Aug 13 Thursday

7isb Woke up to hot Super porridge with granola.

8ish Boys all showered. So clean but for how long?! 5 mins tops!

Zach got lost getting back from bathroom last night . He was bawling when Josiah found him. There were six identical walkways leading to the BR. He went the wrong one. But all is well & we did a dry run for him, making him go back & forth. He also memorized his campsite #.

9 am : At the beach sipping our coffees. Having it with dark choc & cheese curls, reading our books, while watching the kids make sand castles. Made the kids carry my bag & chair to lounge in. They should be happy in the sand for a couple hours.

11 Time to cook lunch. I love camp cooking. Tricky with the altitude. Takes forever to cook in high elevations. But I love that I never have to do the dishes. So cook away I do.

12:30 Boys back from the beach. Heard that daddy made Sand castles with them & looked for Sand dollars. Josiah brought some big crab legs he found on tbe beach, saying he would like me to cook ‘em for him.

Had lettuce greens, watermelon for lunch , & chicken soup made out of the leftover rotisserie last night. I pressure cooked the rotisserie with onions, garlic, carrots, brocolli, & cooked mung beans. Reheated the potato pancakes. The pancakes fell apart & turned into mashed potatoes. Josiah requested his bday meal to be all the food we ate for lunch. He said he liked the combination of everything.

1 pm Kids playing card games. Glad the two boys have each other. They’re best of friends & playmates. That’s the beauty of kids close in age. They entertain & play with each other.

Mark likes being rough & corny with ‘em, like boys do. He gets into playing with ‘em since childhood flies quickly. Soon there will be no playground trips to make & monsters to zap,  kingdoms  to conquer, & fortresses to build.  We make frequent playground breaks & do stuff the kids would love , so they have happy childhood memories to remember for the rest of their lives. These camping trips are mostly for them. We hope they’d develop this love for camping & nature explorations all the way into their adulthood. Have beautiful memories with their mom & dad. Then hopefully, they in turn will do things like these with their own families.

I forgot to bring pants for Zach. Only shorts. Forgot to put ‘em in the bag.Poor guy had to freeze in his shorts in  those cold places, & put up with mosquitoes biting his legs, & scrapes when he fell. Forgot to bring more socks.They had to borrow mine since I wear thongs.

Not too many things lost on this trip. Just a jacket hood & cutleries so far. Lots of near misses, like stuff such as bins fallin off an open hatch .

2 pm Off to hunt for Agates in secret places. Kids all worked up about it after ranger told em about these secret places.

Saw a Yurtz we could stay in for the night. Mark is checkin if we could move into it. U have to reserve these unique dwellings 9 months in advance to secure ‘em. Hard to come by short notice. Heated with beds in ‘em. Perfect for foul weather like they’ve had the past days. Raining & cold neighbors said. Lucky the weather cleared up as soon as we got in.

3 pm Mark drops me off at cafe so I can wi-fi. His idea. Always lookin out for me. They went agate hunting (rocks). Ate a buttery carrot apple muffin & drank earl grey tea. Cafe right on the beachfront. As I internet, I see the ocean waves glistening like diamonds. But couldn’t connect for 20 mins on my laptop. Then battery died in 5 mins. Had iPod but low batt too & died. Boys were out 1 1/2 hours too long. Romantic cafe overlooking ocean but way too hot with no ventilation. I like my air.

But we went blackberry picking in the way back. Got a couple cups to make into pancakes. Yay!

5:30 Making blackberry pancakes. Made a cup of blackberry syrup foo pancakes too.

6ish Sent Mark to bring the boys to the beach while I finish pancake making.

7:45 Off to bring pancakes to the beach for the boys. Took me forever to make them . Hope to catch the sunset.

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Aug 14 Friday ( Cape Lookout to Tilamook )

8 am Coffee, hot cocoa, & leftover blackberry  pancakes at the beach, with our books. Mark & kids learning how to make knots with their knot book. Learned that a bowtie is the most useful knit in the world, if u knew only one knot & stranded in an island? This is the knot u should know.

9:30 Making popcorn in electric popcorn popper, the one Mark uses to roast his coffee beans. Pre-breakfast.

10 am To Tilamook to do the Tilamook cheese tour.

10:30 Tilamook cheese factory tour. Saw how they package the cheeses. We all had ice cream for breakfast. Had triple scoop— huckleberry, espresso mocha & pumpkin. Too early for ice cream. Had tummy ache & so did Zach. Wanted to throw up in the car.

