First Day of School

Okay the first day of school was over a month ago. But, I'm finally done posting about vacation and now on to school!

Mr. P is in 5th grade, Moses in 3rd, Sis in 1st and George in K!! It's going to be a very fun year with all four kids at THE SAME SCHOOL!!

Tuba is back at the high school and has transitioned into job skill training. He is loving his first job. He delivers inter office mail at the school district headquarters. 

George is off to a wonderful start. He is loving K. He goes half day so then spends his afternoons with me. It's nice to have some one-on-one time together. It's also a little boring for him some days. He should probably be doing the all day class but it is expensive ($3,000) so we opted for half day for free. Free school Becky...that's the mantra Cam kept repeating. After seven years of paying for preschool it is exciting.

Sis is having a fantastic year!! She has an amazing teacher that is a perfect fit for her. Last year was a hard year for Sis. The K teacher last year was not a good fit and Sis struggled all year. This year is like a complete turn around. She is loving school and is blossoming. She won an academic achievement award last week!!

Moses is enjoying school too. It's hard to get details out of him. So far I know that he goes to lunch and recess. Seriously! So glad conferences are right around the corner.

Mr. P is thrilled to be in 5th grade....the big kids. He loves his teacher. He has signed up to be a mediator....helping younger kids solve disagreements on the playground. 

I'm excited for my time volunteering in the kids' classrooms. I truly love my time at the school.

Now that I'm practically caught up with blogging I'm at a loss for what to post next. I do want to share my new deck, my new art station, and fall inspiration. What do you want to read about. I do miss my lists of favorite things and Kairos moments. Is there an old post that you enjoyed? You pick it....I'll blog it. Leave it in the comments. 

Excursions

I'm almost done blogging our vacation. Are you sick of it yet? I'm not sick of it....I want to go back to it.

There are yearly outings we always do while at the coast. Cam takes the kids to the Air Museum in Tillamook. I browse the local antique/junk stores.

Our favorite is when we go to Pacific City for dinner at the Pelican Brewery. We have rituals that are important to us. Things like where we sit. There is a huge round corner table that we love. We will wait long amounts of time for it. This year we got smart and went for a late lunch early dinner. The wait was much better!!

Don't ya love Sis's expression in this photo? Ha! She was having a "moment". It's what I call the One Rule. There's always one person not happy, not going along with the plan. Oh well, at least there's not more than one at a time....usually.

We all have fish and chips and beers and root beers. Delicious!!

After dinner Cam and the kids love to go climb a huge sand dune. Last year it was wicked windy so Tuba and I sat in the van. This year we all ventured over.

The view was amazing!

The dune is SUPER steep!! I don't know if you can tell from the photos.....steep! Tuba tried to climb but it was just too tough. Finally he and I sat down about half way up. Fine with me....my belly was full.

Then one by one the kids and Cam come running down. 

Get out of this one's way!

Ta-da! And then....they do it again!!

The Sand

Like I said...there is 7 miles of sandy beach. I love to sit with my feet in the sun warmed sand....drinking tea and watching the kids play.

The kids love to find sticks and play war. 

And dig....

And dig....

And dance...

I love to go for long walks on the sandy beach.

Some of us like to nap after a long walk.

The Jetty

One of the reasons we love Rockaway Beach so much is that it's 7 miles of unobstructed beach. At the end is a jetty. Every year we go to see all the driftwood that piles up on the beach. It's amazing to see how drastically the landscape changes from year to year. 

The kids love to explore all the big logs. Someone had used charred wood to write on the log....a perfect photo op!

There are lots of neat structures built on the beach out of driftwood. No, I don't let the kids go inside most of them. 

It's a fun time to make the kids sit for a photo. 

They always sit nicely and smile politely. Ha!

The Ocean

The ocean is beautiful to look at and listen to. The color as it changes throughout the day is stunning. The motion of the water is mesmerizing. The sound of the waves is so relaxing....except at night when I fret a bit about a tsunami. Otherwise, so soothing.

The water temp is WAY too cold for me to even put my toes in. However the kids run and splash and play. The big boys (Cam and Mr. P) love to boogie board. We bought Mr. P a wetsuit this year and it made a big difference....he didn't get hypothermia again.

As the tide goes out it leaves the beach a little different each day. One day there were these huge tide pools left on the beach. We went on a long family walk and came across the pools. Sis thought they were great! She ran and ran and ran through them. She was soaked! 

And so happy.

Deck Time

The house we rented is the same house we stayed in two years ago. It has the BEST deck. There is plenty of room for all of us. There are amazing Adirondack chairs which I love to sit in. I spend a lot of time on the deck reading and enjoying the view.

If it's windy I just bundle up and wrap up in blankets. I love it! Hot tea, a magazine, my favorite people (and dog) and the view! Pure relaxation.

I did something new this year on vacation!! I worked out EVERY SINGLE DAY!! It was great. I walked on the beach for 45 minutes and then did my weights, lunges, squats and abs on the deck. It was so refreshing to be out in the sun and wind. Cam worked out too....but that's nothing new.

Just off of the deck there is a fire pit. So fun! Tuba of course loved the fire!

Vacation Highlights

I never know quite how to post about our vacation. We wait all year long for this special week at the coast. We all LOVE the OR coast...the ocean...the beach house....the time together.

I take a lot of photos and of course I don't know where to start or what to share or how much to post. This year I'll group them into categories of things we love about the beach.

Those things we love are....

The View
Deck Time
The Jetty
The Ocean
The Sand
Excursions
Time

....and I'm sure I'll think of some more.

Today I'll share The View. Enjoy. It brings my pulse down and makes me calm just to look at these photos. Ahhhhh.

Sunset is our favorite time to sit and look at the view and watch the sun sink into the sea.

Miles of sand and sea are my favorite place to walk and take in the view. 

Each day watching the tide come in and out is so soothing. 

Tuba loves sunset. He will sit and watch the whole time. He likes to call everyone to come and see it with him.

This one is just after sunset. The stars come out and they are amazing. Cam always has us come stand on the deck to see the stars. 

It's a magical place and we love it!