Week at the Beach 2015 Day 1 and 2

Our annual week at the beach is my favorite week of the year.  All the kids were home for at least part of the week and this year Wynn and Emily and family joined us for the whole week which made it even more fun.

Debbie and Hannah were also there for part of the week (wouldn't be the same without them) and my folks came down for a few days too!

A great beginning to Wilkesanita 2015

 My favorite view - love it when we come around the corner and there this is!

 We arrived in the afternoon and got everything unpacked and headed down to the beach!

 A game of Smash Ball is always in order!

 We had an amazing sunset our first night there!

 We had Cafe Rio Salads for dinner and of course this was only the beginning of the many games that would be played during the week at the beach.

Day #2

We hung around the house in the morning.  Jim did some yard work and Clark, Jessica and Logan arrived around lunch time.  We headed down to the beach to enjoy the sun and some more beach games but it was a bit windy.

That night for dinner we went down to Rockaway to a place we hadn't tried before - The Old Oregon Smokehouse.  It is quite the hole in the wall but the food was great.

We may  have found a new favorite place for fish and chips and clam chowder.  We liked it better than Mo's!

We stopped by the Manzanita Farmer's Market on the way back from dinner and Cali entertained us with her Ariel interpretation.

We got to enjoy another beautiful sunset that evening.

Girlfriend Breakfast

Cali came in a few days early before our Week at the Beach so we had a chance to go to lunch with Bev, Dyann and their Calista  who was named after our Calista.

I have known these wonderful ladies since I was pregnant with Tessa and Bev took a scrapbooking class from me.  We have been friends ever since and both Bev and Dyann have cleaned for me.

 The two Calistas!

It was fun to have lunch together at Reedville Cafe and get caught up!

Easter Sunday

We enjoyed a nice Easter weekend.  We started the weekend off by checking out a new restaurant.  It was listed as one of Portland's Top 100 Cheap Eats.  We are always up for a good cheap eats and it was also in Hillsboro so it was close.  It was called Amelias and it was a yummy little Mexican place.

 They advertised it as Southern California style Mexican Food.  Jim and I both had their fish tacos and they were good but not quite as good as all the ones we had eaten in San Diego.  The portions were huge!  Each dinner was served in a 9 x 13 dish! Their salsa came with homemade corn tortillas that were delicious.

Saturday we enjoyed watching conference while getting some yard work and errand running done in between sessions.  I did some food prep for Easter and made our annual lemon angel pie.  It isn't Easter without lemon angel pie.

I also made a caramel cake which was a last minute addition to the menu.  I was in the mood for cake.

After Priesthood session we went to Joni Burk's 50th birthday party and got to see their beautiful new home they just moved into.

For Easter we had invited the Sanders family over.  They have four darling little kids.  I had had two of the girls in Activity Days.

When they arrived Jim had set up a String Easter Egg hunt just like we use to do for our kids.
The kids loved it.  He even color coded their eggs so each child had a specific color.

We then had Easter Brunch which included ham, potatoes, asparagus, celestial salad, fruit salad, orange rolls, and quiche.  And then dessert.

We listened to the afternoon session of conference together and I had put together a conference bingo for the kids and had a fun Easter coloring sheet covering the whole kitchen table that they could color on.

I really miss my kids on holidays so it was fun to have some kids there to celebrate with us - and their parents.

Grateful for this Easter season and the amazing sacrifice our Savior made for us.