1ish At state park beach having Brunch & to get some air to relieve nausea. Super porridge, boiled eggs, & almond butter jelly Sandwiches. Could hardly eat.

2:39 pm At Fred Meyer grocery. Luv luv their deli’s kaiser parmesan bread. Squish & airy & cheesy , just the way I like ‘em. Only 3 left to buy I could have eaten all of ‘em in one sitting with balsamic olive oil dip. Had to split it between us 4. Boohoo.

Yaquina bay for lighthouse & bridge pics.

Scenic byway US 101. Beautiful coastline scenery.

5:30 At our Sunset beach CG. There are blackberries right on our campsite to pick! All these blackberry bushes growing all over Oregon & Washington, unharvested, are making me daydream of all those blackberry pies & pancakes I could make.Some are as big as strawberries. Making my eyes big.

Mark makes pasta w tortellinis for dinner. We heat up the chicken soup too & I made sticky mochi with coconut milk in it, in my makeshift steamer in the wok.

8ish A long hot shower again, oh my! Three baths in a row on a camping trip. That’s lucky me!

9ish Reading with a flashlight in the tent, Betty McDonald’s “The egg & I”. Funny account of life on. Chicken farm. LOL.

Josiah, the same boy who left the car hatch open at Lava Beds, thus spewing a bin out of the car, has now realized he left his expensive ski winter jacket at the picnic area we had brunch at. Tsk tsk. Same boy who left his winter jacket two years ago during camping in Oregon as well. Like déjà vu. No remorse though. Wait till it gets cold. He would leave his head behind if it weren’t attached!

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Aug 15 Saturday Sunset beach, OR

Coors bay

Pioneer Fort CG

$38 for two nights campsite fee

8ish Coffee & super porridge. Kids picked blackberries for the porridge. Josiah starting to feel the cold now, w/o a jacket. Had to use mommy’s vest.

Mark said we have to do laundry ‘cuz he has no clothes left to wear. Ha! He didn’t bring enough clothes again! Always saying to pack light since we
can wash clothes on the road.Not me! I bring lots of extra just in case. You never know.

9 The boys showering. In the car staying warm with my coffee.

9:30 At Sunset beach. Reading books, drinkin coffee, catchin sand crabs, touchin sea anemones, building san castles, & dipping into the water.

At observatory point to see lighthouse.

12 Pasta lunch.

1ish Back to the beach for more fun in the sun!!!

5 pm Cooked Pasta dinner. Mark made granola in the wok with agave syrup. Worked! He mixes it with goji berries, dried cherries, nuts  & other dried fruits.

8 pm At beach for sunset.

9 pm Realized killed car battery from laptoping too long. Yikes! Tmrw, will find someone to jump it. I don’t worry about tech stuff like this. I worry about kids getting hurt but not this. To bed! No more watching movies.

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Aug 16 Sunday
Coors bay

7 am Slept like a baby. Mark woke up in the middle of the night to restart car. No luck.

Went to camp host during breakfast to see if he had a jumper. To cheer up DH. Yup! Yipeee! No travel delays! I knew everything would work out. There were so many campers too that we could borrow a jumper from. One had to have one.

8ish Mark dunks our stinky sandals & flip flops in boiling peppermint water. He said it stunk the car from its damp smell

9ish Mark washing dishes while kids are water boys & do a great job filling all the water bottles, & hauling water in the basins, for dishwashing. Their shirt & shoes get soaking wet from this task. So helpful.

10:39 To the sand dunes!!! Still in Coors Bay.

3 pm : 4 hours ATVing. All done with the ATVs on the Sand dunes. Tired. Sore neck. Ow! Major hiccup here!!

