We continued our summer with a week-long trip up the Oregon Coast - nearly to Washington state. Mama and Dada's best college friends drove up from San Diego, and we rented a beach house together. It was such a wonderful trip - with amazing views the whole way. We spent one night half way up, but drove back the entire 11 hours in one day on the way home! Keevah Nyx and I really didn't mind the drive too much - we got to enjoy the views, and also watch a lot of movies! Chaos stayed with Gee & Grandpa, but Spirit got to come with us! He wasn't too excited about the driving, but that beast LOVES the beach!
We saw ELK - a lot of them! - on the way up. Then Mama and Dada surprised us with a stop to drive ATVs in the Oregon sand dunes. I, being a cautious gentleman, loved the flat bits, but wasn't too thrilled with the drop offs (especially when Mama got us stuck once!). Sister, on the other hand, absolutely LOVED the ride. She kept shouting, "I've always wanted to do this, AND NOW I'M DOING IT!". We also stopped at the sea lion caves - and all loved getting close up views of those huge animals!
ELK!!!
My biker chick sister!
the dunes are STEEP!
inside the caves - so many sea lions! (a bit stinky though!)
Once we got to Cannon Beach/Arch Cape - we just relaxed the whole week. We played on the beach daily, and Spirit loved digging, playing ball and splashing in the surf. We found tons of sand dollars, took long walks on the beach, and a longer hike along the cliffs one day. Keevah Nyx also loved flying kites, and digging huge holes to play in. We enjoyed watching movies at night with Keaton and Jonah too. Oh - and there were tons of mussels on the rocks by the house - so we harvested some, and had super fresh mussels one night with dinner!
Keevah enjoying the view from our house for the week
Keevah flying her shark kite - shortly before it got permanently stuck in a tree
A cool shipwreak! With Keaton & Jonah
being goofy...
Mama and spirit helping Keevah dig another big hole
Spirit and me running in the surf while Dada boogie boards
Check out all the mussels!
gathering dinner...
Mama figuring out how to clean mussels
They were yummy!
Dusk with Mama
Beach games!
Sister turned herself "into a tiger"
On a lovely long hike!
A Bald eagle on our hike!
Spirit enjoying sunset
Mama and her bff Analeah
Keaton, Jonah, me & Keevah
Arch Cape - with Spirit running through
family stacking
Sissy & Jonah enjoying the loft
Sunsets were amazing!
Smores on the beach
Exhaustion after too much fun!
We got home to scary fires. At the beginning, we could see flames from our home, and we packed up our treasures...thankfully we never had to evacuate, but we had such bad smoke for a whole month that we couldn't go outside. We had to get creative with indoor activities, and made race car tracks, balloon races, Halloween crafts, started working on Christmas gifts, family movie nights, baking, and had costume parties.
view from our front yard of the fires...
They did make for pretty and eerie sunsets
Mama made a cool wall with activities on each sticky note; wherever the ball landed, that is the activity we did next!
I made a "fire tornado" with dada - it involved learning to cut glass using a dremmel!
Sister's race car track with tape
balloon games
Here is a series of Keevah's outfits that she puts together!
This was the dress Mama wore to Auntie Kelly's wedding over 30 years ago!
Matching wonderwoman outfits with bunny rabbit
And matching unicorn jammies
Mermaid hair day
Another outfit that Mama wore when she was 5
We also celebrated Grandpa's 83rd birthday with homemade ice cream and sunshine cake!
Light saber battles!
And we turned Chaos into "dogasaurus"
And then it was time to start school - Virtual Style - in mid August! Keevah was supposed to start T-K, but the school district cancelled it for the year due to Covid. So, our nanny Miss Andrea is working with her on her letters and numbers at home. She is also starting to go to Connolly Ranch in the afternoons - an outdoor farm in Napa. She is with the same group of 6 kids every day - so she's staying safe! I'm in third grade now - and just switched schools to Vichy, since my old school was closed. I'm happy that some of my friends, including my bestie Haines, are also with me in my new school. To be honest, I'm not thrilled with 2.5 hours of Zoom every morning, and then more homework on Zoom. We are all trying to figure out how to make the learning better at home...but it's not super fun right now. Mama and Dada are keeping me learning though - with all sorts of extra Dada Math and reading. I'm reading over Facetime with Gran for 30 minutes every day, and I love it! I'm back to taking piano lessons, and I also am part of the Napa Fencing Academy!
Once the smoke cleared - we finally had dinner with friends outside! We also pressed grapes for our garage Pinot Noir...so look for your bottles in about a year!
Dinner with the Barber's and the O'Hollaran's
Another of Keevah's funky outfits; gold high tops, a Dr. Seuss dress, and a fur vest!
Pressing wine with the Hagerman's and Sciandris - after our Shasta houseboat trip was delayed due to the fires
The skies have cleared!
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