Vacation:How it All Started

My boy, Noah, he will be turning 12 on 12/12/12. For years now, we've been promising to do something big and take a trip or go on vacation someplace fun and exciting. He, being the  multicolored building block lover that he is, always brought up Lego Land. I did some research and figured that if we were going to spend the time and money to get to Lego Land that we might as well extend our time in the San Diego area and hit a few other attractions while there. That is exactly what we did. Lego Land, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, USS Midway and, of course, the beach. Since we were going to be down there for 9 nights/10 days I found a vacation rental by owner in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego. Condo, on the 11th floor, right on the beach meant it was a perfect place for us to relax after a day of play. Not to mention we were mere feet from the beach! The weather was beautiful and we ran ourselves ragged in a good way. I will have to chunky monkey up the blog posts about our vacation but why not start with a few pictures of where we stayed and the view we all had to endure.

Flocks of pelicans would fly by the condo.

Happy Boy the Youngest

Happy Boy the Eldest

Was nice to sit and watch the sunset each night.

No keeping the boys out of the water on this trip.

Palm trees everywhere!

Love the clouds.

Same day as the picture before just a bit later.

That's the condo we stayed in - so close to the beach!

Day Two...

Decided to break the posts up, here are the highlights from day two...

Four Cousins

Yep, cold happens when you play in that water!

Noah looking all grown up and Bre exploring.

What are you building, Brandon?

Siblings

My Ollie climbing on the rocks.

My Noah exploring.

Cousins

GORGEOUS! Day 2 sunset did not disappoint!

Waterpark

The Montee family is in town for a visit and since they were here, Bruce and Heidi decided to visit too and spoil everyone rotten! On Tuesday, the gang headed down to Waves and Wings Waterpark and spent the afternoon splashing and sliding. After wearing the kids down, oh who am I kidding, after the parents were exhausted, everyone piled in the cars and headed to the coast for a couple of nights. A couple of beautiful days in Lincoln City later and everyone had a great time. Due to work, I stayed home for this trip but I LOVE the stories and pictures that they came back with. Thank you Pop & H!! Day one...

Brandon smiling big at the waterpark.

Where's your smile Oliver?

Pretty ladies!

This was sunset on their first night there - beautiful!

Apparently, the kiddos plopped down on this log and made friends with a another, gracious family that were also visiting the coast. They shared their bonfire, smores and stories with everyone. How cool is that?

What Happened?

I find myself not blogging much anymore for a few reasons: 1) I work more than I used to. 2) I like to use the desktop computer when blogging. 3) I have a pre-teen that will spend every waking hour on the desktop playing games and watching videos with his friends if allowed. Joel, the boys, Su, Brian, Bre, Brandon, Bruce and Heidi all headed to the beach for a couple of days. I had to stay home for work related reasons and realized that the computer wasn't constantly being occupied. So I decided to jump on and do a quick little update. I hope to sneak on here more often throughout the summer but there are no promises. ;)

We now have ourselves a blue belt and white w/green belt! I try to get a picture of the boys at each demonstration with their instructors. Figure when they make black belt it will make a really fun series of photos.

The boys have a lot of respect for Mr. B (top picture) and Mr. K!

We now have ourselves a 1st Grader...not sure why he decided to be all serious for that moment.

And we now have ourselves a Middle School-er (yikes!).

Also had ourselves the 2nd Annual, End of School, Nerf Battle and Picnic!

Noah's Field Trip

Noah's EXCEL class went on a field trip last Friday. They are studying architecture, design, engineering, etc. You know all the fun stuff that is right up Noah's alley. The field trip took them all over the Portland area, those kids and chaperones did a TON of walking that day. Their goal was to find, admire, explore and enjoy what this area has to offer up for examples to reinforce what they are learning. Portland did not disappoint! The Marshall House in Vancouver, St. John's Bridge, Convention Center, top of the Hilton Hotel, the old Meier & Frank building, the OHSU campus name just a few places they got to visit. Noah had my camera with him and took pictures of what caught his attention. I'm proud of his eye, he's practicing, learning, finding fun ways to convey what he sees. There are a lot of pictures in this post - enjoy! And if you have a minute, let Noah know which photo you like best. 
 

Marshall House Stained Glass

Marshall House Hinge

St. John's Bridge

Convention Center

Hawthorne Bridge

Balconies

Red Brick

Brick Building

Buttresses

Columns, Cornices, etc.

From Top of Hilton

Another View From The Top

Dad stole the camera long enough to get a quick picture of my handsome young man.

Pioneer Courthouse Square

Art in The Nines

Beads

Flag

Gett"ink" There

Joel had his fifth sitting with Hawk this weekend to add more color to his sleeve. We weren't sure what Hawk was going to tackle this time around and when he asked us blossoms or koi, I said, "KOI!" They both chuckled a little then started to talk about color schemes. One more sitting in late April should finish off the sleeve, can't wait to see it complete.

Just getting started, decided to add color to the fish this time around.

Monochrome

With time on my hands I found other things to photograph. I love the lines that bikes have to offer and this one just seemed to be posing for me.

Wow! Really starting to come together.

Orange and black mottled for this koi.

This one will eventually have some gold on it too but the red fading to orange are the color choices for this koi.