Life's a Beach

It's a 3 day weekend, and we needed a vacation. Fortunately, the Oregon Coast is less than 2 hours away! We took off this morning for Cannon Beach Oregon, hit up the beach really fast, got our salt water taffy, ate lunch at Ecola Seafood Market and headed on over to Seaside for the rest of the day. With temps above 60 degrees (we reached a whopping 48 degrees at home today. We haven't seen 60 in months!) and no wind or clouds, it was an AWESOME day.

Jill, Drew and Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach.

Drew is as happy as a kid in a candy store. Actually, he IS a kid in a candy store!

Drew heads toward the ocean in Seaside.

Of course, the most fun game at the beach, running from waves! As you can see from our attire, it was plenty warm to play in the water. (though the Pacific water in January feels even colder than usual, if that's possible)

Another silhouette picture of Jill and Drew.

Run, Drew.. Run!!

I really like this reflection picture. I call it "Drew Fetching Shovel"

This is another cool reflection picture. I call it "Drew Picking Up The Shovel He Was Fetching"

Mom and Drew running from the waves.

Brrrrr... the waves won.... this time.

Drew "Surfing"

Drew "Surfing" again.

Warm and dry, with hot chocolate in hand, we all sat at the sea wall at Seaside to relax and watch the sun sink toward the horizon. Drew is wearing thermal pants and a coat. It's all we could find in the car that was dry. We had no change of clothes, who knew the weather would be this nice?!?

The View.

About 5 minutes outside of Seaside on the way home We knew he would sleep, but we had no idea it would happen so fast.

Roller Skating!

I am sorry in advance for the poor picture quality, but they were taken hastily with my cell phone. Mom, Dad and Drew all went to Oaks Park skating rink on Saturday morning for the learn to skate session. After we tightened Drew's skates down, he had a pretty good time. He gets easily frustrated with trying new things that are hard, but after a while he was warming up to it a bit.

Here is the roller rink. It is really old school, with an old Wurlitzer pipe organ suspended from the ceiling. There are pictures on the walls from as early as 1928. Mom and drew are just above the center of this picture, Jill is in white, Drew is in dark grey.

Go, Drew... Go!

Are you kidding me?

I took this picture before one of Drew's swimming lessons last week. I was very disappointed. I was thirsty. Damn you, reclaimed water!!!!

Cold January Day

Yesterday we just had to get out of the house. We decided to go to our favorite walk along the Columbia River. There has been some flooding on the smaller rivers and streams recently, so we thought the river could be an interesting choice. The river level ended up not being too high, but the weather sure was cold.

Mom and Drew and the Mighty Columbia

Drew takes a break.

Drew walks out toward the river, fishermen in the background.

Mom and Drew... piggyback!

Mommy and Drew

Meet Newbie Blaesing

Meet Newbie Blaesing. We had the nuchal trans ultra sound on 12/30/2008. All looks well. The Newbie is measuring almost a week ahead right now. Can you see the smile?!!

Christmas Day

Surprisingly, Bend had much less snow to offer than home, but there was still plenty of snow to be seen. The sun peeked up and left us awaking to a beautiful view from the safety and warmth of Grammy and Grandpa's living room!

North Sister, partially shrouded in clouds.

Black Butte, looking not so black.

Now to the good stuff. I was really bad about taking pictures of this, but hopefully Grammy will send me some I can post.

Here, Drew reaches deep in his stocking, looking for the good stuff.

Success! Grammy and Mom look on with approval.

Drew's favorite Christmas present BY FAR... his Batman and Joker Battle Stations Playset, or as he calls it, his "Batmobile"

Mount Bachelor, after we opened presents.

The day after Christmas we had another beautiful morning view. North and Middle Sister in a lovely shade of early morning orange. The mountains are beautiful this time of morning.

See? I told you the mountains were beautiful this time of morning!

Snow Storm! (Part 2)

Well, the freezing rain arrived, left 1/2 of ice on everything, and then the snow resumed. We received about 3-4 more inches on top of the snow and ice already on the ground for a nice total of about 11-12 inches by the time we left for X-mas. Here are some pics from the day before we left for Bend.

As the snow flies, Jill pulls "Adventure Drew" on the neighbor's sled.

Dad's turn.

We ended the day at the playground. It is ridiculous how fun the slides are in the snow and cold. Possible video to come soon.

Here is a short video of Drew and Mom going down the slide. It is dark, but still hilarious.