Bummed

The cayenne pepper did not work.

Frustration.

Sadness. :(

Gymnastics

Aurora is always moving.  She jumps, she dances, she loves to try balancing on one leg in all kinds of odd positions, she does somersaults and other weird tumbling moves, etc.  So I enrolled her in gymnastics to give her a way to channel all that energy... and teach her how to fall safely.  Yesterday was her first class!



These are pictures of her playing around while she waited for her class to start.  I tried taking pictures during her class, but the lighting was bad and they were on the other side of the room, so the pictures didn't turn out.  Maybe I'll get better ones next time. :S 

SHE LOVED IT!!!  She had so much fun!  And I think she did really well, too.  It will be fun to see where this goes. :)

Awww, shucks!

After a frustrating two days of having squirrels eating my corn right off the stalks, I made sure that WE got to eat some of it, too!  The squirrels ate most of the corn that was actually ready to be picked, so I picked the best of what was left.  It left me with some cobs that weren't quite done, but still had some DELICIOUS sweet corn for the eating.

YUM!  YUM!!!!

The nursery suggested using a pepper spray to keep the squirrels away.  I applied cayenne pepper this afternoon and as we sat and ate our corn with dinner, I watched a horrible, wicked, loathsome creature make it's way into the garden.  He actually went for a cob that was on the ground from an earlier raid and I got some pics as evidence.  Exhibit A:



Proof that it WAS Mr. Squirrely with the ear of corn in the garden!  Aha!

After it snacked a bit on this ear, he did head over to the garden to get a new ear or two.  He nibbled at one before I could run out to chase the monstrocity away.  I guess the cayenne pepper was just too good to be true.  Of course, it has to be more difficult than that, if it's even possible to keep the beasts away at all!  I was frustrated.

But later, after dinner, I looked out and found THREE squirrels each sneaking up to the garden from different directions.  (It looked almost comical.)  And somehow, none of them ended up in the corn, at least that I saw.  Whether they chased each other off or the cayenne chased them all off, I don't know.  But I do know that I have a sliver of hope again and will be anxious to see what happens in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, I'm heading to the store to get some cayenne in bulk because even if it doesn't work, I love me a good cayenne kick!  ;)

And at least I got to eat some of my own home grown corn - and it was wonderful!  If I can figure out how to keep these nasty critters away, I definitely plan on planting corn again.  It is SO worth it!!!  :)

More Giant Zucchini

When we got back from our beach trip, I found more giant zucchini from my garden!  My friend, Susan, had watched over my garden and picked these huge zucchini so they wouldn't get even bigger.  (Two are bigger than the two I picked before I left!)  She also picked green beans and peas that needed to be eaten.  We also found 3 cucumbers ready to pick.  So, we had a lot of fresh veggies from our garden last week!  I grated up the zucchini again and put another 33 cups in the freezer for a later date.  For the record, I'm not trying to let them get that big!  In fact, I've got several smaller ones that I'm keeping my eye on right now.  One or two will be picked today or tomorrow to keep them normal sized. lol





Right before we came home, there were high, hot winds in our area and my corn and peas really suffered.  Most of my pea plants totally dried out, I have just one more plant hanging on.  And four of my corn stalks were blown over.  I've tied them back up, so I'm hoping they make it, but I'm not sure... In the meantime, a mole has decided to make my corn part of it's playground and yesterday and today I found 6 ears of corn eaten/picked by raccoons!!!  My corn just cannot catch a break!  And so, it is time.  There are at least 3 or 4 ears of corn that I think are ready to get harvested, so tonight we will have fresh corn on the cob from our garden!  You shouldn't pick it until you're ready to cook it (so all the websites about harvesting corn tell me), so I hope they hang on for just a few more hours. 

Update:  Okay, I keep going back and forth between suspecting squirrels and raccoons for my corn getting eaten/picked.  I'm back to suspecting squirrels just because it's happening mostly during they day.  (I lost several more ears while I was gone during the day today!)  Heck, it could be both!  I called the nursery for advise and they said to try cayenne pepper.  I've sprinkled it on and around the corn... here's to hoping!  In the meantime, I picked 5 ears of corn for dinner... not sure if they were all ready, but I didn't want to leave them on and risk have them eaten by my mystery corn-eater instead. :S

Behind the Scenes

Sami put together this video with some of the video from our trip, including some bloopers and outtakes from the Karaoke Dance video, too. 

