Merry Christmas (Post Robot Apocalypse) 2008!

Merry Christmas from the Gomm family!

We decided that this year we would perform our favorite Post Robot Apocalypse Christmas song as our holiday greetings! Turn up your volume, press play, and start cringing!




This is a song by our family's favorite artist Jonathan Coultan. Click here for the lyrics.
You can download the mp3 of the OreGomm version of this timeless Christmas classic here.

We wish everyone a:

Merry Christmas,
Happy Hanukkah,
Killer Kwanzaa,
Super Sweet Solstice, and
Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Yesterday!

My Dad's birthday was yesterday and so here are the Oregomms performing their rendition of Happy Birthday Grandpa. Only the cute Gomms were featured in the video portion but we're all singing (in other words, if you turn on the volume, you've been warned).





Due to me being technically challenged when it comes to internal usb issues on our linux machine I'm a day late. Due to the economy I'm also a dollar short but then again, aren't we all? Happy Belated Birthday Dad!

Scout Eleanormal Strikes Again

Scout has long been fascinated by her own middle name. She isn't really quite sure what it is...but she's fascinated by it.

Today she asked me, "Did you guys name me Scout Ignore Gomm because I ignore people a lot?"

Of course I told her yes. Before you think I'm a really mean mom, don't worry. She was ignoring me. <3

[self portrait by Scoutie]

My Birthday Portal!

It's no secret that Portal is my favorite video game of all time. Well, Thursday was my birthday, and Amanda made me the perfect portal cake:


Oh, and on the left there is the present my kids got me (with their saved allowance): 1600 MS Points to buy Portal: Still Alive.

What a great family!

Picture Day!

When Random was born we looked at our brand new baby boy with his giant blue hands, gorilla shaped head and male-pattern baldness and had the following conversation: "Holy smokes." "Well, hopefully he'll have a great personality."

Not even a day had gone by, while we were still in shock at the wonder of new parenthood, when we received our first order form for professional pictures. It even had a note addressed to Mommy and Daddy from our brand new baby. "I know you want to share your joy with grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, doctors and postmen. Please buy some pictures so that I know you love me. If you really really love me I know you'll buy the photo sweatshirt and keyring as well. -Your Baby"

So we bought the photos. They put our child on top of a frightening background, laid an even more frightening vest atop him and snapped pictures while he laid there stunned and bruised.

Here we are, 10 years and 2 kids later. Luckily, they have cutened up a bit since day 2. And, not so luckily, we still get the forms home with the same plea--you love your child and surely want to capture this moment forever. We still get the same frightening background--although now we can choose between a variety of unflattering colors. We still get the same weird scrunched up face--Scout said, "Don't worry Mommy. I smiled my biggest. Like a pirate."

And yet, I still buy them because-- Yes. I love my crazy pirate faced kids and I do want to capture every moment forever. Even the moments with the abnormal head tilt, magenta background and creepy hair slicked down by the overeager PTA volunteers.

Another one of those things to put in the category with double sided wrapping paper, heelies (you know, those wheeled shoes that cost a bajillion bucks that you bought for your kid after all the begging but that he grew out of before he got over his irrational fear of wheeled shoes--feel free to substitute skateboard, blendypens, MioPup, Moon Sand or any other thing that cost a fortune, was imperative that they have and was discarded five minutes later) and ballet classes. In twenty years it probably won't matter but for now you just do the best you can.

The activist inside of me wants to lobby against picture day as an unfair practice of preying on the guilt of parents. The capitalist inside of me wants to figure out how I can hop on this gravy train...if you love your child you would certainly take advantage of this once in a lifetime business opportunity.

And So It Begins

We've had our first fundraiser flier sent home today. This is the first year that I've received 3 opportunities to disappoint my children with my lack of generosity.

I've had neighbor kids knocking at my door asking me to donate so I've gotten to rip their little hearts out and crush their hope as well. I understand that they shouldn't ask strangers since that's a dangerous situation but everyone they know sits next to them in class and went to the same Pep Rally/Fundraiser assembly that they did. Everyone I know either lives far away or has 3-4 other children with the same empty Fun Run donation sheet that I have in triplicate.

