Oregon Coast Vacay 2020

My husband and i recently celebrated 17 years of marriage. To celebrate we went on a family vacation to the Oregon coast.

We stayed in Seaside, OR in a beach house that we rented. It was really nice to get away for a couple of days and see the ocean.

We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon, after a 7 hour car ride. Immediately the thing we didn't like with our beach house rental was the parking. Or should i say lack of parking. We are a big family with a big vehicle, and to park at this house we had to drive up a narrow alleyway and make a hard left turn to squeeze between the back of our rental house and another rental house. Just to enter and exit our rental house was super stressful. I really wish they would have added this parking information on their website, we never would have rented this house if we had known.

This notice was posted on the fridge inside the house, note it says parking for 4 vehicles.

This was also posted on the fridge, notice it's gone from parking for 4 to parking for 3.

How confusing is it, when even the property management can't decide on how many parking spots there are? Also that "parking area for 2 cars" in the above picture, was where we ended up parking, but our vehicle took up the entire area, so i have no idea how 2 cars could fit there (maybe tiny 2 seat vehicles?).

Another thing we didn't like about this rental house was, although it was a pet friendly rental there was no place on the property to take your dogs potty. No grass/yard at all. Very disappointing. Once again i wish they would have shared this information on their website.

On one of our walks, because no yard area at the rental

Our first night there we didn't really do much. We went down to the beach, stopped at the grocery store for food for dinner that night & breakfast the next morning, and then we relaxed after a long day.

Sunset on our first night

Wednesday morning we took the dogs on a walk, and then we took the kids to play in the ocean. We really wanted to go to a place with tide pools, so we searched and searched for an area with not much luck. Finally in the afternoon, we settled on this rocky area, but the tide pools there were very disappointing. The only animals/creatures we found were crabs.

While walking on the rocks, i fell pretty hard on my bottom, which caused me to be in a lot of pain. After we left the tide pools we went back to the rental house and pretty much rested the rest of the night.

Thursday was the day we decided we would go on a hike. We found this trail called "Tillamook Head Trail". It was absolutely beautiful and by far my favorite activity we did on the whole trip. If you are ever in Seaside, OR i highly recommend taking this hike!

After our hike, and a lunch break, we took the kids to the beach to play in the water. It was a cool day (about 55-60 degrees), but all the kids wanted to put their swim suits on and go in the ocean. They had so much fun, and can you believe it, not one child complained about being cold?!

Friday was our final day in Seaside and also our anniversary. We decided to go out to breakfast at a place called Firehouse Grill. The food was terrible. They served what they called a biscuit, but it was more of a not properly made/baked dinner roll. As we were leaving the restaurant it started to rain. We had planned that this day would be our souvenir shopping day & exploring the town day, so after breakfast that is what we did.

The kids got to ride a carousel, we saw the Candyman, we ate delicious freshly made pretzels from a local place, and we bought a couple souvenirs.

We went back to our rental house because it was starting to rain pretty hard and we were done shopping. Once the rain let up a little bit, we went down to the beach one more time.

The rest of the evening was spent eating yummy food, cleaning the rental, and packing up.

To be honest i don't think i will ever go to/stay in Seaside ever again, and also i don't think i would ever rent from the same company ever again. However, all in all i'm glad we took this vacation. We made a lot of memories and despite the hardships we had fun.

First Week Of School Recap

Hey Guys!

Last week we started school, so i thought i would share how it went, what i've changed this year, and what still needs to be tweaked.

Our first week back went pretty smoothly. This year we are still doing a 4 day schedule, the only change is that Mondays are now our days off, instead of Fridays. I am really liking having Mondays off, i feel like when school starts on Tuesday i'm more prepared. When we had Fridays off, it felt like Friday was just a "Woo-hoo! We made it through the week let's party" type day. Now having Mondays off, it feels like Mondays are a "let's get ready to tackle this week" type day. I feel like more is being accomplished during the week and that i'm more prepared to do school.

Another change we have made this year is, we are now doing math in the afternoon versus first thing in the morning. I have no idea why i didn't do this sooner, as it really has made a world of difference. There has been no complaining or crying over math, yet. Also, i just feel like my kids are able to focus more on mathematical problems when they are truly fully awake (which by the afternoon they are) and have a few good meals in their stomach.

