Doing a 360 on the Rogue VIDEO!!
This was Ella's favorite part...well that is until she fell asleep on the way back up the river. We must have done 4 of these and she slept right through them!!
We head back home tomorrow. It's been an incredible amount of fun but I'll be happy to sleep in my own bed and take a nice long shower!
There was the coolest dune ready golf cart at our campground...wouldn't mind having one of those to cruise around in! Check this out....
Right now we're at a relaxing campground just north of Grants Pass...the Joe Creek Waterfalls RV Resort. We plan to stay here two nights. We're told there is a couple swimming holes and a waterfall within walking distance so I think we're going to head there after dinner. We're all in need of a major bath after all that sand at the dunes!
On our drive here from Gold Beach today we stopped at the Prehistoric Gardens in Port Orford, OR and the Game Park Safari in Bandon, OR. Both were really great for the kids. Prehistoric Gardens was a nice hike through the Oregon Rain Forests and had many dinosaur sculptures throughout. Very informative and we all know a little more about dinosaurs now. The Game Park Safari is America's largest wild animal petting adventure. We got to get up close and personal to many animals you wouldn't normally get to in a traditional zoo or petting farm. We got to play with a 35 day old lion cub too!
Now I'm off to do some laundry while the kids play at the park. I hope we get a decent sleep tonight, I'm told the Dunes don't "close" until midnight and our campground has direct access to them. Should be interesting!
The reason the trip started out rough initially was because Aaron was due to get off work at 8am but ended up getting a call for a fire about 7am and then got home late so that pushed our departure back a couple hours. Then when we got about 25 miles away, Aaron noticed smoke coming out the back of the truck. To make a long story short, we had to head back and find a mechanic to diaganose and repair our problem. Thankfully by some miracle we were able to accomplish those tasks with only a few hangups and we were back on the road by late afternoon. I have forgotten once again what it was that broke but it has to do with the oil pump and the turbo thing-a-ma-jig. A minute longer on the road and I think we would have killed the truck due to depleting all the oil in the truck (which the trailer is now coated with).
So anyhow we eventually made it and had an incredible time! We are now on part 2 of our vacation and headed North up the Oregon Coast. I am currently typing alongside the beach in an RV park in Gold Beach, OR. We are going to continue traveling for the rest of the week until Aaron has to be back at work. I think tomorrow we're going to head to Coos Bay and see what interests us. Unfortunately I can't share many pictures because my connection is quite slow and I'm on Aaron's laptop but I will try to update our happenings of this trip when I can. I'm noticing that most RV parks have Wi-Fi service now...now that's my kind of camping!
It's a tradition for us to get one of these done. It's just about impossible to fit 5 people into those dinky photo booths! Not sure what Jacob's problem was in those middle photos, he was fine when we went in and
came out.
Tomorrow we leave for our Annual Coast Camping Trip with our friends. We have all been so excited and completely consumed with getting ready. For the past month, Jacob has been asking daily if we're going camping today...finally tomorrow I can say YES!!! I think we have about 16 or so families going so it's going to be quite a group, but so fun!
After spending 3 nights on the coast we're going to head North and see where our trailer takes us. I hope to find some Wi-Fi spots so I can update this page and share some of our adventures. Until then....
What to do, what to do? I am in the process of figuring out the best way to to deal with my photographs. I just figured out that on average I take 1500 pictures a month! Really hard to put that many in a photo album, you know? Not to mention the expense of printing them. Any suggestions? Taking less pictures is not an option!
Last night was Jacob's last game of baseball. He really seemed to like it and Aaron is really looking forward to when he can join a Little League team.
Ella just likes going to roll around in the grass!
Jacob's first session of swim lessons is over. He really enjoys it and has really progressed well. This is actually his fourth year of swimming but the first year we feel he's really learning the proper techniques of swimming. We will start with another session in a couple of weeks.
When the kids move to the next level they get to ring the cowbell and everyone claps and cheers. Jacob gets really excited when he gets to ring the bell.
So I had seen this idea for a family photo from another photographer I really love, Tara Whitney. I thought it would be really fun to try for ourselves to get a nice but different family portrait we could frame. Yeah. Not so easy when you're using a tripod and a remote control shutter release. I could totally see in my mind how I wanted it to look. It just was impossible to achieve with me sitting on the couch! I can't focus. I can't adjust settings. I can't recompose the shot on the spot. The sun directly overhead didn't help either. Here's the only one I feel is OK...you just need to ignore Aaron's hand holding the remote!
Loved Ella's look in this one...
We had a really fun and eventful weekend! Jacob had swim lessons, baseball, and we joined some friends for some boating on the lake. I thought to be a little different I'd put together a video of some of the photos and video clips we took over the weekend. I didn't put a lot of time into it, just tried to get it done quick. Because of the above mentioned weekend, I am beyond tired and feel like I've been beat up! I hope you enjoy....Video of our weekend
***EDITED TO ADD****
I just looked at the video and it's not the best quality so I thought I'd upload the pictures separately too...Pictures from our weekend
I feel it is my duty to not only keep you up to date with happenings of me and my family but also on Rob Thomas current events. With that said, here is another Rob update! He performed live this morning with Jewel as part of the Good Morning America Summer Concert series. He will be performing with Jewel throughout this summer which will be a great show, without a doubt.
Here is a link to him performing Streetcorner Symphony...Rob--Streetcorner video
Those of you who were part of our annual camping trip last year will recognize this song from the soundtrack! Perfect timing for this gearing up and getting in the mood for this year's coast trip.
