Not Thrilled by the Beach

Even though we got to the coast on Wednesday, we didn't make it down to the beach until Friday evening just before dinner and after a long day of shopping at the outlet stores. Well, Grant had been down to the beach while Eleanor napped, but Eleanor and I hadn't had a chance to get our feet in the sand. This was the first time Eleanor had been on the beach in a little over a year, so it was kind of like her first real experience with the beach. (Before, she had just bobbed along in the Baby Bjorn strapped to either Grant or me while choking on the wind in her face.)

As soon as we got to the sand, Grant rolled up her pants and set her down to check it out, and we soon realized what a princess we have on our hands. In her defense, it had been a long day, she was probably hungry, and it was cold and windy. She was not happy about being put down with bare feet on somewhat cold sand with the wind blowing in her face and her two parents, grinning, watching her expectantly as if she was supposed to do a dance or something.

I realize these pictures are all very similar, but they seem to tell the story. . .

Checking out the gritty stuff between her toes. She had played in stuff like this in Grandma's sandbox, but it had never been able to get between her toes before.

Trying to decide how to react.

Dad shows her how it works.


Look at those princess fingers: "But it's cold, and I'll get dirty!"

This is NOT a smile!

She let out a squawk to let us know how unimpressed she was. She had liked admiring the ocean and the beach from the second we got to the beach house, but she didn't enjoy being so close to it now. She wanted to be in her daddy's arms, headed towards someplace warm!

Grant tried to explain to her and show her the joys of sand and the beach.
She listened but wasn't very convinced.
Soon after this, she told us (in not so many words) that the beach was not her favorite place to be and it was past her dinner time and shame on us for trying to convince her to enjoy something that wasn't on her plan for the evening.

This One's for You, Stu

Apparently I'm not keeping up with my blogging to meet everyone's standards! I'm in trouble for not posting pictures of Grant's new car the day after we brought it home. So, I ran out in the drizzle as soon as I finished dinner to snap a few pictures with the last hints of daylight. I hope this post will redeem me.

Yep, Grant finally has his very own car again, and it's a pretty sweet ride. No more "hoopty" for this guy; he's driving a Mercedes. Here's a look at Grant's new car. If these pictures don't show enough, you'll just have to come see it in person.

Eleanor got some cool new sunglasses yesterday. She loves them.

I actually found the car online last week right before we went to the beach, and we went and took it for a spin on Monday. It's a 2000 Mercedes C230 with only 70,000 miles on it. It has leather interior, sun roof, a supercharged 16 valve four cylinder engine with an automatic transmission (but it has the shift up/down option on the gear shift). It was a real blessing to be able to find a car with so few miles in such good condition (one owner: non-smoker --woohoo!) that we could afford. Even some of the lower end models that were older or had more miles on them were more expensive than this one. I love that we were able to get something sensible that Grant could really enjoy driving. He's really happy; he's always wanted a Mercedes. And when he's happy, I'm happy!

We can't really call his car the hoopty anymore since it really isn't a hoopty. At first, I experimented with morphing the name hoopty to somehow be a name for a classy car, but hoopty is as hoopty does. So, since Grant isn't into naming cars, I decided to dub the Mercedes "Sadie." I know, it's a bit girly, but classy cars are usually called "she," right? Besides, I know she'll never become the "other woman" in Grant's life.

My Bragging Rights:
When we took the Mercedes for a test drive, we left my Jetta in their car lot. When we got back, the car dealer said he could have sold my car three time while we were gone. He was just itching for us to trade it in, but there was no way I'd part with my "Dub-yuh." The deisel engine cars are worth so much right now. We could get the same price we paid for my car if not more if we sold it right now, but we're going to keep it.

The Service Project

The program Grant works with at Chemeketa had a field trip to the coast last week, so we drove out to Lincoln City on Wednesday and stayed through the weekend. Thursday, we drove down to Newport to meet the other staff and students for the field trip. They had volunteered to help the Hatfield Marine Science Center by helping clear out blackberries and ivy along the pathway to the estuary. Afterwards, they were able to tour the visitors' center at their leisure. Everyone worked hard and helped out (Eleanor worked on discovering new things; I worked on keeping her safe and entertained). Here are some pictures of our day at the science center.

Taking a deep, relaxing breath of the ocean air.

Actually, that's not it at all. Ever since we put the dogwood blossom in her hair (see previous post), she has been obsessed with flowers in her hair. If I point out a flower, she immediately starts saying, "hair, hair," and if I don't put one behind her ear, she will proceed to pick a flower and shove it directly into her ear. I was trying to get a picture of her with her flower in her hair, but she must have blinked. Her face is hilarious, so I had to post it anyway.

Bouncing on a tree limb.

We found a cockle shell, and Eleanor had to check it out.

