The Coast!

This year has been a busy time for our family. Busy with many responsibilities that have kept us close to home. While not bad at all, it is nice to get out every once in awhile and see what lies beyond the horizon. We decided to go exploring yesterday out to the coast. Because we invited Grammy Lowe to come with us the boys got to experience riding in the car in different formation!
While pretty excited about that, they were more excited when they saw Grammy Lowe leaving her house to join us! See Grammy--good choice to come if only to see the boys faces happy to have you with us!

The first beach we went to was "Road's End". We were all excited to get to the surf!

Did I mention that the wind was blowing like a mad man and that the temperature was in the low 60s? Yes, cold but wonderful day at the beach! Things like that have never stopped our oldest from experiencing life to the fullest! I love his intensity in life and am so grateful it rubs off on me at times!

Our youngest was not so easily entertained!

Gratefully, he was appeased with some Big Guy Lowe snuggle time. That generally works for me too!

After a nice lunch we headed south to check out other coastal areas. We pulled off 101 just before Depot Bay. Bundled up in our jackets we staged a family photo!

Then we overheard some people talking about whales. We started looking, and sure enough, we saw them too! First the water shooting up from the blow hole...

then again,

and finally, just enough of the back to know we weren't just seeing things!

We were all pretty excited to see the whales, but we also enjoyed being mesmerized by the beautiful ocean. There's just something about being by water that calms the soul.

That is good, because we had a long drive ahead of us. To make leaving the coast a little easier, we stopped for some great ice cream.

Sorry, no pictures of us eating; the photographer was busy enjoying her ice cream too!

Oh what do you do in the summer time...

This past week was a scorcher! Multiple days over 100 degrees isn't normal for the pacific northwest, but we made the best of it! Knowing that my brother and his family just moved to Arizona where the temperature has been well over 115 degrees made this week seem like a cool breeze, kind of. But what do we do when it's summer, warm and wonderful outside?? YES! We go to the creek!!

No longer do we go to the newt pond. We decided the last time we were there that if we couldn't see the water because it was completely covered by any type of vegetative growth, it wasn't okay for us to be murking around in it. Boy was I relieved when our oldest agreed without complaint!

With the seasonal change into deep summer, our focus has changed also. We no longer catch newts, er, salamanders, but go for CRAWDADS! The Big Guy Lowe and our oldest son are the hunters!

Our middle son's job was to tend the crawdads without hurting them or letting them go.

He was also our official snail hunter.


Our youngest son was the morale booster when the crawdads were elusive,


the camp manager when food/treats were needed,

and the general overseer of the entire trip.

He did a great job as everyone filled their responsibilities to their fullest!


The hunters caught 9 live crawdads that day (and a few that were not so alive), three fish and more snails than I cared to count!

At the end of our trip, all of them were released back to their homes.


We had to go back soon though to make sure the skills of our oldest son were staying in peak condition. Enter our good friends the Crumb Crunchers! Whenever we are in need of friends, the crunchers come through. Our memories of the creek will always be laced with fun times and this family!

Who wouldn't like a girl that isn't afraid to do more than get a toe wet on a hot day?

Now, this is a picture from a past creek trip, but I just remembered it and had to include it! Friends that can get dirty without hesitation. Dear to our hearts!

Our oldest was grateful for a young apprentice and the chance to have help catching more crawdads. I believe they caught four that day! Plenty of reason for a celebratory swim! Ahhhh summer!

HB Family Reunion 2009--The Picture

I believe there were 89 actual HBs in this picture! Even though it was a rough week for our family health-wise, it was wonderful seeing so many family members that we love! Thanks Uncle Mark and Aunt Shelia for your work on the picture!

Who doesn't love raspberries?

While out running errands today I remembered Grammie Lowe offering to take us to her friend's home to pick raspberries. Today was beautiful--perfect for a family outing!
We loaded up containers, threw in some crackers and other snacks along with sippy cups, and headed out to pick. Unfortunately, the bushes were pretty picked over, but we had a fun time anyway.

Just enough berries for a taste testing by the youngest boys.

He liked the berries before I got the camera out, but this is the look I caught...just before he spit it out!

His older brother just about finished off the bucket though. Thanks Grammie Lowe for playing today!

"It will only take a short time..."

Have you ever started a project with the words "it will only take a short time"? I have come to believe saying that little phrase actually means "this project will take so much longer than you ever thought you wouldn't start it if you knew!!". We have had a few of those. In fact, as I am sitting here I see one of those projects to my left.

Really, how hard can it be to make floor to ceiling curtains out of a luscious silk stripe that matches the room perfectly? It will only take a short time. HA!

These puppies nearly kicked me around the room and I finally went over to my mom's house to ask for her help finishing them! Thanks mom! I do have to say that I love them though. I guess the work was worth it. There! That's the problem--months after a project has been completed the angst caused by the effort has worn off leaving us vulnerable for the misleading phrase to enter our thoughts again...it will only take a short time, right?

Last weekend was one of these. The Big Guy Lowe fell prey.

One trip to Home Depot, okay, two trips. One hour tops, well, maybe two, okay, almost five. Utter disbelief at the time spent and the work required, dripping sweat, sore muscles! Then the glorious backyard kiddie pool came in view. I don't know about other pools, but ours didn't come with any age restrictions!

Having daddy in the pool was not only relief for the Big Guy Lowe, but the boys thought it was great too!

I guess it was worth it... ;)

Scary Dinner

First an explanation. Back in the summer of 2000 I was able to go to Europe with my mom to pick up my sister E at the end of her mission in Portugal. We had a wonderful trip that lasted a little over two weeks. The Big Guy Lowe is convinced that we were gone for at least a month though, probably longer! When I returned he showed me a meal that he created in my absence. The inspiration for this was the want of both a salad and a hamburger and fries for dinner. He began by making a salad, cooked up some hamburger and added fries. I have to admit I was sceptical, but after tasting his dish I was hooked! Fast forward many years to our home before our current location. We often had our good friends the Hunts over. We would make dinner, they would make incredible desserts and we would have a great time! We decided to make this dinner for them one time and that was the day it was named. After seeing what we were offering, they said it looked like a "Scary Dinner". It does! The name stuck and from that day forward we have called it the scary dinner.

We had the missionaries over for dinner last night and we made this masterpiece for them. I decided to snap some pictures for posterity. :)

A basic salad consisting of romain lettuce, chopped roma tomatoes, green onions, carrots, avocado and anything else that strikes your fancy that day!

I make my own seasoned, oven-baked fries and season the ground beef with Cholula original and a few other seasonings. Then it all goes in the pool together! The final step is to add a combination of ranch and bleu cheese dressing. Looks scary, but rather tasty too!

Two creeks, One week

We needed something new. Not to say that our creek isn't wonderful, but change can be a good thing. Add in old friends for boys and Mom, beautiful sunshine, and good treats and you just can't help but have a great day!

Unlike our creek, this river was actually deep enough to swim in!

Beautiful area with huge trees.

Regardless of the location, we have our little "ham".

Thank you BG friends for letting us come and play! It was so fun to be with you all again!!