Wet 'n Wild

About a year ago I sold a guy a part for a good price for one of his vehicles. He also just happened to be the owner of the Rogue River Mail Boats at the time. He thanked me and said he would send me some free tickets for helping him out. I chose not to say anything to the rest of the family in case nothing happened but about 3 or 4 days later a set of 4 tickets arrived in the mail. Since it was late in the season he even dated them so they could be used for the 2010 season as well. This past weekend we finally were able to use them. He had originally given us the 80 mile trip package but when we arrived at the office they graciously upgraded us to the 104 mile trip for free! We rate these trips very highly and I would say that if someone had no other reason to come to Gold Beach this would still be a very good reason to show up. It was a beautiful day and the fog was just lifting as we made our way under the Patterson Bridge to began our voyage.

Soon the sun was shining, the temperature was rising and even more smiles were appearing. Animals started showing up too! Let's see if I can remember everything we saw. Osprey,Blue Heron,Egret,Bald Eagle,Merganser,Cormorant,deer,otter,bear,and turtles.

Here's a few pics showing what we saw.
Bald Eagle
Western Pond Turtles
River Otters
Black Bear
Jason was definitely happiest when we were moving. Whenever the driver announced that we were going to do a high speed spin he looked like this!
Fortunately we seem to always sit behind someone who doesn't mind the extra attention from Jason. This particular lady was a kindergarten teacher from Coos Bay and she seemed to enjoy it!
Annalie had a blast all day and was certainly the most lively one on board!

Everytime I get to take this trip I'm reminded of the beauty of this special place. It was also a busy day on the water with rafters who no doubt feel the same way. We feel fortunate to live so close.

Land Of The Giants

After 35 years I finally made it Prehistoric Gardens located about 15 miles north of Gold Beach. I had always wondered what was there that you couldn't see from the road and on this day it was my chance to find out. Although the kid to adult ratio was 2 to 1 I still managed to snap a few pictures without too many problems. It took less than an hour to take the self guided tour and it really is situated on a nice piece of real estate. Even so it may be another 35 years before I visit again! Who knows?

Full House

I took some pictures of our pets today. It was too rainy to get good shots of our fish out in the pond. Some friends gave Annalie two koi fish that were delivered this weekend. The goldfish and resident frog seem to be getting along fine with the newcomers. Annalie has named her two koi fish "Cheese" and "Crackers". I wish I could scan the picture she drew of them with their chin whiskers.

We are keeping one of Cecily's kittens. She is a seal point named Gwendolyn. They are named after two of the principal characters in the play "The Importance of Being Earnest". This kitten is going to be Annalie's cat.

Last Thursday Jason and I (Laurie) drove up to Portland to get Jason's new pet. He is a Newfoundland puppy. These dogs are known to be extremely sweet and gentle and great with children. It is like having a baby in the house again as he is only six weeks old and needs to take frequent "breaks" outside. He has been sleeping about 7 hours straight through the night the last two days. He absolutely loves his crate and is taking lots of naps. He is very tiny right now, but his sire is 160 pounds.
Hopefully we can get a cart so he can pull the kids on walks when he is bigger. We are hoping to get a grant to have him trained as a service dog for Jason.

More Room Please!

If I ever go through another home building project I will be more careful to make sure there is plenty of storage space. When I had our house built back in '96 I was single and really didn't see how I could ever fill the thing up. Unfortunately that is know longer the case and several months ago I began doing some prospecting to see if I could could find any more space to fill. I had a couple of walls in mind in our upstairs bedroom and one day Laurie agreed to let me do some surgery to see if my idea was possible. I checked for studs and wiring with my stud finder and then carefully began to cut with my drywall saw. So far so good. Soon I had an opening that with some work I could install a bookshelf cabinet that would accomidate 3 rows of books. Laurie had a matching wall on her side that would work as well.

The first step after framing in the 2 openings and adding extra insulation was to build 2 matching book shelves followed by 2 sets of raised panel doors. We also purchased some beautiful aromatic cedar to use for the backing of each cabinet. After test fitting everything I applied some honey pine stain and mounted them flush into the wall.

Here's a couple of pictures showing the finished product all trimmed out. My book collection is pretty modest so every one I own can fit in my cabinet along with a few other odds n ends. We've actually got a couple of other walls like this in our bedroom so there may be another similar project or 2 in the future.

Our Himalayan Kittens

Our kittens are about six weeks old now and are alot of fun! They are very social, smart and are litter box trained already yet are still nursing as well as eating food a couple times a day. They will also make people GREAT companions!
Our kitty blog is roguecoastcattery.blogspot.com

Spending Easter in the Snow

Don't get me wrong. We really didn't spend all of Easter in the snow. Annalie and I first attended an Easter breakfast at church followed by an excellent service that ended with 3 people getting baptized. There were a couple of really good testimonies that I believe encouraged many people there! Also the plan of salvation was preached very simply and clearly. It snowed during church so Jason and Laurie watched the snow at home through the window. Jason greatly enjoyed it.

We had to rush home quickly afterword since Laurie was to be at work at 1:00pm. I got home just in time to clean up Jason as well as his bedroom. Next I had some oatmeal for my Easter dinner---Yum!

I know it's April but I also knew that for some reason the snow level was quite low on Sunday. Global warming never ceases to amaze me! Anyway I invited Uncle Marv to take a ride with us up Hunter Creek to see some of this white stuff. We stopped when the snow got about 8-10 inches which was near the Elko Campgound cutoff. I helped Annalie build a little snowman plus a little snow angel. Jason seemed to enjoy himself until his hands got cold. I'm not sure if the kids even own any gloves as we live in the "Banana Belt" of Oregon. Anyway it was a fun little diversion. When we decided to head for home it started snowing very hard so we got to enjoy that as well during the trip back.


If you look really closely you can see a snowball headed Annalie's way. I can't remember if it hit it's target or not!

Trip to Ocean World Crescent City CA

Last Thursday we took a break from our usual routine and set out to explore another attraction that is relatively close to home. I was working in Crescent City for the afternoon so Laurie and the kids drove down so we could all take in Ocean World after work.
Because it's still the off season plus we were the last tour of the day we had a tour guide all to ourselves. I never did catch his name but he seems to love his job. He is also the trainer for the seal and sea lion exhibit. Our first stop was a hands on area where kids could handle some small tide pool animals.
Not only were you encouraged to touch them but also taste and smell. Those two senses are pretty high on Jason's list as you can see!
There was also a very nice display of large tanks containing sharks,rays,sea bass,herring,and some sturgeon which you see here.
Next was a trip to the shark petting area where you could carefully pet two leopard sharks. Again I think Jason enjoyed the feel of their rough skin.
Next it was time to get swallowed by a great white shark and live to tell about it.
Lastly Jason and Annalie posed on what appears to be a wild ocean ride on a jet ski. Thanks to some nice exhibits and a friendly tour guide are time there was entertaining for both kids and adults!