Last weekend we went down to Lincoln City the kids & Milo to meet up with Darren who had been finishing shooting the movie he was working on "The Burning Plain", and after getting completely lost on the way down and having to break out the GPS which took me completely the long way round, we finally found ourselves at the hotel "Surftides" right on the beach. It was fantastic, with an ocean front room. At first there was some question about Milo being allowed into the room until the front desk realized who Darren was and who we were and then of course it wasn't an issue. As Darren still had a little work to do the kids and I decided to take Milo for a walk on the beach, which he thought was just the greatest thing ever especially as he didn't need to be on the leash... of course Owen wasn't quite so enamored about walking on the beach in the dark, but the still managed to find some shells and before long we were back in our room. Still it was dark and after dinner (which was just plain awful - why is it that hotel food is always bad unless it a 5 star and even then you can't guarantee it?) we headed back to the room where everyone promptly fell asleep - dog included. Next morning though the kids opened the curtains and were just simply fascinated by the fact that the ocean was right
outside our window as you can see - 
from the bodies watching... anyway
after have a sumptious breakfast (definitely
made up for the night before) the kids and I
took Milo for a walk along the beach right
before the rain started to fall..So Milo had a good run along the beach sans a leash and found many interesting smells but like so many other dogs decided that he wanted to strike out on his own and would disappear up walk ways everytime to see where they would lead...
not something that was particularly fun as in the end I had to put him back on the leash so he would stay with us... still he had some fun while it lasted:Before we headed back to the hotel so the kids could take a dip in the pool - it was indoor of course otherwise they would've frozen like "little popsicle sticks" as Morgan likes to say... before heading out to lunch at Mo's (very famous for seafood apparently) where Owen discovered that he actually liked fish and chips and decided that he would have that for dinner if it was on the menu that night... after this we headed to the glass factory for thekids to make their very own glass floats that apparently are quite popular in this neck of the woods. (Darren had some extra work to do before hand hence the walk and swimming before the other stuff)... Of course as is common in beachy areas as well as Oregon in general, by now it was pouring with rain and we were very happy to get indoors to do something fun...
here are some shots of the kids making their very own glass floats... which as you
can see was enormous fun and they even got to blow their own air inside the floats for
eternity or at the very least until they break... 
even Morgan was allowed to do this even though their was a big sign saying "Absolutely no children under the age of 8 allowed - no exceptions" so when asked her age and Darren told them she was 6 they
even Morgan was allowed to do this even though their was a big sign saying "Absolutely no children under the age of 8 allowed - no exceptions" so when asked her age and Darren told them she was 6 they started to mention the policy to which he quickly replied actually 8 that was how old she is
.. but they knew and let her do it anyway... (So much for the "absolutely no exceptions rule!) Here is her end result...
After that we took another walk before along the cliffs to show us where Darren and his crew had been filming before stopping at the local salt water taffy shop for Morgan's favorite pit stop of the weekend - the CANDY STORE and then we headed back to the hotel for a bit of down time (and Sponge Bob) before heading back out again for dinner at the restaurant that the film had used that week in the movie...
And of course Owen had his fish and chips right off the menu and chowed down the whole lot.
The next morning was a complete turn around because even though we woke up to a pink sky with clouds (what's that old saying "Red sky at night - sailors delight, red sky in the morning - sailors warning") it turned out to be a gorgeous (if not extremely cold) day with blue blue skies -
so before we headed to pick up the glass floats that by now had cooled down from the day before, we took Milo out again for
another walk along the beach - check it out.
Of course we made one more stop for lunch before packing up and heading home via the Aviation museum where they house Howard Hughes airplane the Gray Goose.. this was Owen's
dream come true and I must say this museum was very impressive too...
It was impossible to photograph the entire plane as it pretty much took up the entire hanger with other planes positioned around it... still we had a great time but were very very happy to get home.. and thank goodness the kids had Monday off so we weren't completely wiped out for the school the following day.. anyway there you have it in a nutshell our trip to the beach in the middle of winter.. now it's back to a school week with extremely and I do mean extremely cold weather.. That's it for now.. more later.
...
while I update the blog.It's a wet, wet Monday afternoon but there is an end in sight if the weathermen are to be believed we are due a whole week - yes I said it - one whole week of non-stop dry weather. I CANNOT WAIT. 
and the endless backache but not the dirty diapers - I can definitely do without those - sorry Michael - I've traded those in for stinky clothes instead - piles and piles of them.... Still each year brings a new era of change in our lives and we are looking forward to those changes in 2008.. And on that note, I shall bid you all a good evening till my next posting.. tata!