This is our surprise visitor. Eleanor and I were looking for interesting bugs under the shade of the trees (more about that later), and along came this little baby bunny that hopped up right next to us. Eleanor couldn't see it, but I pointed it out to Grant. He and a few others pursued after it to try to get a decent picture of it. It hopped away into some brush where they tried to get close enough to get a picture (I have many pictures on my camera that look like sticks and grass with a little patch of unrecognizable brown). They scared it away from that location, and much to our surprise, it hopped back over to Eleanor and me and ran smack into Eleanor's leg. It stopped in its tracks for a second to shake it off and then hopped away again. Up until this point, we had been concerned that Eleanor hadn't been able to see the bunny. After the collision, Eleanor stood there staring after the bunny with an expression on her face that said, "Whoa!"
After several attempts by Grant to get close to the bunny to take a picture, the bunny became tired and stopped to rest. We were able to get pretty close and let Eleanor get a good look. The bunny was pretty nervous, so we got a few pictures and left it alone to regroup after such a stressful afternoon.

As you can see, we were able to get pretty close to it. Eleanor got just about as close, but you can't see the bunny in the picture I took with her in it.

Taking a break after some hard work.

Look at these curls sticking out from under her hat!

Inside the science center, listening to whale sounds, etc.

Petting a starfish.

After the science center, we went to visit Uncle Father Bill. I was pretty tired, so I didn't get any pictures. Plus, I know how Father Bill feels about pictures. We had a really nice visit, and he fed us, which was really nice for me because I didn't have to cook once we got back to Lincoln City. Grant felt like he hadn't done enough service for the day (not really), so he mowed Father Bill's lawn for him. Father Bill was really thankful. We enjoyed spending time with him and hope to see him again soon.


Oh, and I was going to tell more about Eleanor and the bugs. As we were trying to keep entertained while Grant worked so hard, I found Eleanor a potato bug to look at (or roly-poly, if you prefer). She liked holding it in her hand, but it kept rolling out, which would cause her to look at the ground saying, "again, again, again." So, I would have to find the same bug again or another one for her to look at. She says bug, "guh!" Whenever she had one in her hand, she would repeat "guh! guh!" at almost a shout. Unfortunately, she doesn't understand how gentle she needs to be with a bug, and I was grateful potato bugs have such hard shells. Some of them were squeezed a bit too hard, and once I found her a lady bug that she dismembered, I decided it would be a bit unethical to proceed with finding bugs for her. Luckily, that's about when the bunny appeared.

Tagged 3 Times! Okay, I'm it already!

I really was planning on doing this; I just hadn't had a chance yet. But now that three people have tagged me, I won't put it off anymore.

THIS IS ME!

--

A) Four jobs I have had in my life :

1. Pizza-waitress @ Pizza Hut/delivery for Papa Johns- Loved the free food!

2. Videos- Blockbuster/American Family Video- Loved the free movies!

3. Housekeeper at Lane Guest Ranch, Estes Park, CO

4. Instructional Assistant at Chemeketa Community College

5. Mother

--

B) Four movies I could watch over and over (total chick flicks!):

1. Little Women

2. Sense and Sensibility

3. The Three Amigos

4. Blast from the Past

--

C) Four places I have lived:

1. West Jordan, UT

2. Vernal, UT

3. Dallas, OR

4. Corvallis, OR

--

D) Four television shows I watch:

1. Notes from the Underbelly

2. The Office

3. Grey's Anatomy -my sister got me hooked

4. Heroes

--

E) Four places I have gone (or will go) on vacation:

1. Oregon coast

2. Victoria, Canada

3. England (someday)

4. Veracruz, Mexico (someday- I'd like to have Grant show me all the beautiful places he saw on his mission)

--

F) Four websites I visit almost daily:

1. Blogs of friends and family

2. Hotmail

3. Netflix

4. weather.com

--

G) Four of my favorite foods:

1. pizza

2. bacon- extra crispy

3. buffalo and blue chicken sandwich from Ruby Tuesdays

4. cookies and milk (or any other yummy sweet goody with milk)

--

H) Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Right here where I am, with my toddler clambering all over me and trying to tickle me- though having Grant here with me instead of at work would be ideal

2. somewhere quiet, reading a good book

3. on some sort of hike, admiring the beautiful wilderness

4. in bed taking a nap!

--

And just to make things interesting, I'm adding a question of my own (and I suggest others do to)

I) Four things you'd like to learn/ be better at:

1. knitting

2. make a mosaic (Kari and I plan to attempt this together in about 20 years)

3. fluent Spanish

4. patience

--

I) Four people who I tag:

1. Kelli Pinkerton

2. Julia Nelson

3. Mandy Young

4. Shonda Barlow

5. Haley Judd- get a blog!

--

Cut and paste and fill in your own answers!

--

Aside: I'm having formatting problems. Whenever I put an extra space between lines on my blog, it disappears once I publish. Does anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions?

Playtime at the Park

As promised, here are some more pictures of our trip to the park last Friday. . . The girls just loved all the dogs that were around. This is the second one we stopped to visit.

Audrey had a turn with the dog, too. Awww.

***

We took a ride on the carousel (thanks, Kelli), but I didn't get any pictures. Eleanor was only somewhat happy with the situation until it started moving, and then she wanted nothing to do with it.

Cute girls.

More cute girls.