*`*`*`Happy Birthday America*`*`*`

In honor of it being the 24th of July, I thought I'd get my act together and blog about the 4th of July.

We went to my Aunt Cathi & Uncle Tom's home to celebrate the 4th of July. And when I say celebrate I'm not talking about waiting up til 10 to watch some rinkydink fireworks- we celebrated ALL.DAY.LONG.

For those who are familiar with the Tacoma area, their home is situated right above the Ruston walkway with a lovely view of the Puget Sound. So basically we had front row seats to the amazing flight show that boasted ginormous planes that could hover in midair and even go forward and backward slowly. Crazy stuff. And there were Jets that were deafening, and trick planes, and colored smoke planes...this went on for about 45 minutes while we were munching on chips and salsa and guac and chatting up a storm and tanning. I did have pictures of the flight show but they are MIA :(

After the flight show we meandered down to the walkway where there were tons of venders selling everything you could imagine and hords of people buying the crap. If you are claustrophobic, this was not for you.

The crazy Gospel clown that had Caleb thinking...Weirdo!

...even after the clown made him a balloon

There were also massive bubbles to be blown

U. Tom is a pro and showed em how its done

This is Malina- my cousin's darling little girl and one of Caleb's best friends in the whole wide world and as you will see they are practically inseparable. They spent most of the day in this swimming pool watching the flight show and munching on soggy chips.

After the clams, salmon, and burger bbq, we enjoyed some s'mores dessert

When it got dark some people set off some flying lanterns...just like in Tangled! So cool!

Caleb and Melina waiting for fireworks to start...

These are so cute I couldn't pick just one! They have so much fun together.

So we cuddled in the yard and watched the fireworks explode right in front of us. But the amazing part was, because of our elevated location, we could see the fireworks going off in Federal Way, Seattle, and all over the Puget Sound. It was a beautiful view and we are so glad the Petramalo's invited us out for the fun filled day!

Oregon coast

My sister and her little family and my two younger sisters came and stayed with us for the month of June. So naturally we took full advantage of the fact that we had lots of babysitters and house sitters and Kiel and I took off for a scenic trip down the Oregon coast for a few days.

This is where we stayed. It comes highly recommended by me...if for no other reason than for their breakfast which was a nice selection of hot food off the griddle, my favorite being the belgian waffles with cream cheese and fresh marrionberry syrup on top. Shockingly enough I still had plenty of room for the all you can eat salt water taffys, tillamook cheese, sausage and crackers, and cucumber mint water that was always well stocked in the lobby.

And this is where we ate. Turns out all the restaurants in small towns close at 5. What the...?!?!

And this is what we ate. Very fresh fish and chips.

Even though this is what we wanted to eat. Unfortunately we found out a little too late that all the crab joints close at 5 :( So this is as close as I got to my crab dinner.

There were sooo many lovely beaches to hold hands and leave a trail of footprints in

Since we stayed in Tillamook, naturally we had to visit what they are most known for:

And we visited a jerky factory so we could stock up on protein before our big hike.

This is the hike we chose:

We did that trail zig zagging through the left finger...all 5 miles of it.

And this is one of the more famous Oregon beaches, Cannon Beach.

This was SO cool...it was a little treasure trove of sea life filled with crabs, sea urchins and some other things I can't pronounce that were pink and feathery and lovely

Oregon is for mountain huggers.

All in all it was a very relaxing trip full of walks, chats, hot tubbing, food, and beautiful scenery.

And the moral of the story is if you are ever thinking of coming to stay with us don't expect a cooshy vacation. Any takers??