Oregon Coast

 We went to Oregon Coast for a surf kayak trip with the Whitman College Outdoor Program (i.e. Stuart at work).  This was great!  The boys really liked hanging out with the college students.  And the college students liked the family atmosphere.  It was Easter weekend and on Sunday morning, two of the student leaders got up and did a Easter egg hunt for the boys.  What fun!

The boys hangin' out with Kemper it the very full trailer.

The Oregon coast is really a temperate rainforest.  As we hiked down to the surfing beach, we passed through giant trees covered with moss.  Every surface had something growing on it. 

This is a yet to be identified giant beautiful flower growing in swampy areas along the trail.

Here a dead log is host to new life.

One thing I love about adventures with the family is that the boys really work well together.  They look out for each other and play in ways that they don't when they are confined by 4 walls.  Here they are hiking the path out ahead of me.

Here they are investigating the tide pools.

What is in this muck????

Stuart spent the weekend teaching surf kayaking.  What fun!

(somewhere in here in my photos, the setting got changed to manual so the rest of the images are washed out...sorry)

This is my dancing boy Dakota.  He seems to find music inside himself and dance whether we are on the ski slope or the beach or even the backyard.

The drift wood pile was large.  Dakota found a hole in one of the logs.

Together we made a rock wall to defend ourselves.

Wren made an awesome drift wood fort.

I made some rock art: In tower form.

And spiral form....

Dakota's Art Show

Kid's Place where Dakota goes to school has an art show each year.  This year a local restaurant, Brasserie Four, hosted and provided chocolate covered cream puffs.  The show will hang for a month.  Each child had some work hung in the show. 

This is the front of the restaurant.  You can see the art show hanging through the window.

Here is Dakota standing and looking at his self portrait.

 Here he is expressing his excitement for the cream puffs!

 And here enjoying a bite as the cream squirts into his mouth.

This is a group painting of airplanes.  Dakota's airplane is the big blue one in the middle of this 3 ft. by 3ft canvas.  

Like any other art show opening, folks were gathered drinking wine, chatting, looking at works of art and eating yummy appetizers.  It was lovely.

 Outside the restaurant the boys were happy to share their excitement for the evening!

Property in Walla Walla

We purchased a lot in Walla Walla.  It has lots of wonderful history and character. We are in process of designing our house and doing some site planning. We started with researching all we could think of regarding the cost of getting the site ready for building.

This included getting a perk test done.  To do a perk test we had to get a backhoe to come out with the city Health Inspector.  Together they dug an 8 foot deep hole and took a soil sample. 
Here is Wren in the backhoe scoop.

The plumber who came out was really nice and had kids of his own so he was accustomed to letting kids play with his "toys."  He even let Dakota get in a pretend to drive it.

Then, when he started digging, he invited Dakota up into the driver's seat to help with the digging.  I think Dakota thought he had "died and gone to heaven." 

The perk test came back positive for us.  We can put a septic system in!  This is good for us because the cost of getting to the sewer line is really high. 

This is a picture from bing.com/maps of 919 Delmas St.  Now I know what you are thinking.  That does not look like a vacant lot.  And you are right, there is a mobile home with an attached carport.  That is the big structure which will be removed with a demolition permit.  The smaller structure to the right is a nice little cottage (400 square feet) which we will be keeping we think. 

There is a wonderful garden with raspberries and blackberries and other wonderous treasures. 

 This is a view looking north at the lot. The white fence line is our property line.  The grey structure is the carport/mobile home which will go.

 This is a cute garden shed near the back edge of the property.

 Here is a nice view looking south at the cottage.

 This is a view from the north west corner of the lot looking at all three structures.