Idy

My ATV fell into a 15 feet ravine as I was driving it to the Sand dunes. Not even 5 minutes from the rental place. They wanted me to drive it instead of Zach because it could be dangerous. Well, it was dangerous for someone like me, who’s known for lousy car driving!!! Mark was driving his ATV behind me & saw me fall into the ravine. I missed the tree on the ravine, then body flew over the ATV as I made the descent, & landed on my right shoulder, tumbling upside down, & finally to a halt on my back. Couldnt get up for a few seconds from the shock & pain. Scratches on my hands, arms & legs, bruised lower leg, smashed knee, twisted elbow, whiplashed neck, sore back, & a broken pride, as initiation to the works of ATVs.  Boohoo. Mark, with an alarmed voice immediately asked how I was, & climbed down the ravine to rescue me. I wasn’t hurt bad, thank goodness. No broken anything. But I was sore & shooken.. Traumatized, I didn’t want to ride the Atv anymore, but I  had to bring it to the dunes for Zach so had no choice. The two little boys were driven to the sand dunes so were safe. The two owners of the rental had to drag the ATV out of that ravine. Thank goodness I didn’t ruin the thing! We would have been liable for any damage. $1500! I was more worried about that than the state of my body when that happened. How the accident happened? Road turned to the left & I wasn’t coordinated yet , from lack of experiencd. So I drove straight down the ravine, instead of making a soft left turn. Then to make things worst, I got all excited when I realized I was headed for the ravine, that I pressed the gas instead of the break! So the ATV flew instead of stopping!  , stopping only when my body left it & hit the bottom. Haaaay! Was nauseous & achy  from my crash, but the show went on. Just like when Mark bashed his head bloody in that cave in Lava Beds. Didn’t miss a beat here too. Wanted them to enjoy. I just licked my wounds & took inventory again  of all my ahwies. Neck feels so heavy & feels whiplashed.

We all had to wear helmets & goggles. Kinda heavy & cumbersome. But good protection. Face wasnt scratched on my fall. Drove a few minutes towards the end of our 1 1/2 hour riding, just to practice & get the feel of it, knowing  i had to bring it back to the shop. I wanted to practice & make sure no more accidents. A lot of fun, but I would choose afternoon tea or even fruit picking over ATVing. Was relieved I didn’t have to drive it back at the end. Josiah did it all on his own. Yay!

Mark’s ATV getting stuck in sand dunes and helped by a guy

Then after all that, the boys sand boarded on snowboard. Don’t know how they still had energy for that. But they did! Cherries & Cashew butter & blueberry jam sandwiches for energy before snowboarding.

The atv riding wore u out, with the heat & muscle work. Took a lot of energy to operate them. We rented 3 of them. Two small ones for the kids & a bigger one for Mark. Wasn’t interested in driving one for an hour. Just a little bit for experience. A lot of work to ride ‘em we quickly found out. It made me vibrate on the gravel road. Much easier on the body, on the sand dunes. The boys had the time of their lives going up & down the hills, skidding, falling over, and getting stuck in the sand. Boys said it was up there on the top 3 most favorite part of this trip. ( One more week to go for camping trip.) Atving was worth the crash then for me, just to see boys having fun being boys. I had fun taking pictures of them on top of a high point , in the middle of the dunes. I hung out there till they were done.

5:20 At Brookins, Harrison Beach State Park CG. Neck hurts bad & back & arms sore, but grateful to not have broken my neck or bones on my fall. Thank u Lord!

$40 for two nights campsite fee

Check in & go to Fred Meyer grocery store just a mile down the road. Got red wine, butter bread, dipping bread, Tilamook butter, olive oil, dried fruit, chocolate, fresh salmon, half n half , & fruits.

6:30 Mark grilled salmon on our newspaper grill. Worked without any hitch this time. So quick in 10 mins. tops! I sauteed green beans with garlic, onion $ tomatoes. Had all that with cheese bread dipped in olive oil balsamic dip, & gingerale kefir for the kids, & red wine for us adults.  We toast to me not dying today. I’ve learned how to drink red wine on this trip, without getting too flushed & tipsy. Keeps me warm on cold nights, & makes me sleep better , I realized

8ish Everyone all showered squeaky clean. The boys having a bonfire while I iPod in the tent.

9ish Wanting to wi-fi since there’s wi-fi here, for nominal cost. Yay! But to banged up to do so. Maybe tmrw. Mark said I’ll be sorer tmrw!  Oh no!

Decided to join the boys at the bonfire, telling stories & reliving exciting things.

9:45 Really time for bed. Enough excitement for the day.

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Aug 17 Monday (Brookins, Harrison State Beach)

7am Woke up with the sorest body. Like someone was punching me the whole night. I had tiger balm in the tent for the night to relieve achy joints & pains from my crash. Can’t stretch my left twisted arm. But I can still walk, iPod, cook, eat & do the impt things for quality of life? & with humor still intact That I am so thankful for. Really gave Mark the biggest scare when the crash happened.  I could have died he said. He keeps staring at me , who knows why Something about me being beautiful & priceless . Hehehe.

8ish Hot super porridge from pressure cooker, topped with Mark’s wok granola, Peaches, & blackberries kids picked around the CG last night. I’ve been munching on these berries to & from my walks. They’re just all over, to my delight!