Wipeout!
That's Haystack Rock in the distance. Think "Goonies"

The windows are Mo's Restaurant. Excellent clam chowder in breadbowls. That's where we had lunch.











Christian and Carrie playing on the beach. That's Eric's shadow, I think.

That's some driftwood!

Dada and Liam at Cannon Beach, OR
Yes, I know it's a dark picture, but the point came through. Look at those beautiful WAVES! That's what I was aiming at. =)

Gripe

I have a major gripe. The system or program or whatever I used to use for blogging "went away" at the end of last year. The new, promoted method was supposed to be even better and easier. It may very well be just me and I know I'm not very savvy technologically. But this, to quote a friend, "is less than desirable." (Hinrew, just read between the lines and think in capital letters.) I am steamed. This way is taking forever and has way more steps. MAS, I might very well need to call you and have you walk me through whatever I'm apparently doing wrong. I hate it! It'll take me until summer vacation to do it this way! >=/

Okay. I feel a little better now. I apologize that the captions don't match the photos. The cursor won't stay where I want it to write the captions. And the layout choice doesn't stay where it says it is supposed to either. Grrrrrrrrr. Going to go try some more. Please be patient with me!

Carrie found the Olson kids' tool belt. Just like her Pap, she loves tools!


Liam prefers kitchen utensils and balloons.

More balloon silliness
This is Vince. He and his lovely wife Sandy watched the 4 older kids while we took Asher and went out to dinner. God bless them! It was a great night out and the kids were supposedly quite angelic! Vince, Sandy, you're hired!

Liam at Mo's

Eric and Christian at Mo's. Love the hats! (These comments aren't going where I want them to go, so bear with me. They might not match up with the pictures... sorry!)
Dada and Eric and Jeff playing cards. Check out THOSE poker faces.

Are we there yet?

Carrie, being herself

On zee plane on zee way home from Oregon

Not the best shot, but she's got her flashlight and she's checking Liam's ears for bunny rabbits. She got the idea from Dr. Jon!

Coming soon...

Hello all =) We're back from vacation and I will do my very best to post tomorrow. I have tons of pictures and stories, but right now I'm buried under the laundry/ cleaning/ routine re-setting that follows 2 weeks away from our ordinary schedule. The house is in good shape- no frozen pipes or water breaks or anything. Lots of the snow is gone (we missed most of it- hooray!) and it was actually above 40 degrees today. Kids still have runny noses and yucky coughs, but other than that we're all doing well and mostly glad to be home. Does anyone ever really want to come home from vacation? ;) Have a great week and keep checking back! My plan is to do it tomorrow when the kids are down for naps. Keep your fingers crossed. And thanks for all the prayers for Manoj's mom who is recovering from heart surgery. Keep 'em coming!

The Good and the Bad

The good is that we are almost ready to go on vacation.

The bad is that 3 of the 4 of us are on various medications for being sick. Both kids have pinkeye and Liam has two ear infections (not bad ones, though, according to Dr. Jon). I'm on an antibiotic as well. Here's hoping all our drugs make it through airport security ;)

The good is that it's almost right at 30 degrees instead of in the single digits or below zero. Sad that that is GOOD news.

The bad is that we still have lots more winter to go!

The good is that Dada's been home all week. And Pap visited too!

The bad is that we miss Rita and Nina terribly.

That's life in a nutshell. It's too cold to type down here and I don't have anything interesting to say or pictures to post anyway. I'm sure we'll have LOTS more good after vacation ;) Take care, all. Signing off for awhile! xoox