The Summertime Summary
or
The Blog Entry that Has Taken Me Three Weeks to Write and Finally Post!
May 2012
Beach bound!
Every year, we find our way to the Oregon Coast, a favorite vacay spot! This year, we planned our trip around one particular attraction: the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR, as Brock had never been before. Clarke's brother's family joined us for the weekend. Brock's favorite part was the shark tank and the octopus! From our hotel room (which was ground floor and walked out onto a staircase leading to an uncrowded beach), we spotted three gray whales about a mile or so off shore! While in Oregon, Cami cut her first two teeth and was MISERABLE the entire time. She also endured her first ear infection. Poor baby. That alone made our vacation more work than play (well, for me, anyway). We also endured the WORST weather we've ever experienced on the coast (remember, we go there every year). The gale force winds broke our Camry trunk as we were packing up to leave our hotel. Clarke spent hours in frigid, torrential rain and wind trying to fix it before determining that we'd have to get our trunk fixed back home. So, we traveled redneck style the remainder of our vacation with our car trunk tied shut. It's funny now, but at the time, it was maddening stress. Clarke would back our car into the bushes in any parking lot whenever we weren't driving so that no one would know that our car was virtually "open" to anyone who wanted to pillage! On our way home, we fulfilled a particular wish of Clarke's and spent a day exploring the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, OR. That's where Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose lives.
@ Lincoln City
Clarke was supposed to be changing a diaper, but he took some time to let Camryn play in the sand for the first time ever. She loved it!
Love Clarke's smile in this one.
First look at the ocean. Cami loved it!
My loves.
I told Brock that we would take a picture of all the shells he found instead of bring them ALL home...
This is what Cami looked like for most of the trip b/c she was teething and battling ear infection.
We took Brock to see the sea lions on the historic bay front in Newport.
Watching sea lions at the aquarium.
Scary sea creature attacks Brock. Convincing, isn't he?
Faux hysteria, courtesy of Brock and his cousins...
What a pretty girl!
Multi-talented mom captured this gem while holding the camera in her right hand and a fussy Cami in the other...
Yikes! Even fussy Cami is playing along for this shot!
The view out our hotel room. Gorgeous.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
It was FREEZING outside and Cami was finally asleep, so I sent the boys in to climb the lighthouse tower. Brock collected two buttons while inside and raced back to show me.
Shells make great hats too. Apparently.
We spent a day at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum just outside of Portland, OR. We've passed by it multiple times in our adventures to and from the beach, but never stopped. This trip, we made the museum a priority! This is where Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose has found a home.
The Spruce Goose took up an entire building! The thing is GIGANTIC--which explains why it only flew once. And not very far.
"I want to carry her."
This idea lasted all of 4 seconds...
Here's looking at you, kid.
Just a picture of a handsome daddy and his sleepy girl.
A piece of the Berlin Wall...
June 2012
Natural Gas Rodeo time!
We drove to Pendelton, OR for the event and despite the calendar reading "June," it felt more like a chilly day in March. Rapid Expansion, Clarke's team, took second overall at the competition. They did an awesome job!
Ker-splash!
My boy has a one-track mind when it's hot outside: swimming! Brock is virtually FEARLESS around water and all he wanted to do was to conquer the high dive this summer, which he did during his 4 weeks of swimming lessons.
Checking out the high dive...
It's important to note that I was a vocal opponent of allowing Brock to jump off the high dive. I mean, he's only six years old. But his swimming instructor was all for it, which fully explains this blatant SMIRK (defiant little punk):
Mission accomplished!
There was certainly no shortage of swimming this summer...
July 2012
Renberg Reunion.
It's been a very long time since we had so many Renbergs gathered in the same place at the same time. Growing up, we spent holidays and vacations together, but now that all the grandkids have grown up and have families of their own, getting everyone together is challenge. Life has taken us in so many different directions and it was great catching up with all the cousins!
The great grandkids. Minus one.
"Here Cami, it's for you." Love it!
Travis kills me--he's so funny!
Playing duck, duck goose.
Daddy, the miracle worker. Look who's napping!!
Drooooooool....
Cousins...
Lagoon!
