Thinking of You Clark

These pictures are for Clark. To let him know we are thinking of him.

He will need no further explanation for the pictures and those of you who were there won't either!

Happy 4th of July Clark!

Favorite Week of the Year

I have found that if I sit in a specific spot on the deck off the master bedroom at the beach house, hold my computer in just the right spot and cross my legs I can get a somewhat strong enough Internet connection thanks to some neighbor's wireless network. Since the rest of the family and Cali's friend Kathryn are playing the second game of Ticket to Ride for the day and only five can I play I snuck out to do a blog post. I was having a bit of computer withdrawal.

As we arrived at the beach yesterday Tessa said "This is my favorite week of the year" I have to agree. We love our "Week at the Beach".

Tessa, Logan and I loaded up the suburban - well actually Logan and Jim loaded it up - and we headed out about 1:00 pulling the trailer full of bikes and stuff. I think we packed up half the house to come.

Jim waited until Cali was off of work at about 4:00 and they drove down. We miss you Clark but know you are having an amazing time. If you haven't checked out Clark's blog yet - please do so . Not only is he having some amazing experiences he is quite entertaining! www.clarktheshark.blogspot.com

We enjoyed dinner our first night here at Mo's and then a walk on the beach - a little windy but beautiful!

There was some river jumping...

and some sand dune jumping....

and then just some walking...

We love our Manzanita beach - it really is beautiful!

Every time we come to the beach as we are driving down Hwy 101 and we come around the bend just outside of Manzanita and I see this view my heart is so happy! The kids love it too - we all just wait for that moment and you can hear everyone sigh as it comes into view - someone is always sure to say - There it is - our beach!

Low Key Week

It was a pretty low key week around here. We spent the first few days recovering from camp and getting caught up on our sleep.

Monday, my friend Meg, the wonderful photographer called and did a photo shoot with Tessa. The pictures turned out AMAZING and I will post some of them here on the blog. Meg is very talented and of course Tessa is beautiful so it makes for a good combination!

I spent a lot of time in my office catching up from being gone last week and getting ready for being gone all next week.

Cali worked and played and she and Tessa both earned some big bucks babysitting this week. Babysitting pays better than her job at the UPS store!

Tessa enjoyed her first real week of summer and did some sleeping in, laying around, tv watching but also started her volunteering at the library and got a clean bill of health at the dentist.

Jim, Tessa and I headed to the Farmer's Market on Saturday to pick up some fresh produce for the weekend.

We enjoyed another yummy crepe or two!

We bought some yummy strawberries and raspberries, blueberries, green beans, and onions.

After the market we headed home to start cleaning and cooking. Logan had invited a family he met in Sweden who just happened to be visiting the missionary who taught her the discussions, who lives in Beaverton, to dinner at our house on Sunday.

Logan flew home Saturday afternoon. Jim and I picked him up and we drove straight up to Longview to see my parents. My mom fell at the Temple last week and broke her shoulder in 3 places. Fortunately they didn't have to operate they just have her in a sling but she is in a lot of pain. We picked up some pizza for dinner and played a round of Five Crowns with them and then headed home. The girls both had babysitting jobs.

Sunday we enjoyed meeting the Thorn family from Jonkoping, Sweden. Dick, Maria, Stephanie and Elisabeth came for dinner. They had spent a week in California, a week in Oregon and were headed to Salt Lake tomorrow to pick up their daughter who has been serving a mission on Temple Square.

They were delightful people and we had a wonderful visit and conversation with them over dinner. We had a fun time asking them about the differences between the USA and Sweden, etc.

Their English was amazing. We made lots of food - flank steak, herbed shrimp, potatoes, spinach salad, fresh green beans, cheesy garlic bread, strawberry cream pie and french silk pie. We didn't want them to be hungry!

Dick had been the sponsor for the Young Ambassadors in his town so Logan had worked pretty closely with him before and during the tour. They brought us some yummy Swiss chocolate and a USA/Swiss flag pin.

Now we need to get packed up and ready to head to the beach tomorrow!