On the Briny Seas

Lon wanted to be in the all-school play. It was put on by Adventure Children's Theatre and the PTA.  the play took a week of rehearsal, after school every day from 3:30 to 5:45, dress rehearsal day we were there till almost 9pm.  Lon really really wanted to do this. So we did. He went to every practice, did everything he was supposed to do, did his homework and aced his spelling test.  Which is what was asked of him.

Can you find Lon's name? He wrote out his own "bio"! Grandmothers, you will get a copy of the program.

Waiting to audition. Learning to wait silently is hard.

Showing Director Sarah what he's got!

Being given the part of Flounder in the cargo.

Getting some directions from Director Chris

Cool Boys. Waiting to go out to their spot to learn their lines.

Warm ups!

Learning blocking.

Starting to come together!

DRESS REHEARSAL!  It was really fun to see it coming together.  We had a great pot luck that night.  Lon was not so sure there would be something he liked, but someone brought in a Costco pizza and he was happy. I had fruit and pasta salad!  Yummy!

I did not get any pictures of his first performance on Friday night. I was a backstage chaperon. I was reading stories to the cargo while the play was going on and they were not on stage. Most of the boys really liked the book! (Time Warp Trio)  I did get this photo ! Mark said Lon did a great job! 

On Saturday afternoon, the matinee performance, I got to sit in the audience and watch the play.  Lon did great on his line delivery.  Where do I go? I am floundering here! 

The mermaids dance came together nicely. They are such cuties!

This little mermaid found lots of reasons to talk to Lon, then run away. 

After Lon's cargo stint, he becomes a villager. With a mustache and a goatee.  He liked that.  At first he did not want me to put the eye make up on him because boys don't wear makeup. But I explained to him that actors wear makeup so the audience can see things like your eyes. OH!   Then he got it and let me put it on. The blush, and facial hair was applied by other people. The eyeliner had to be done by me, for health reasons (pink eye)

Then it was over. The week went by very fast. I was not sure when this started that a week of practice would be enough, but the play was fun, the kids had a blast. Then it was time for cake! 

Lon got an award, a gold star, for empathy. Helping out his fellow cast members.  Not everyone got a star.  Lon wants to do this again next year!

Heading Home

This was a great little vacation. We all had a wonderful time. Lon was sad to leave, but he also was looking forward to seeing the cats again.

We got up in the morning and Lon had one last jacuzzi tub. He made himself a bubble beard. 

One last trip to the beach. I did not get up early this morning to go look for a float near the hotel. I do not want to be greedy.

One last bit of playtime at D beach. Okay, we did look in the grass there, but we did not find any floats.

Last breakfast at Pig N' Pancake! Our vacation was so much fun we thought we would look at houses for sale. Nothing we liked, yet.  Lon and I had our regular order. 5 sand dollars for him, and 3 sourdough pancakes for me, with strawberry compote. YUMMY. This time Mark got sausage and pancakes!

Then we were out of town and going north on 101 toward home. We had never stopped in at Blue Heron French Cheese, so we thought we would!  Sadly, Lon fell and scrapped his knee. He was not happy.

Lon relaxing on a stool. This lovely chicken came up to say hi.

Lon thought the mosaics were very cool.  I think I am going to show him how to make one of his own soon. 

Lon told me that these are highland cows, like Hammish in his book. He wondered if they like toffees too.

Then it was just nothing but driving up the road.  About an hour or so from the house we got caught in a 45 minute back up. It was caused by a car wreck.  Lon did well in the car.  Now we are home, getting things put back in order, turning the heat on and doing laundry.   Now we are looking forward to our next trip! 

A Great Day In Lincoln City!

Today was a wodnerful day! 
I got up an hour later, the tide was much lower this morning. I set out to find a float! I watched as this girl came down a set of stairs to the beach, in her pjs with her cell phone as a light and find a float! REALLY? I had fun anyway, I met some nice people, and a five month old yellow lab named Stella.   As an added bonus an hour walking on the beach is a real work out!
When I got back to the room the boys were up and about ready for breakfast. I know I was!

Yummy, smokey, chewy bacon! Lon has now decided he likes bacon! 

