On Vacation!

I haven't blogged for awhile... I know, I know... bad blogger, bad! So why have I not been blogging? Because I have been on VACATION! Finally, some much needed time to relax with my family, some time to get out of the office and stresses of work, and time to kick back and enjoy some of the simple pleasures that life has to offer.

This year, I did something really different... I actually took a vacation. Now, that may sound redundant.. let me explain. For as long as I can remember of my adult life I have never really left my office. Thanks to the internet age, I can connect to the internet anywhere... I always have my cell phone with me and I am in constant communication with work, regardless of my physical location. But this time, I left it behind. Never once logged onto the internet.. turned my cell phone off and never checked it.. I got truly away.. and discovered how nice it is to, as one of my all time favorite songs is named, "Enjoy the Silence".

Now it wasn't all silence.. not by a long shot as I had my parents visiting from Colorado and all 3 kids demanding of my attention. But still a very nice time. As tradition holds in the Calvin household, my folks come out for a week and we all go rent a beach house on the Oregon Coast. This year we were off to the Tierra Del Mar community of Pacific City, a wonderful little community, right on the ocean, with miles of sandy quiet beaches and little traffic as it is off of the highway and most travelers probably never know its there or how to get to it. With the amazing cliffs of Cape Kiwanda to the south and the Oregon Sand Dunes to the North, we had great scenery and lots of calm.

So here is how the vacation played out... day by day as I enjoyed my "unplugged" time:

Saturday: with my folks having arrived the evening prior, after an insanely long drive from Colorado, we worked to keep the day low-key. The family girls went to go see "RV" while the boys took a bike ride down the Willamette River and went to the planetarium. Later, we all met together and hiked Mt. Pisgah to enjoy the views of our little city.

Sunday: We all went to church in the morning, as usual. Today was a special occasion as Amanda has recently turned 12. Today she officially made the move from the Primary program (the organization for kids ages 3 - 11) to the Young Woman's program (the organization for girls ages 12 - 18). Gulp! She was recognized in our main meetings and proudly got her primary graduation certificate. After church we celebrated birthdays. Since my folks only see the kids once a year, they celebrate birthdays all together so all the kids got to open presents. My folks got to open their presents too and my Mom tearily accepted the quilt that Dawn put together with squares created by all their grandkids. Then, a huge traditional Sunday meal followed by evening rocket launching in the park (Ty had to use his newly received rocket engines!)

Monday: Travel to the coast day. With a lot going on, we had to split up.. Dawn and Amanda attended the Marist volleyball camp and I went with the rest of the crew to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinville. There sits the Spruce Goose, the GIANT plane built by Howard Hughes, an SR-71blackbird, a moon lander and dozens of other amazing aircraft. We all met up at the beach house in time to Bar-B-Q and fly kites on the beach.

Tuesday: Beach day. Today we slept in, and played on the beach.. built sand castles, went on a hike and just enjoyed the beach house. After dinner we did another family tradition of playing the card game "Spoons", and yes, as always it turned extremely violent. Perfect family fun!

Wednesday: Today we headed to Devils Lake in Lincoln City where we rented a large Pontoon boat and spent the day exploring the lake and having a middle of the lake picnic. Then we went to Depoe Bay to shop at the Pirate Store.. a favorite spot of Little Calvins.

Thursday: Today it was too windy to hit the beach, so we stayed inside, playing cards, Dread Pirate (an AWESOME, but lengthy board game). Then it was off to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, to indulge in ice cream and Squeaky cheese!

Friday: Today was the long day.. as in long drive. We drove to Astoria to enjoy the sights of the Northern Coast. We went to the Maritime Museum (an awesome, incredibly well-done museum, highly recommended!) followed by the Astoria Column. Then it was off to explore the World War 2 bunkers of Fort Stevens, and dinner in Tillamook.

Saturday: One last beach day. This was the day of the annual family sand sculpture contest, where I typically way over do it and end up sore for days for digging up too much sand. This year was no exception! In the afternoon, the family went to the Lincoln City Sand Sculpting contest, while I stayed back and finished my sculpture and designed a treasure hunt for the boys. Since they are in full pirate mode this summer, I decided to stage a scenario where a bottle washes up to shore with a treasure map inside. After finding it, they go off in search of buried treasure, following a map all over the beach and surrounding area. Ultimately they found the buried treasure, after digging in several wrong spots, but were glad to see that pirates bury M&Ms. (yes, I had to bury an actual chest in the sand.. rather fun actually.) Saturday night was one of my favorite time of the trip.. the whole family out on the beach, enjoying the twilight times, with a beach fire roaring next to us, playing catch with the baseball gloves, throwing a frisbee until things turned silly/violent, roasting marshmellows for Smores.. just.... fun family times. The ones I'll always cherish.

Sunday: clean up, say our good byes and then drive home and try to get used to normal life again. Unfortunately, "normal life" hit way too fast as the transmission failed in our van as we pulled up the the house and will have to be replaced this week. Its always nice to have to spend thousands of dollars on car repairs the week following vacation, but oh well. Such is life.

Now its time for regular life... the next 4 months will be out of control busy.. I'll explain more later, but this week, watching sunsets from the balcony, playing in the sand, and just enjoying being with my wife, kids and folks, was priceless! Let's go again!

For a closer look at our vacation and some of our activities, click here to see our trip photo gallery.