Seaside Oregon Weekend getaway!

Last Friday we were able to sneak away for the weekend to Seaside Oregon. What a wonderful time! I wish we could have more weekends like this! *Ü*

We left early on Friday and took our time traveling down ( South on ) hwy 101. I love 101! It is such a beautiful drive!

On our way down,we stopped at antique shops and had a nice lunch. We took our time.... I wanted to stop at Ft. Stevens State park while we were traveling South.... across the road from the park they have a wonderful KOA camp site with cabins you can rent.

My reason for stopping is because we are coming up to Lewis and Clark in history.... Fort Clatsop is very close to Seaside and Fort Stevens. I want to take the kids back to the fort and some of the Oregon trail then.












Now Seaside is only about 8 miles from Ft. Stevens.... so we were their in minutes..... Its a small little town.... if you drive straight through and blink.... you might just miss it! lol


Our hotel was right on the beach.... 3rd floor ocean side!

This is to the left....








While we were their, Seaside hosts an annual classic car show! So my husband was in heaven! We have an old... rusty, beat up... 54 Mercury woody wagon. It is my husbands hope to restore it some day. Me too. Its a fun looking old car, and even though it looks scary.... our family loves to drive around in it!

In fact.. here is picture of my girls hanging out with mom and dad about a month ago.

ok.. whats up with the lips?? I noticed since we had the basque student and over that month... not one girl took a normal picture.... you know... smile for the camera. Now its poochy lips and peace signs..... sigh... goofy kids...

ok.. back to the weekend....

One of my all time favorite cars is a 55 Chevy nomad wagon. I prefer the 4 door, but hard to find. If I could have a dream car.... this would be it! I love it.... The show did have a few. My favorite one was yellow.









*Ü* I think we only saw 3.... but the one I really enjoyed seeing was the actual nomad that was used in the sitcom Home improvement with Tim Allen. I love that show!

In earlier seasons, Jill his wife had a 55 nomad, red and pretty... until that is Tim got a hold of it, took it to the job site and a huge beam fell on it crushing it. Well come to find out this weekend, it wasn't a real nomad at all. In fact, it was just a plain car that they spent a ton of $$ on making it look like a nomad!

Here is the actual car used for many seasons in the show.... and come to find out... these folks are from Eastern Washington... who knew?






Seaside also had a kite contest. I have never in my life seen such large kites up close! My favorite was Nemo.





This is not trick photography! It was really that big! I instantly thought of my kids the first time all weekend when I saw the kites. They would have enjoyed it.

We had a wonderful time and we decided to make this a new annual event. The only difference for next year.... we bring the kids. *Ü*

My new look.... its an extreme blog makeover!

I just have to say thank you real fast like to Darcy....

She was a doll and helped me with my new look! It has 3 columns! Yeah! I will be adding in all my links soon... and I have other posts waiting to be posted.....

But I could not move on till I said thank you to My friend Darcy..... and my friend Jessica... who made my other header that is now gone. :( I loved it too... and what a gem to surprise me like she did!

Much love to my kindred Spirits friends....

My new header!!!!

I love my new header!! My friend Jessica Trivium Academy created it for me.

I have no knowledge of this type of stuff.... I am a wanna be techno person.... Poser if you will! lol I'm so impressed.... Just wanted to send a BIG thank you to Jessica.... this was a wonderful surprise this morning.....

You made my day!

Homeschool in the woods Amy Pak

I have to say.... I am impressed and Blessed with Amy Pak from Homeschool in the Woods. Not only has she created useful, purposeful products... she has the integrity to back it up.

I emailed her this morning asking about the difference in the timeline figure cds she has... I have the 04 version and was sharing with a friend about the cd I have. I realized that a newer version was out and I thought I would ask the difference...so I emailed Amy and asked.

Her reply was fast and above what I expected! Truly a generous woman! Now, this is not the only reason I am so impressed.... this is just a little....Let me tell you one of the biggest reasons she blows me away.

