Fun at the Beach!

The weekend forcast for Corvallis predicted sunshine but cold weather (well cold relatively speaking) so we decided to try our luck at the coast. It was sunny, with little wind and in the 50's. Yeah, it was nice. It was nicer there than it often times is in the summer.

Ocean's sand castle construction site

It was fun to watch what Raine and Layke were up to. This was a very serious projct. I offered to help and got told they were too busy to play and I was being a distraction. :)

The completed project, their boat. Complete with a mast, a sail, oars, and even a treasure box loaded with treasure

Joey constructed us a bench, table and fire pit. There is nothing like a bonfire at the beach.

I just soaked up the sun. It was a wonderful weekend! Yes this is the best picture of me...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We had lots of fun here. Christmas was very relaxed, and New Years was a blast. Having children around at Christmas time makes it so much more fun (actually they make life more fun and interesting all the time, but especially so at Christmas time). It was so much fun shopping for gifts, and watching them be opened.

This year I was excited to have stockings for everyone, a tradition my family always had.

All of us together - (I love my camera delay timer!)

Another tradition my family always had was Christmas Pajamas. Since my mom gave me her old sewing machine for my birthday I decided to make pajama pants for everyone as my first project. I was very proud of myself. They turned out very well, and even looked like they were supposed to. This is a picture of the kids with theirs. (and don't forget Ocean's cool monkey toe socks). Hey mom, Thanks for for the great present!

Here are a few more pictures:

As part of our 4 day New Years holiday with the kids we went sledding at Mary's Peak. (the strange phenomena here is that you have to drive to find any snow...) It was so much fun. I haven't been sledding in years. We also made a fire and had lil smokies and veggie sausage.

Raine and Ocean tried out "sled snow surfing" down the hill, they got pretty good by the time we left.

I think we went down at least 100 times...

Enjoying the fire and watching the kids play.