And now I give you...

The Shrek in the Swamp  Hills at the Beach Karaoke Dance Party video...

Beach Trip Day Eight

On Sunday morning, we packed up the car to leave.  But before we left town, we headed over to the LDS chapel in Seaside to enjoy church.  It was fun visiting their ward.  Half of the people there were visitors! lol  We had a fantastic Sunday School teacher and I wish I could have her some teach us sometime, she was awesome!  After church we still weren't quite ready to go home, and I had a picnic lunch packed, so we changed our clothes and headed up to Fort Stevens for a visit their first.

We ate lunch outside of this little building.  After lunch, we went in to explore.  We saw some people running out of it, screaming about bats.  We were thinking... "COOL!"  And we wanted to go in to see them! lol  But when we got in, we quickly found that there were no bats afterall.  The noise they heard were baby birds!  There was a Mama Bird flying in and out of the front room waiting for us to leave so she could check her babies, so we left them alone and moved on to see some of the other buildings.



Fort Stevens was even more fun to explore than Fort Canby.  It's larger and has more stuff to check out.  It would really be a fun place to play Capture the Flag!







While we were there, a ranger was showing photos of what Fort Stevens was like "back in the day" and she told us a little about what it was like for the people who were stationed here.  The only time Fort Stevens was ever attacked was when one Japanese sub emerged and began firing randomly.  The commander could tell that the sub didn't know where it was aiming, and he knew that if they responded, they would give away their location, and since they had no idea how many submarines could still be submerged, he ordered to NOT return fire.  Eventually, the sub left and no one was injured.  It was a smart call by the commander.  But a lot of the soldiers were mad because they weren't able to do what they had been trained to do.  lol 
Nearby we found a monument about the Japanese attack which included the inscription, "May peace between our nations be everlasting."

 

We did a little more exploring and then it was time to get back in the car to start our drive home.



We had such a great time at the beach!  We sure love the Hills!!!  We always love our time with them and getting to spend a whole week of vacation with them is awesome!  We're already looking forward to next year! :)

Beach Trip Day Seven

Saturday was our last full day at the beach, as we would be leaving on Sunday.  It started out sunny and we had hopes of a repeat of the day before.  Ryan and I went into Seaside to do a little shopping and by the time we got back around noon, the clouds had rolled in off the ocean and it was overcast for the rest of the day.  Bummer.

But that didn't stop us from spending as much time down at the beach as we could!  And actually, there were moments when the sun did come out nicely, just to pop back behind clouds a few minutes later. lol



Chad had some friends come up for the day and everyone worked together to build a big sandcastle.  The goal was to build it right within the reach of high tide so they could watch the tide wash it away.  But they didn't want it to be easy, so they made barriers to slow the tide.  The waves were just starting to reach the barriers when they finished the sandcastle.



We stood back to watch and wait... it was taking forever!  Finally we gave up on it and moved on to other things but when high tide and come and gone, there were still large portions of the sandcastle intact!  They did a much better job of protecting it than they had planned. lol



Did you know that ladybugs live in the sand?  We kept finding them everywhere!  I've never seen them at the beach before, but the girls were collecing handfuls of them in the wet sand.  We even found this one rare ladybug hiding in the sand dunes!  ;)



The girls made sure to play in the waves on their last day at the beach...



We also shot more video.  The picture of Ryan and I below is from a part we had that was AWESOME... but that accidentally got deleted and so it never made it to the finished video.  I was SO BUMMED when Sami told me she had somehow lost our part!  We were singing "I can't see me loving nobody but you, for all my life!"  We were laying on the beach, looking at each other while we sang, and the girls put confetti all over Ryan to make him "sparkle"... it was going to be great!  But alas, it wasn't meant to be.  lol

Also that afternoon, Spencer and Graham (Matthew's sons) came up.  Graham couldn't stay long, but Spencer stayed the night with us.  He arrived just in time to play some drums for our movie. :)



It was very breezy but we wanted to have one more bonfire before we went home the next day, so Sami got to drive more wood out to the beach for us.