Troy is hesitant to take this one to work. It's one of those "Pledge X amount of $$ per lap and collect it later" types. He doesn't want to be hounding his co-workers for money in a couple of weeks when it turns out that Scout can run a 4 minute mile.

I'm glad that at least it's not one of those horrid brochures of junk...you know the ones...where you can buy 3 cubic inches of wrapping paper (double sided don't you worry) for 40 bucks, a box of 7 chocolates for the price of a small country or some random kitchen doo-dad with geese on it for mere dollars a day (on the 16 year payment plan).

So here's my dilemma. The kids have 25 minutes to run as many laps around the high school track as they can. I can pledge money per lap and then feed my kids a huge breakfast of greazy sausage, eggs and chocolate milk hoping for cramp-induced low lappage, I can pledge money per lap and tell them I'll give them each 50 cents to throw the race or...*sigh*...I can pledge a set amount and see the look in their eyes when they realize that they don't qualify for the Grand Prize of a Super Cool Super Soaker.

Maybe I'll get them a piece of cardboard, a sharpie and drop them off at the interstate off-ramp and see how much they can collect...Anything Helps God Bless.

What's a little dignity or integrity if you can win a Super Cool Super Soaker?

Super String Savannah

On Monday Savannah's class started a discussion on science. They talked about what everyone wanted to learn throughout the year and each child picked a special topic to study in depth. Savannah ultimately ended up picking Earth as her field of exploration this year but that wasn't her first choice.

In class she raised her hand and suggested that they study String Theory. When she told us this, Troy and I looked at each other then back at Savannah and beamed with pride. hehehe. The teacher asked her to explain String Theory to the class. She told everyone that some scientists have a theory that all matter is made of tiny strings that are so small we don't have a microscope strong enough to see them. She told them that these strings were smaller than air or germs or even quarks.

As you can imagine, the fact that our 8 year old daughter can even use the word 'quarks' in a sentence is enough to keep us going for weeks but the fact that she wants her 3rd grade class to study String Theory keeps us in happy giggles. I love that a giant poster of the Standard Model of Particle Physics would fit so nicely on the wall of the kids' room next to the Littlest Pet Shop wall stickers and the Gotta Catch 'Em All pokemon pictures. WOOT!

Our family has been following the progress of the Large Hadron Collider for quiet some time, so when this video came out last week, we were really excited. It's so awesomely uber-geeky that I just had to share. Enjoy! :P

First Day!

Random and Savannah both started school on Tuesday. Random is in 5th grade and has the same teacher that he did last year. Savannah is in 3rd grade and has a new teacher but a lot of the same kids in her class...including her best friend Hailey. They had a great first day and looked fabulous in their new outfits.

I was nervous until they came home. I was afraid that I would have forgotten something or their new shoes would give them blisters or a million other things that wouldn't be earth shattering but would have given them a bad day.

Scout's first day is today, Wednesday. They divided the kindergarten class in half so they could have a more intimate first day session and get to know their teacher and the routines a little bit right away. She also looked fabulous and skipped down the sidewalk so eager to get going.

We met up with Hailey and Breanna Wallace so a huge troop of us went off to school over the sidewalk and through the woods. Rand walked ahead and got to school early while the girls giggled and skipped all the way there.

So today is my first day too. My first day with a few hours of no kids at home. gulp.

Summer Memories

Troy and I feel like we've had a whirlwind summer. We've camped, hiked, played, traveled, visited, reunioned, explored and rocked. Now our big fear is that the kids will tramp off to school and, when asked what they did this summer, they will say they ate a lot of candy and played the Wii. So here is our summer sum-up. A brief overview of what we did in the summer of 2008 (in between bouts of eating candy and playing the Wii).



June: Camped in the rain, visited by the Tom-Gomms, Troy got a new CPAP, I got new glasses and bleached my hair white.

July: Drove to Idaho, Scout met Grandma & Grandpa Gomm for the first time, counted satellites with Tom and Kim, launched fireworks with Tyler and Anna, got 5th disease, camped at the ocean, the kids spent 2 weeks with Grandma & Grandpa Bryan, Troy and I went to Singapore.