Yesterday was hugs and tickles, today is coloring and goofiness

goofiness I tell you!

After breakfast we went to the Lincoln City Farmer's Market. It is still very small, but they had some fun things.  Lon tried a spudnut. He was not impressed. I LOVE spudnuts!  I was so happy they had some there. Depoe Bakery was the name of the bakery. Yummy stuff.

We went down to Depoe Bay, we like walking around there.

The waves were no where near as big as yesterday. This is a good thing. No one got wet on the sidewalk.

The Whale Watching Center. It is undergoing a huge remodel.  Lon was looking for seals, or whales, or anything. 

We walked under the bridge to the shop side of Depoe Bay. Lon saw this lady with a bag of peanuts. It took me a minute to see the ground squirrel.  Lon had fun trying to feed the little thing!

In one of the shops they had this contraption. It cost a quarter. It was the most fun to watch all the balls run around the tracks!  A very well spent quarter

Back to our side of the street. I don't know what I was looking at, but I had not seen the spouting horn at Depoe Bay before!  It even has a plaque

I like the rainbow in this picture

Even on days that the surf is not super rough, the horn can go way up!

Then it was FINALLY time to pick up our fused glass. Lon was so excited to see how his piece turned out. It is great! Maurice and Dan are wonderful down at Mor-Art! We will be going back there next time we are in town. 

We walked down to the Sears glass studio and watched them blow glass.  We walked across the street to Volta to see some of the finished pieces.  When we were in there, we saw a family with two floats they found today.  She said they were at D beach, right in the grass. There were lots of people who were just walked by them. Hmmmm, this is something. They put them out all day, you say?

But first we went to the 53rd annual Lincoln County Fireman's Ham Dinner. Which is held 11am to 6pm.  We had a nice lunch. Lon was very good at lunch even though he did not really like the ham or mashed potatoes.  We were very pleased with him!

There were not many little ones at the dinner when we were there. So Lon got to climb all over all the equipment to his heart's content!

Lon had a dedicated volunteer fireman who spent alot of time with him explaining everything and answering all his questions. This was the sled they attach to the back to the jet skis.  Lon thought it sounded like lots of fun.

I did talk Mark into stopping at D beach. He rolled his eyes. He was not going down on the beach in his good shoes. Lon and I did. Lon found a big stick and put it in the D and ran after it all the way to the ocean.  I played with him a little bit, then I said, hey Lon, what can it hurt? Let's go look at the grasses.  Lon was game to try.

LOOK WHAT WAS THERE! IN THE GRASS! People were on the beach, lots of them, but no one was really going up to the grassy area. Even though in the pictures for Finder's Keepers it shows the floats in the grasses!  These are floats that the area artists blow and the Convention and Vistor's burea puts out on winter weekends to help bring people to town. AND I FOUND ONE!

I think it is cool it says Lincoln City 2012 on the bottom.

Lon wanted to find one on "our" beach in front of the hotel. So we walked down the beach in search of a float. No luck for Lon.

He was not overly dissapointed.  He got some more playing time in on the beach. That is the most important thing

Playing Island with Dad. Lon likes to watch the water swirl around him. We only let him play Island if one of us is playing with him, usually Daddy.

Lon building up a large damn behind the rock wall while Mom and Dad looked for agates and other pretty rocks. He did gather up some nice and pretty rocks too

A little bit of dinner coloring and cuddles.

Lon wanted fish and chips for dinner. They did not have this item on the kid's menu. I asked the waiter if I could get a half order of fish and chips since there was no way Lon could eat an adult portion. The waiter talked to the chef. It was a go!  Lon thought that was the coolest thing, to get something he wanted for dinner that was not on the menu! He finished his entire dinner!

Lon wanted dessert, so we let him get it. They forgot to bring out a fork for him!  We did get him a fork so he could eat his cake

He did a good job on the cake. We brought it back to the room. He said it was too good to just leave there and he will eat it tomorrow.  Then it was back to our room and one last jacuzzi tub while Mom and Dad packed up. Sadly, this is all the time we really had to spend here.  In the morning we drive back up the coast.  I am sure there might be an adventure in there somewhere!