We were having a great time until the beach patrol came by and told us we were too close to the grass on the dunes.  It wasn't very late, but we didn't have enough wood to make it worth starting a new fire out on the sand where it was even windier and colder, so we decided to call it a day and go back to the house to play games.  We had a lot of fun - we knew we should go to bed so we could get up early to pack and check out, but we didn't want our last night at the beach house to end! 

Beach Trip Day Six Pt. 3 - Sunset

We drove home from Long Beach and headed straight for the beach!  It was just beautiful!!!



And it kept getting more and more beautiful!!!



We really had fun taking pictures with the sunset...



I love, love, LOVE the picture I took of Ryan holding Rori (below - top left corner)!!! 



In addition to watching the sunset, we really wanted to film some more for the video we were making and this was going to be the perfect backdrop!  I still can't show you the video, but below is a still frame taken from the video we made.  (The top photo is a group picture we took and below it is the still frame.)



As we were heading back up the beach to watch the sunset, we saw these guys flying around over our heads!





That night we were up late watching movies until Matthew noticed shooting stars outside.  It was a perfectly clear night, far from any city lights, and all of us (minus Rori, who was already in bed) ended up laying out on the back deck watching the Perseid Meteor Shower over the ocean for a couple of hours.  Probably one of the coolest parts of our whole trip!!!  It was amazing!  Some were so bright they left glowing lines in the sky for several seconds after they had gone.  We also caught two satellite flares where the satellites reflected the light of the sun.  We would watch a satellite crawl across the sky and then out of nowhere it would just get super bright, then go back to normal.  Ryan saw the first one and said it was so bright that he thought it was a helicopter with a search light at first!  The one I saw wasn't quite that bright, but it definitely got brighter than normal for a second.  In any case, it was an amazing night!  It sparked some really good conversations and by far, this was my favorite night at the beach!

Beach Trip Day Six Pt. 2 - Long Beach

Friday afternoon was spent in Long Beach.  We had reservations to ride horses so we went there first.





Once we were saddled up (this time I was on Brassy, Cadi was on Sarah, and Ryan and Rori rode Mandingo again), our group headed out through the dunes to the beach.



The ride was going rather smoothly until Sami's horse, Sophie, started picking on another horse who then kicked at Sophie, causing Sophie to buck, which resulted in Sami falling off onto her back!  It was a little scary, but Sami was okay.  Sophie is a trouble-maker.  Last year when I rode her, she kept kicking Ryan's horse.  I felt bad for Sami.  But she got back on and didn't have anymore problems on the way back.  She was sore for a day or two though. :(





Besides Sami's incident, we had a nice ride.  I do think we might need to take a couple years off before riding again though.  Rori's getting too big to share with Ryan, but isn't quite big enough to handle a horse herself.  But by the time she's six, she should be able to do it.  Especially if I get her riding lessons first.  We'll see. :) 

After riding the horses, we got ice cream at Scoopers (of course!) and then Ryan and Matthew raced go-carts.  They had a blast! 



No one really felt like shopping in Long Beach, so we went back to the house to enjoy the rest of the day on the beach... we knew this was going to be a gorgeous sunset!!!

Beach Trip Day Six Pt. 1 - Cape Disappointment State Park

Friday was a fun, full day!  We woke up to lots and lots of sunshine and no fog or clouds for the first time since arriving on Sunday!  We knew it was going to be a beautiful day!  We headed out relatively early and made our way up north to the Washington side of the Columbia River.



(In the pics above, the girls are lamenting about their sunburns from the day before.  Sami was none too happy with her sunscreen.  Truthfully though, no one was burned badly, they were just a little pink.)
We started out at Northhead Lighthouse in Cape Disappointment State Park.  It was a short, easy walk out to the lighthouse.



Going up...


It was a beautiful view from the top of the lighthouse, but it was also very warm up there!



We learned that the lens used to be much larger than it is now (as shown in the picture that the guide was showing us), and we also learned that it is still in operation, using a pretty small light bulb, and that the light now only goes out about 5 miles because it's not really needed beyond that.  Mostly small boats and fisherman benefit from it anymore because the larger vessels have GPS.