Here is a link to him and Jewel performing Stop Dragging my Heart Around...Rob and Jewel video
Heard about this really fun, funny website... Improv Everywhere So far I've checked out a few, but how fun! That's what life is about, the silly moments. The videos they have accompanying the story are great...check out the Suicide Jumper one, it's a classic!
And speaking of silly moments. For Jacob's birthday, he got a really cool bubble kit from Grandpa Ron. The kids have been having fun with it, but I think Aaron's having even more!
Stay tuned for future photo shoots featuring the bubbles!
Check out pictures here...1st day of baseball pics
By the end of the night, we really were starting to think that Ella's future plans would include running away with the circus. At intermission they offered pony rides and elephant rides. She of course wanted to ride the pony's, which we did. We then walked over to check out riding an elephant and it would have cost us $24 for the 3 of us to ride (a parent had to go with). After the tickets in, cotton candy, popcorn, soda, pony rides--that wasn't in the budget! Well, you don't tell Ella no when she wants to ride an animal. We heard about it the whole second half of the show and up until she went to bed this evening. So I won't be surprised if one day she up and joins the circus!
Check out some more of our photos from the circus here...Circus Photos
Last night we hosted our monthly Dinner Club and boy was it ever fun. We had a tropical theme and played Texas Hold 'em Poker. We ended the night with some hot-tubing and hanging around the fire pit. Nothing better than a beautiful summer night with beautiful friends.
Since today seems to be a rambling kind of day, I thought I'd ramble a little about another favorite of mine....Mac computers. I have had my iMac since December and do not miss having a regular PC at all. In fact, I've even recently converted my Mom to Mac and I believe she is happy with her decision too. Recently Apple has been running what I find to be cute and clever commercials...the 2 actors in them are perfect. You can check all the ads out here... Mac TV Spots
The funny thing is, even though I totally love my Mac, I don't really want them to become much popular then they are right now. With popularity comes problems and viruses. I have read that only about 5% of the computer owning population owns a Mac. That is incredible. I'm proud to say I'm in that very small minority. That would be great if my family and friends join me, but shhhhh....don't tell the masses! :-)
OK, first of all this may not interest many people (yes it's more ramblings on Rob Thomas) but I find it hilarious. I belong to a message board that Rob Thomas also occasionally visits. Well to make a long story short...recently his management has changed fanclub companies and it's causing some people to be upset by the way ticket sales are being handled for his summer tour. I have been avoiding the board because of all the bickering between each other lately but this morning I thought I'd just visit real quick. Rob had just left this message to one of the negative comments, "nick, let it go. i have already apologized and this is what it will have to be for this tour. by the way, the first few rows are NOT for people who really want to SEE and HEAR the show. ask any musician and they will tell you that the first 10 or so rows are the worst sound in the venue and you can't really see the light show. (don't you remember a while back when people complained that you couldn't hear me in the front row? and we added little speakers to the front of the stage, but it still hardly sounds the way it's supposed to) those are for people who want to see my nosehairs, and i get it, i have cool nosehairs, but if you just go, you'll see that there isn't a bad seat on the floor. the seats that you guys are bitching about are the seats our families sit in. sometimes they get worse. this is just how it is for this tour. sorry, but let it go.
Rt"
and my personal favorite when someone said his show better be worth a $130 ticket... "you know, you don't HAVE to go. Rt"
Love it!
My other thought for the day....what is up with American Idol? Last night ticked me off...no more Chris D. :-( I have no interest in the show now...don't care who wins. However, I know Chris will do bigger and better things. And just to relate this thought back to Rob....he's publicly said how much he likes Chris D as well!! Who knows...maybe he'll open for him one day.
Whew, what a day! Jacob had an incredible fun filled birthday and we're all so honored to get to share it with him. He started out with chocolate chip pancakes and ended it with chocolate-chocolate star cupcakes. It was all Jacob's choice today and lots o' fun all day! Check out the pictures here... Jacob's 4th
On Saturday we had Jacob and his good friend, Wyatt's 4th birthday party. Their birthdays are within 5 days of each other so we decided to have a joint party. Fish was the name of the game at this year's party! Originally we had planned to have the party down at the river and have all the boys fish, however a schedule change with a local event forced us to look for alternate locations. Wyatt happened to live within walking distance of a fish pond so they offered to host the party. We had fish games, a fish pinata, TWO fish cakes, fish snacks, a fish fruit bowl, fishing, and everyone got to go home with a fish....could it get any fishier?
Here's a portion of the almost 300 photo's taken! Party Pics
The kids got a little lesson in life and death today. Today my beloved goldfish, Phil, past on. Last night I sensed something was wrong with him and tried to convince Aaron to take him to the vet...yeah, he wasn't going for that. We have had him for 4 and a half years and I seriously thought he'd outlive all of us...he was a Christmas gift from my brother our first Christmas in our house. Jacob had a few seconds of sadness and then said, "OK, can we get a new pet now?" We had a little ceremony for him and Jacob did the honors of the flush. Goodbye Phil, we will miss you!
A couple of hours after the Phil incident, Jacob and Ella came running in from the backyard to say there were "baby cats" in the back. We went to see what they were talking about and saw this...
Not sure who this mama cat belongs to but she has 4 kittens with her and has apparently made a comfy spot between our garden shed and fence! As cute as that white one is, Aaron says they are not staying for the long term!
We had a really fun family day today. We started it off with a 2 mile jog on the trail near our house, then came home to load up the bikes and headed to the River Trail. Jacob rode his bike and Ella rode on the back of Aaron's. We rode all the way to the Aboretum and walked amongst the trails and plants. We then headed to a pizza place for lunch. Really fun day...we recommend getting out and enjoying all there is to offer here...before it gets too hot! Here's some pictures we took (all of us acted as photographer today!)... Bike ride pictures