In all our years of marriage, Clarke and I marvel that we have never been to Lagoon together. Which means, that our kids have never been either. We were excited to make Lagoon a highlight of our summer travels and left early one Friday morning so that we would arrive at Lagoon just in time for it to open. We met aunt Char, cousin Natalie and her daughters so that our kids could enjoy the park together. And boy did we all have fun in the sweltering humidity and then evening downpour! We seriously can't wait to go back and play again!
Brock and his "2nd favorite" cousin, Kenzie.
The view from the top of the ferris wheel. You can see Clarke and Cami (in the striped stroller) and aunt Char and baby Scarlett (in the black stroller).
Cami was astonishingly well behaved all day long!
Brock hated TWO things at Lagoon: the roller coasters and these...
(At first he liked the airplanes-and hello-he secured the camo plane for himself! It was fun, until it wasn't. That last picture cracks me up and makes me sad all at the same time. Brock was terrified!)
As far as airplanes go, this was more his style...
Chunk-a-licous baby...
I was waiting on the bridge overlooking Rattlesnake Rapids to capture my guys. They were completely oblivious...
"Oh, hi honey."
"Look Brock, there's mommy!"
"Oh. Hey mom."
Lagoon was a ton of fun, but it was soooo incredibly hot and humid that we were all sticky and sweaty by the time we left. Instead of dining at Lagoon, we stopped at IHOP on the way home to aunt Char's house. Five, tired but hyper kids made for a loud and wild, not to mention very late dinner. I'm surprised they didn't kick us out! That weekend we also spent time on campus at BYU, got drenched at Sundance and spent HOURS and hours dreaming at IKEA before heading home that Sunday.
TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
Ten years is a huge milestone! Clarke and I celebrated our big anniversary in style: $$$dinner, two-story hotel suite, gifts, flowers, chocolate fondue and spa massages. Sweet! If Camryn wasn't so young (and still breastfeeding), we might have celebrated in Hawaii, but as it was, we celebrated locally.
Funny story: we went to Barbacoa for dinner and when we arrived our table wasn't ready, so we went to the bar. That sounds weird coming from me because we do not drink alcohol and that is what you associate with a bar. Right? Anyway, because it was a special occasion, Clarke decided to indulge in a strawberry daiquiri. The bartender did not hear Clarke ask for a
virgin daiquiri and Clarke received the real thing. A few sips was enough to indicate that we had a gorgeous glass of alcohol. Blech. Luckily, our waitress was really fantastic and righted the situation. We had a ton of fun during our 20 hours away from the kiddies! A big shout out to Nanay for watching B&C for us!
Happy Birthday to Clarke
As bad luck would have it, our air conditioner went out the day before Clarke's birthday, so the kids and I took him to Texas Roadhouse for a quick dinner and then we hurried home so that, with the help of a friend from work, Clarke could replace our air conditioner. When that was done, he blew out the 34 candles on his peanut butter cake and we sang happy birthday as our house blessedly began to cool.
Clarke LOVED LOVED LOVED his birthday gift: Beats by Dr Dre...
August 2012
Microwave
Days after necessarily replacing our air conditioner (and that's not cheap, people!), our microwave decided to choke. Seriously? Yup. We had to replace that too. Cha-ching.
Raspberry. Raspberry. Tomato. Pumpkin.
Our garden was so-so this year. We grew thousands of raspberries and made 12 jars of freezer jam from our harvest. In addition, we have three gallons of raspberries in our deep freezer for use in desserts and smoothies throughout the winter!
This year we ventured into the world of yellow cherry tomatoes. They taste amazing on salads!
We plan on canning salsa this week with our tomatoes.
Our only other harvest worth bragging up is our pumpkin patch. We probably have around TWENTY orange pumpkins! Geez louise.!What are we going to do with TWENTY pumpkins???
Flag Football Season
Brock is playing for the Eagles this season!
He scored his team's very first touchdown and is a flag snatchin' beast on the field.
Other teams, beware!
Oh, and while we're talking about flag football, last season Brock played for the Raiders and earned his first every trophy. He made me display it in the living room for weeks to show off to anyone who visited. Such a nut. But a cute nut!
***
Most summers, I find myself lusting for autumn, for cooler days and cooler nights. This year, I'm almost mourning summer's slow demise. It seemed to pass in such a flurry of activity that our days were anything but long and lazy
All that really matters, however, is that we had a lot of crazy fun this summer and created many interesting, chaotic, joyful and treasured memories!