When I'm somewhere like this, it's interesting for me to try to imagine what it was like to live here.  What would it be like to be a lighthouse keeper, or a lighthouse keeper's wife or child, living here, working here?  What was it like during storms?  They must have seen the most beautiful sunsets!  How different did things look back when the lighthouse was first built?  What would it be like to have to carry oil up the stairs to keep the flame lit?  What would it be like to walk back and forth from their home to the lighthouse eachday/night, was the path slippery and dangerous during rainy weather?  Were the roads to town in good condition?  Did they get many visitors or were they pretty isolated here?  I just think it is fascinating to consider. :)



After Northhead Lighthouse, we went to the North Jetty to eat lunch.  It was much sunnier than the last time we had been here.  When we came last month with the Bowers, we had the place to ourselves, there weren't even people at the beach!  This time, the beach was packed and there were several families picnicing and exploring near where we were.  But we still had a nice little visit there.



And because I loved taking pictures there last month so much, I convinced everyone to take a group photo there this time, too.  That is Cape Disappointment Lighthouse in the background.



After lunch, we headed over to Fort Canby.  Fort Canby is also the location of a little observatation area for Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.  We had fun exploring Fort Canby and taking pictures, but we couldn't stay for too long because we had an appointment with some horses on the beach. 



Again, I found myself wondering what it would have been like to live here when this Fort was still in operation.  What did it look like back then?  What kind of jobs were there to do?  It's so interesting to me... :)



(No, the girls did not ride to town in the back of the car like that... but we did let them ride that way just to where my car was parked so they didn't have to walk. lol) 

It would have been fun to have time to stay and play a little more, maybe some hide and go seek or something.  But we had things to do, so we hopped in the cars to head into Long Beach. 

Beach Trip Day Five

Thursday was a good day at the beach; we spent a lot of time there.  It was sunny at times, and other times it was cloudy but you could always see and feel the sun trying to push through it.  It as a good day to be a beach bum.









We all agreed that this would be a good night to have a bonfire, so Matthew and Sami took the wood down to the beach.  The girls helped Chad as he built the fire.  It was cool, but not too breezy.  The fire felt great... it was a great night for it!





We really did have a lot of fun that night!  We were goofy and crazy... and happy!  Cadi and Sami taught us camp songs, we played charades, and Chad did some fire jumping!





Sami took this video of Matthew that night.  I don't remember how it started, but this is how it ended up...



I'd say we ended Thursday on a good note!  ;)

Beach Trip Day Four

We started Wednesday by searching for firewood.  There was a lot of dead wood lying around the property where we were staying, so the guys collected it, chopped it into smaller pieces and we loaded up the back of Mary Jane's car to take down to the beach later for a bonfire.  We ended up not having the fire until the next night, but at least we had the wood all ready to go. :)



We came to the beach planning to make a video while there.  Sami loves to make goofy videos and we've all been roped into them before and have such a great time.  We had a lot of fun making this video too!  It took a few days of filming, Wednesday was the first day.  Sami drafted a plan of who would do what, we got all dressed up, headed to the beach, and started filming!





If you're on FB, you may have already seen the video.  If not, you'll have to wait until I finish posting all of our pics.  :P  And if you couldn't guess, we did the "Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party", but we did it Hill style.  lol  Chad was the gingerbread man, Cadi was Felonias (sp?), us girls had "big butts" for Ryan's "I like big butts" part, Matthew and Mary Jane were Shrek and Fiona, I was Donkey, I can't remember who Sami was... Anyhow, it was tons of fun to film and Sami did a great job directing and editing it.  Like I said, I'll show you more later. ;)

We also spent time just playing at the beach...





Ryan had a lot of fun collecting sand dollars, and he became quite good at it!  He knew when to go out and what to look for and always came back with a couple of new ones when he did.  I think we brought home at least 9 whole sand dollars.  Which made us wonder, What is a sand dollar?  Well, we found out!  Sand dollars are burrowing sea urchins!  Did you know that?  When they are alive, the are covered in kind of a velvety covering.  They can be different colors when alive.  The lines underneath are where they moved their food to their mouth (the whole in the middle of the underside).  And did you know there were different genders?  Yep... so we had a nice little educational moment there on the beach, with the help of Matthew's blackberry. ;)

We had hoped to have a bonfire that night, but it ended up quite cool and we decided to hold off for another day.  But we stayed up watching Lord of the Rings and that's never a bad thing in my book. ;)