I was blessed to participate in a wonderful event to help support Kate and her family from Hands and Hearts. You donated XYZ and then were blessed with products from ABand C. *Ü* One of the products that were part of the deal was Amys art pack When I printed it out and began reading it, I noticed through out the entire pack, she gave credit to the term Lap Book to Tobin's lab. She honored and respected the hard work and time vested in "lap books" that Tobin's lab began. It was her respect and honoring of Tobin's lab that blew me away. This meant a lot to me, as another company recently was trying to trademark the term Lap book for themselves. That was disheartening to say the least. Amy and her family however blessed me by honoring Tobin's labs work and showing respect to their fellow businessman.

Amy's products and her integrity has been a breath of fresh air in a market where greed could easily take over.... the home school market is a "hot" market and she and her family have shown me they are a family and a company with integrity. I value that.

I recently purchased her American Revolution cd and love it. I was hoping to get it in time to add a little more to our TOG study, but it did not arive in time. :( So on the shelf it sits...

However, I'm sure I will buy the other she has to date, Explorers and Colonial America. I can see from the Revolution cd we will be able to add these to our TOG study. Well, once we get back around in history!


I don't use her products exclusively. I use Tapestry of grace dominantly for our home school, but we do use her timeline figures and we will use her art pack this year at some point. My point in the post was not so much an advertisement, as it was to honor a reputable company, who just so happens to have excellent products! *Ü*

Week 2 summary... sort a *Ü*

Well we ended week 2 yesterday, Friday the 31st. *Ü* It was a good week overall.... We did not complete what I wanted or originally intended... but RyLee happened on Sunday, and it changed the first few days of our week... poor kid..

Because of Miss RyLees finger nail extraction incident.... I allowed her to take it easy this week... Monday and Tuesday especially...

Monday was her 11th birthday! I planned on a half day for her... but in light of you know what...she had the entire day off.... Tuesday too....

Monday evening we had some family over for dinner and cake..... I made Paula Deens fried chicken... RyLees request with mash taders and peas. *Ü* although its Paula Deens recipe. RyLee calls it grampas recipe because he makes it so good..... I don't do to bad myself.... but, grampa always gets the credit....

Tuesday and the rest of the week was still pretty easy... I decided we would just cover History, Literature, bible and math this week.... No science, no projects, crafts or timelines either...

What we did cover was Robert Fulton the inventor, President Adams and his presidency, Baroque Music, and the French Revolution...... along with a compare and contrast to the American/French Revolution ( I learned this week that the American Revolution was really more a Reformation... as it truly was not a revolution like the French's bloody violent uproar. It was a good week over all... I lead history again this week in co-op and I learned a ton.... Chris too. *Ü*

Christian and I both really enjoyed watching a series on American history from The teaching company.... It was High School Level—Early American History: Native Americans through the Forty-Niners. I bought them at a used curriculum sale this year for $40.00 it was a great deal! The teacher was engaging and it kept Christians attention too. It was a wise investment.I also printed her out a great ven diagram from my writing aids cd that came last week... Christan used it for her compare and contrast of the wars.... it worked wonderful for her.... ( an example of what it looked like will be in the pictures below).


Rylee and I cuddled a lot and read... she read on her own... but she pretty much flopped like a fish all week... well a dead fish, because she wasn't moving much....

The girls may have taken a break from science but I did not.... I found 3 sets of dvds from The teaching company at Goodwill a few weeks ago. The one I have been watching is called Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition part 1. Each part has 2 dvds and it is a 5 part series. I have been thrilled with it so far. They were to good a deal to pass up.... under $40.00 for all 5 parts. Did I mention I LOVE Goodwill shopping!

Next week is a new week... if we can all stay healthy... keep our fingers out of heavy doors....I think we will have a great 3rd week! I want to add more LA... and..... I am contemplating Spanish... its a week sooner than I intended to begin... we shall see what Monday brings!

I threw in a couple pictures of my stick bugs... cause I could! *Ü*