesn't care how it stayed up, just that it did and wind be damned it better not fall from the sky dammit. It was a short lived kite flying time, put away in favor of the less tears inducing buckets and shovels. :)

Meanwhile, Jax was attempting to nap since he had refused in the hotel room.

We had to head back to the room to pack up and check out so we left the beach a bit later.

After we checked out and left Seaside we decided to go to Canon Beach and hang out bit at the tide pools and Haystack rock. It is such a gorgeous beach and amazing day, a rarity at the Oregon Coast. G had a great time splashing in the water and digging in the sand. He loves the beach almost as much as his mom does. It's not San Diego but today, it will do.

Zack, Jaimey, Grayson, Jonathan and Jaxon. Happy Labor Day!


(that sand writing thing is WAY harder than it looks! I am very thankful that To Write Their Names in the Sand is so talented in that aspect! Mine looked nothing like theirs when I tried to be all creative.)

My dirty little secret...

well, I guess it's my 'clean' little secret.

Meet Laundry Mountain. Who is usually accompanied by Sock Hill. But that would require sorting, which has not been done in 2 weeks. This photo does not do it justice. It is close to 4' tall and about 6' long.

maybe this one.
nope not really doing it either... just know I am afraid.
Very afraid!

A wonderful day for friends.

Last weekend we went to Columbia Park with our friends Nick and Renee and Ada. We had such as great time, I wish we lived closer to us, especially now that we have tiny babes about the same age.
We had decided to do a picnic lunch so I took one of my favorite recipes that I have found lately.

Cowboy Caviar
1- 15 oz cans black beans, rinsed
1- 15 oz cans black eyed peas, rinsed
1- 17 oz can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (or more) quinoa
1 large tomatoes, chopped
2 large avocado, diced
2/3 C green onions, chopped
2/3 C fresh cilantro, chopped

• Dressing
• 1/4 C red wine vinegar
• 1/4 C olive oil
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 t cumin
• 3/4t salt
• squirt of lime juice
  

Mix all ingredients together except avocado and lime juice which is to be added just before serving. Keep refrigerated.

We also had fruit salad and pasta. Delish. There is almost nothing I like more than good friends and good food! We met Nick when he first moved into his previous house next door to our previous house. We were neighbors for about 3 years before we moved. And then he (rudely) upped and moved to the EAST SIDE!

H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E!

Just kidding but we do miss them!

It is amazing to me just how alike my hubby and son's mannerisms are in this photo, right down to their crooked hats and stance.

I heart Hydrangeas!

Camping- Buquet Style!

A few weeks ago we went camping at Silver Falls. It is by far our favorite camping spot. It's also in high demand and in Oregon people make reservations 9 months out, so needless to say since we were unemployed 9 months ago we had no reservations. I had been hounding Zack to stalk the website and keep calling to see about cancellations... and we finally got lucky! We got a great cabin for 2 nights. Our friends David, Shelly, Asher and Amelia came with us with their pop-up tent. (I gotta get me one of those!)

The best thing about camping is just hanging out at camp and having NOTHING to be doing. I love that there is no computer and no phone. It was nice to just be away from everything. The driveway was really long and the boys had a great time riding their bikes up and down between our van and the trailer. It was nice that they could have a bit of freedom and yet we all felt safe letting them.


Asher and G had a great time roasting marshmallows, and by roasting I basically mean setting on fire and burning into oblivion. Now me personally, I like mine to be barely kissed with flame until they are golden brown. Then I like to pull the outside layers off one at a time after each toasting. Mmmm. The boys, not so much. Zack made them their smores with a marshmallow he toasted, so they could carry on their charred fireball making. (Gotta love the helmets...)

I tried to have some citronella candles burning in hopes of protecting us from the 6 legged critters. Unfortunately, they burned VERY quickly.

Luckily, though I did catch one of them!
Sadly, not long after this pic was shot Asher got pretty sick. :( They ended up dealing with vomit all night and packing up early the next morning.
On a lighter note, I love this walk to the restrooms. (The cabin's don't have any, it's one room with bunk beds and a futon) It's just gorgeous. The trees overhang the path and it's almost like walking into another world. When I was a kid I probably would have been a little scared to walk it alone. But alone is what I did when Shelly declined to go with me, instead staying with a vomiting child... the nerve. :)
And I may never walk through the tunnel after dark again. I had brought my flashlight and to be honest it wasn't quite pitch black yet but it gets much darker in the tunnel. So I was walking along with the flashlight in front of my face because it's one of those LED windup ones that isn't very bright, and out of NOWHERE comes this HUGE bat! It was kinda of flying in circles towards my head. I SCREAMED a profanity! (insert chuckling from the neighboring camp here) I start walking a little bit faster. As I am walking ANOTHER HUGE bat comes out of nowhere straight for my face! I screamed again. TWICE. Again eliciting much laughter from the neighbors. By now I am freaking out a little, and power walking when once again another
HUGE bat comes straight for me. Well not me, by now I have figured out that they like my light so it's no longer by my head! By now I was RUNNING! I finally got to the bathroom though by then I am not sure I needed it anymore!

I went the long way around on the way back.

We usually take our bikes and take full advantage of the trails and roads but since Jax is too young... something about shaking their little brains LOL... we decided to mostly walk. We drove over to the falls one day and hiked just enough to get the picture. I will admit I had no interest in doing the full hike down the hill and back up with Jax on me!

(yes, I know Jax is in his carrier wrong. Sometimes he just likes to look around and he still kinda fits cross legged)

We had a nice visit, though what you don't see is HOW CROWDED it was. 50 people walked by before the lady I asked to take these was able.

After one of the neighboring cabin's was vacated I showed G how they had a ramp for wheel chair access and how great it would be for his scooter. It's here that Zack interjected that this was a bad idea. LOL Usually it's completely the other way around! So G, the trooper that he is, drags his scooter up there and starts down the ramp.
And promptly lands flat on his @$$. He was fine, but he didn't want to do it again. So I did it myself. ahhh camping, it brings out the crazy in us all.


Speaking of crazy. On Sun the directly neighboring cabin got some new campers. We were sitting around our camp generally being nosy watching them set up and attempt to not lose one of their kids when I hear out of the "corner of my ear" some say "Just tie Tiny to the table"...um what?! No really WTF?! So I turn and look and the lady has tied the toddler with a rope around her waist to the picnic table. Okay cool, we are next to the most WT... turns out they are a nice lesbian couple and their 6 kiddos: 2 birthed, 2 foster/adopted, 2 foster and possible adoption. The one they tied to the table is a runner, not that I condone it but I get it. I tried to get a picture but they didn't do it again while we were there and asking "Hey can you do that again so I can post it on my blog" somehow seemed rude. :)

Here is G helping Tiny (named Destiny but since her bio-mom was/is a druggy they decided if they get to keep her that her Destiny is better than that so she will be Elizabeth or Tiny for now.)
We also took full advantage of the hammock we bought specifically for camping. Here is Jax napping in it. It didn't last long but it was cute either way.


Thanks for reading what may be the longest most photo loaded post I have ever written... does this make up for that last few months of slacking?