This year we are also doing school in our school house we built. This has been a huge blessing and i can't imagine going back to dining room table schooling again. Having all our school work in one area just feels amazing. No more running up and down a flight of stairs to grab something you forgot.

The one major thing that isn't working right now for us is, my preschool & first grader schedules. I really need to find things to entertain them while i teach a lesson/work with my older students. Right now their schedules leave lots of gaps of time where they have nothing scheduled to do, so they get creative and before i know it we have gone through several bottles of glue and it's only the first week of school.

I plan on sharing our schedules and a tour of our school house in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned for that. If you have started back to school, i'd love to hear how it's going.

*Stock photos provided by Unsplash.*

September Books

Hey Guys!

It's been awhile since i've shared what books we are reading, so i thought today i would share we are are reading in September.

Samuel (10th Grade)

The Maze Runner

Dasean (7th Grade)

Code of Silence

Karina (4th Grade)

The Never Girls Collection - Book 1

Cruz (1st Grade) and Lincoln (Preschool)

Blueberries For Sal

The Runaway Bunny

Caps for Sale

Corduroy

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

If you Give a Dog a Donut

Make Way for Ducklings

Rechenka's Egg

An Egg is Quiet

Veronica (Me)

The Wives

Read Aloud

Dinosaurs Before Dark

Those are all the books we are reading in September. What are you reading?

*Stock photo provided by Unsplash. This post may contain affiliate links*

Homeschool Extra Classes

Hey Guys!

A few weeks ago i shared our curriculum choices for this school year, but there are a few extra classes we are doing this year that i didn't share in that post. So today i thought i would share those extra classes.

First up, twice a week we are doing geography. We are using Road Trip USA by Confesssions of a Homeschooler. We have used this curriculum before, during our very first year of homeschooling, however my kids don't remember it.

We are also doing literature twice a week, and for that i decided to go with Passport to Adventures by The Waldock Way.

We do art daily, and for that we are using a combination of Draw, Write, Now books and The Good and The Beautiful's Creative Arts  & Crafts.

For Bible, we have been using Write the Word for kids by Cultivate What Matters.

Those are all the extra classes we are doing this year. If you have a curriculum you love for: Bible, art, literature, or geography i'd love to hear about it.

*Stock photo provided by Unsplash. This post may contain affiliate links.*

Chickens Update

Hey Guys!

I'm not sure if you remember, i did a house/life update back in 2018, where i shared our chicken coop my parents built for us and i shared a picture of my favorite chicken Hazel. Since then i haven't shared anything regarding the chickens, so i thought now would be a good time to give a chicken update.

We first got chickens back in June 2018. We ordered 10 female Ameraucana chicks. When i picked up our order, there were 12 chicks inside the box. *Apparently if you order 10, they send you 2 extra just in case some of them don't make it during shipping.* All 12 chicks survived shipping.

They started growing really fast, and it was so much fun to watch them grow.

My parents built an amazing coop for them, and they were all doing really well. With the exception of Hazel, who was born with a crooked beak which caused her to have trouble eating & drinking.

Hazel instantly became my favorite chicken. She was always so happy to see me. She would run up to me and want me to hold her. So, when she passed away in October of 2018 i was devastated.

Right now, we have 6 of the original 12 remaining. We lost the other 5 chickens due to the weather & our dog Bear.

The 6 that remain, lay beautiful blue/green/pink eggs every single day. We are very happy with our girls.

In March of 2020, we bought 8 meat chicks in hopes of filling our freezer during these crazy times (covid 19). We lost 1 chick a few days after bringing them home. So we were down to 7. We decided butchering chickens isn't for us, so we were just going to keep them and let them die naturally. Right now, we only have 2 meat birds remaining. It's true what they say, they do die easily from heart attacks & broken legs.

In April of 2020, we also decided to add more egg laying chicks to our family. We ordered 20 chicks, and they all arrived safe and sound. Although, we did lose 1 a few days after they arrived. They are doing great, and they just started to lay eggs.

So, if you are doing the math, we currently have 27 chickens!!

Raising chicks has been so much fun. My 4 year old especially loves our chickens.

That's it for my chicken update. I hope you all enjoyed hearing about our chickens. Until next time, take care!