AGGHHHH!

Too much going on!

Will post soon . . . .promise!

(when I say soon, I mean eventually)

That's our boy!

Who's this?
Only the most awesome graduate San Francisco State has ever seen.

Trenton -
We are SOOO proud of you! We wish we could be there to tell you in person!
The world is yours for the taking!

Love you!

Oregon cont...

Hello again from Oregon.

We've always seen people playing on the dunes down from my parents, so we decided to give it a try.

This was Logan flying down the hill.

And Chloe doing the same.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic when I say 'flying'. A five legged ant could have gotten down the hill faster. We must have be doing something wrong. But I was no help. After two trips up the hill, I was so out of breath I needed an oxygen tank! Chloe's comment summed it up perfectly. When my mom asked if she had fun,

she replied, "almost".

So we went home and Logan played with Zachary while I napped.

The next day we went up the coast to the aquarium and the tide pools.

It's always fun to see what creatures we'll find.

Mom thought all the star fish left on the sand during low tide would get messed with by the tourist, so we went around gathering them up and tucking them under the rocks further out in the water.

Logan wasn't too keen on picking them up, but then got into it.

sort of...

During the drive, Chloe kept saying, "take a picture of Edward's mountains" so here's one. Actually most of the scenery looked right out of Twilight, not that I noticed.

During another stop up the coast we were lucky enough to watch a mama and baby whale playing just away from some seal covered rocks. (here, Grandma and Logan were watching them)
Here we are, finally arriving at the aquarium.

Logan's favorite part . . .

On the way home the tide was way out so we decided to stop off at the tide pools again and see if the whales were still there. They were. We couldn't get a picture of them, but we were able to walk way out to where the seals were.

Grandma told us about a park where you could see all the way to China.

I think she was exaggerating just a bit.

(but the view was beautiful!)

And then back to our favorite tide pools for one more investigation and photo shoot.

It was such a great day!

Yesterday we went on our annual sand rail run. Logan was excited because he was finally big enough to go on the fast ones!

Grandpa came over to help us pass the TWO hour wait.

Finally it was our turn.

Strapped in and ready to ride!

Bob, our driver stopped to take a picture for us.

This was the only way Logan could keep the sand out of his mouth!

We were pretty much showered in it the whole ride.
There are 90 miles of dunes, with 5 forest 'island's '. The ocean is just to the right.

The kids can't wait to go back next year!

While Grandma and I rested our bodies, Grandpa took the kids swimming

(cause, you know, they never get to swim)

I think Grandpa had more fun with the kids toys than the kids did.

Later that night, Great Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner and another photo session!

And as one last activity, Grandma brought out her beads.
Logan made a necklace for his friend Lauren and then a little something for me.

(yes, in that order)

Never a dull moment at the Streit house.

After that we called it a night. Tomorrow we head to Portland to spend the night with Gary and Inge, who just moved here from So Cal. We can't wait to see them.

Wish you were here!

Daddy - these are for you!

As we started off on our journey to the north, Logan decided he wanted a picture of the Astronaut Cow. Something we've seen many times was we traveled in and out of Bush Intercontinental.

Here we are, waiting and waiting for our delayed flight to take us to where the air is cool.

Finally settled and ready for take off. Notice the kids did not wait a second to hook up to the free direct T.V. (free due to the delay . . . a nice surprise!)
As we took our 'victory lap' as the flight attendant called it (I call it waiting in line to land), we got terrific views of Mt. St. Helens. I tried to give the kids a little history lesson on when it erupted, but they were too busy watching TV. Although, Logan did give me a token "that's cool" before going back to his show.

So after getting into Portland a couple hours late. We got a good nights rest and headed to the zoo.

I think this zoo is one of my favorites. It's set in such beautiful surroundings and the enclosures seem so much more authentic to the animals nature habitat. I don't feel as bad for them being caged up.

Although, as the signs explained, many of them are here because they were injured and can no longer survive in the wild, so it's nice to see that they have a good home.

The black bears were the first to greet us.

Then on to the majestic eagles.

then . . . the goats!?!

Yes, I guess they are wonderful too.

And now back to the animals we CAN'T see next door . ..

This little sun bear was so funny.

He's just chillin'

And this little two year old put on 5 minute show of playing tether ball.

He was so cute! I swear he had that great big smile on the whole time.

Then it was on to the dinosaur exhibit.

This is the same T-Rex that scared the pants off Logan a few years back.

Chloe seems really interested in the Baryonx, but she really just wanted to get 'spit' on.

Logan, channeling his inner Nigel, next to the Carosuchus.

If you don't know who Nigel is, you clearly need more dino education

And back to the T-Rex. As you can see, even now, Logan still wasn't too sure the big guy wasn't going to eat him for lunch.

After a quick rest

We headed over to Stellar Cove to see some sea lions.

But, there were none to be seen.

So we waited,

and waited,

and waited.

We actually started walking off when mom heard a huge splash

And suddenly,

there they were. Two of the biggest sea lions we have ever seen!
(and that's saying a lot considering my folks live 10 miles from the sea lion caves!)

These guys were total attention hogs . . .

always trying to get into everyone's shot

Here's a shot to give you some idea of how large they were, but it still does not do their size justice.

They were our favorites, by far!

After that, Grandma bribed the kids with some ice cream and a visit to the gift shop (and one final pic) we quickly made our way out.

Today we hit the beach.

This was the one and only warm spot there . . .buried in the sand.

It was a chilly 64 degrees and the water was down right cold.

But the kids didn't mind at all!

They had a blast!

The only time they got upset was when I yelled at them to get out of the water . . .

Well, that and when I laughed and told Logan he looked like Malibu Ken with his shorts rolled up. Man, talk about the stink eye!
Everyone was a good sport with all the picture taking and after filling our bags with sea shells, we called it an afternoon.

Not sure what tomorrow holds, but I'm guessing more ice cream will be involved.

Daddy, we miss you and wish you were here!