Spring Break with Moody Mother!

Man.. Mother Nature is moody!!! It's Spring Break this week. Under normal conditions, this would mean it's finally time for some warmer weather.. maybe a few days of rain. But this year.. wow.. In my 14 years as an Oregonian, I have never seen anything quite like this. Let's take Friday for example. We had sun, wind, driving rain, falling ice, snow, and hail. Every 15 minutes it seemed like something new.. and drastically different. As I was leaving the office, the sun was out, the temperature was warm and I thought to myself "I need to get home so I can try to get a bike ride in". 15 minutes later and halfway home it was snowing so hard I could barely see the road. Another 15 minutes later as I pulled into the driveway, the sun was back out for a minute. Then wind and hail hit. Just bizarre! Today (Sunday) it was sunny at I went to church, snowing as I left church, and at 3 this afternoon a giant hail storm hit blanketing the area not in white snow, but in little round hail balls. And the whole week has been like that.

Luckily, our plans for the break were not dependent on good weather. We spent the first half of spring break with the kids in a beach house on the coast. Spending time at the coast... it's just good for the soul. The sand, the waves.. it's therapeutic.

Saturday we headed out out of town and got settled in at the beach, before beginning our Easter tradition of dying easter eggs. As is customary, the girls goal is to make them pretty, and the boys goal is to mix the most disgusting color that can be created with egg dye.

Sunday it was off to Easter church services.. me in my pirate t-shirt. Now.. this wasn't planned. In our quest to get loaded and out of the house, we neglected to load the hanger with our white church shirts. And so there I was in nice slacks, black shoes.. and a pirate t-shirt. Luckily, I kept my jacket on so no one could see it.. but I knew I was wearing a pirate shirt making for an Easter service I'll never forget. And what better way to spend the rest of the day? The weather forced us inside to play games all day.. a perfect way to spend the holiday.

Monday.. we got a little stir crazy, so we headed North to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Depoe Bay and OSU Marine Science Center. The aquarium.. another relaxing wonder.. due the giant walk through tanks built in the old Keiko the Killer Whale rehab area. The deep sea display where visitors can walk through long tubes surrounded by water and fish is filled with sharks and all kinds of cool marine life. I don't know what's more fun, watching the animals that close up, or the kids when a shark comes right up behind them. Good times..

By late Tuesday, it was time to head back home, although we all could have used a few more days by the ocean. But.. work calls and I only have so many vacation days. And just as luck would have it, the day after we left, the coast got one of it's ultra rare beach snow storms, dumping an inch of snow all down the beach. How terrible to miss that.. just another sign of our wacky weather. Mother Nature.. I swear.. the old lady is losing it..