Redwood Magic

Life in an RV can be hard at times.  Add the stress of applying for jobs and trying to study with very crappy wi-fi into the mix and yeah it all gets even harder.  My dear husband has so much to deal with and he was closing up last week. I hadn't seen him smile or crack a joke in a few days and I was starting to worry majorly.  Well we started for the coast Friday morning and as soon as we finally got to the ocean I saw that stress start peeling away. Then we looked at this property we really want and I saw it peeling away even more.  By the time we got to the redwood forest in California I had my happy husband back again. There is something magical about the Oregon Coast for us. The redwoods are just our absolute favorite.  I wish we could build our house right there in the middle of Jedediah Smith State Park.  

My hubby knows the right time to get out there and he sure knows how to capture things beautifully.  It was a wonderful wonderful morning spent exploring.

Chico wanted to take pictures and videos with my phone.

The kids love the redwoods as much as we do.

The kids had a blast standing up in the car with their heads out of the sunroof. Made for an awesome view as we slowly drove through the forest.

We got out at Stout Grove and had a nice little walk.  The cool thing about this next picture is that the trail they are walking on is actually a fallen redwood tree.

It wasn't raining at all but some of the trees were dropping a bunch of water and it almost looked like rain. It was really neat.

Is it seriously February? We had the most amazing weather that weekend. Almost forgot it was still winter.
After we left the Jedediah Smith State Park we drove them down to see the giant Paul Bunion statue.  Chico saw some awesome waves from the highway and convinced us that they HAD to go swimming.  We had their suits in the car so we let them. Their version of swimming is more like jumping up and down in the water.  They didn't get past their knees I think, ha ha!  If it had been a good swimming beach though Brent would have joined them in there.

After we left the beach we took the kids back to the hotel to shower off. Then Sanna and I went to the store and got some food and pizza for dinner. Then we watched cable tv for the rest of the evening. So weird for us since we don't normally have tv.  But Brent had a bunch of work to do on his laptop so the kids and I first watched Property Brothers, then found the end of the Lego Movie, and then watched Chopped.  Kind of fun but also mind numbing with all the commercials. Bleh!
Then the next morning we hurried off to the Redwoods one more time before church. Just incredible again!

We rushed home from the redwoods so we could check out of the hotel and get to church by 11:00 (the website said it started at 11:00).  We got there by 11:05 and found out they had changed it to 11:30 recently but hadn't updated the internet. So we were actually early (shocking) which turned out to be great because we were able to talk to people AND we got to see our friend Tammy!  She was in the 9:00 am ward but when she found out we were there she said she'd catch us after sacrament.  She came and talked after the meeting and invited us over and invited us to even stay the night! She and her family were so hospitable. We needed a break from tiny spaces for sure (and it was nice to save some money since we needed to spend one more night)!  They fed us good food, had a movie with popcorn and one of my guilty pleasures graham crackers with frosting on it. They had good wi-fi for Brent to use. They showed us a few cool places in town (the Lookout and the pier by the lighthouse).  The next morning Tammy let the kids and I swim in their hot tub pool. It was so much fun!

That morning while the kids and I swam and packed, Brent was off dropping off resumes in town and then we headed back home dropping off resumes on the way.  We stopped at Five Guys for dinner that night which we haven't had in a few years. It was gooood. :)

All in all a great weekend and I am currently counting the minutes until we get to leave again tomorrow after work to go down to the Coos Bay area again this weekend!!!!

Halfway there

We have made it just about halfway through this 5 week rotation.  It has at times been quite stressful but exploring Oregon and the coast has made it all worth it. We love it here so much and hope so much that we can get a job out here when PA school is all done.
This has been what we've been up to for the last two weeks since I last posted:

Some journaling from Instagram:

Starting out our time in the trailer has been rough. With all the issues with leaking plumbing and the resulting dirty laundry piling up and laundry facilities closed today and trying to teach homeschool while stressed about those things, I was not a nice mom today. I don't know how the kids handle it. They're so forgiving. They believe tomorrow will be better. Somehow they still love me when I'm a jerk.

Today has been better. All the leaks are fixed, I got the bathroom smell out of the trailer, I got the laundry done, I got to work out, and I got the kids all showered. Then it was gorgeous outside so we went on a walk on the trail that goes around the perimeter of the rv park. Now we're doing some homeschool and there haven't been too many tantrums. Dinner is in the crockpot and smells really good. Brent will be home soon so yeah life is good. ☺️

• We made it out to the library in Salem on Wednesday. It's awesome! Chico was reading to his siblings but they looked away right when I took the picture. Ha ha. Anyway, it was really fun and had dress ups and all kinds of puppets and fun toys. The kids had a blast.

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• Staying sane. The kids are playing uno while I work out. The game room is combined with this tiny little closet they call their gym. It works though. It also has a bathroom with a shower so I can shower the boys without them having to come in the women's room or without me having to send them into the men's room and worry about them the whole time. Plus, they can sit out there and play chess while Sanna and I shower. Now if only one of them knew how to play ping pong with me we'd be set. (There is a ping pong, fuse ball, and pool table in the game room)
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• Remember these things!? Kids had a blast on it. They have their helmets on because we came upon it while they were riding bikes. I kind of like having wear helmets on this thing. Feels a bit safer ha ha! Wish I'd gotten Chico in the picture too, he had a blast on it.
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• It was a fun weekend. We saw Moana on Friday night (finally). It was really good! When we went on a walk at the ocean after church today all the sudden the music from Moana came pouring back in my memory and I couldn't get it out of my head. I was totally singing it at the top of my lungs (embarrassing my children because I couldn't remember all the words) "see the wind and the waves da da da da da da da AND IT CALLS ME!!!"  Our family is like Moana, the ocean calls to us!
• We could SO get used to Sunday walks along the beach.
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•  We went exploring out onto the rocks at this beach. There was a college group there too and they taught us a few things about the tidal zone. The kids taught Brent and I a few things they had learned from wild kratts too. ;)
  
  
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• Sanna was a  bit obsessed with this kelp. Such a determined girl pulling it along.
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• These next pictures don't really do this next place justice. It was just WOW, breathtaking. I mean the pictures are beautiful and all but BEING there is so different. Feeling the wind and having the view be from the edge of the cliff looking at the sheerness of all the cliffs. It's incredible.
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• We found this park at a campground that the kids just LOVED. They had such a blast on the teeter totters and the spinning thing.  Brent was a good dad and played out with them for part of the time too. He got them spinning super fast.
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• Sunday was really nice. We went out to Lincoln City for church again and were invited to dinner by a really nice family after church. They are a PA family too! They were really fun to talk to and it was great food! The kids had fun getting casted by the dads. Ha ha.
  
  Monday was fun. I only took this one pic during the day (it's of the kids having a tea party.) but we did a lot more than just that. Anyway, we visited our fellow PA student friends at their place which is only 45 minutes from us here in Oregon. So funny that we met in Tennessee when we moved out at there at the same time and now our paths continue to go on the same course out here. I had fun catching up more with Angela while the kids ran amok and she let me do a load of laundry. Then we drove up past Portland to my cousin Beverly's house. She's more my moms age and she took good care of us. She let me do 3 more loads of laundry, take a NICE warm bath while she and her teenage granddaughter played with the kids. Then she fed us some good food and sent home even more food for our fridge. Spoiled me for sure! It was wonderful!
  
  
  We finally had a break from the rain this afternoon. We went out for a walk in the sunshine and wowza! The river is flooding the trails we walked on that first week we were here. Craziness! Griz was mad about it. As if the river was personally attacking him.
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