August: Hiked with the Wallace's, Scout had her 5th birthday, I had my 33rd birthday, got back in touch with long lost high school friends, went to rock concerts, hiked around Mollala State Park, rode on a 6 car ferry, visited cousins, went to the nickel arcade, found the headquarters for Dark Horse Comics, dyed my hair purple.

Scooter McTooterson's Fifth Birthday Extravaganzaa

Scout's 5. Holy guacamole. I remember looking forward to the day when our youngest would hit this mark. I love 5.

Scout is a GREAT 5 year old. She's spunky, smart and energetic. She's a daredevil, a sweetheart and a non-stop ball of goofy fun. She calls the world like she sees it, thinks about things that startle me with their weight and is a little nervous about starting kindergarten in a couple of days. We are SO glad she's in our family and were delighted to celebrate the anniversary of her earthly debut on August 8th.

Scout is a huge Totoro fan. My Neighbor Totoro is a cartoon by the animated film director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service are some of his other titles you may recognize). We tried to throw her a theme party but as anyone who has ever tried to throw a theme birthday party for a small child who isn't totally enthralled by last year's summer blockbuster (never mind that it was Rated PG-13 for illicit naked-pirate-robot violence...don't get me started), there isn't a lot of pre-made Totoro party favors out there to make it easy.

We started the day with scrambled eggs and opening the ultimate giant stuffed Totoro. Troy took all the kids swimming and Scout had a blast running from the pool to the table to get a little coloring time in.

In the afternoon we all went to Champoeg park for a PARTY! Scout had a very distinguished guest list including our neighbors the Wallaces, our friends the Hupps, Grandma, Grandpa & cousin Jerred all the way down from Puyallup, WA and even the long-lost Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Matt from Orlando, FL. Scout requested hamburgers and hotdogs so we lit up the barbecue and did a picnic Oregon-style (which just means we also had veggie patties and tofu-dogs). After we ate, the kids played around with goodie bag junk (hand pump rockets and whistle-pops were the favorite among the kids...I was just glad the whistles were edible). We opened presents, made ice cream in single-serving ziploc bags, sang Happy Birthday and tore into the Totoro cake.

The grown ups sat around chatting while the kids ran around the park until dusk came. We packed up and drove back to our apartment where we visited with the out-of-towners until we were all tired and ready for bed...too bad they still had a 3 hour drive!





Scout had a great birthday and is already planning for her next one. The rest of us are just enjoying our brand new 5 year old!

So Long Singapore

Our last few days in Singapore were crammed with all the things we wanted to be sure to do before we lost our opportunity.

National Museum Of Singapore

I visited the museum by myself while Troy was at work. I felt pretty proud of myself solo-exploring the city and really enjoyed learning about the history of Singapore through a guided tour and the startling artifacts, images, film and audio recordings.

The children say a pledge everyday at the beginning of school just like my kids say the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge of Singapore seems to sum up the resilient spirit that has inspired their survival through the long tragic journey their country has taken.

We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.

Singapore is an amazing country. They rose from a swamp decimated by war and an attempted genocide to form one of the most prosperous nations in the world in only 40 years. They have a lot of strict laws (if you bring more than the weight of a 50 cent piece of drugs into the country you will be killed) and a lot of crazy fines ($500 if you don't flush the potty) but Christians, Buddhists, Hindi and Muslims; ethnic Chinese, Thai, Malay, Indian, European, Japanese and Americans all live, work, play, worship and fight for their country side by side.


Little India

Little India wasn't the same kind of tourist trap Chinatown or the Merlion were. It was the place Indians from all over the city could come to buy local cuisine, find Hindu temples and purchase goods imported directly from India. We visited the Mustafa department store and were overwhelmed by the amount of 'stuff' crammed into the building. The aisles were one American across which meant, of course, that there was 2 way traffic.

We found an amazing Indian restaurant and have resolved ourselves to finding the ultimate Pilak Paneer recipe so we can replicate our experience. YUMMM!




Chinatown

People, people, everywhere. You couldn't walk a step without running into someone or being accosted by shop owners trying desperately to get you to buy a "fine tailor suit or sexy blouse. Very cheap. Very nice."

At first I thought Troy was so RUDE just walking by these nice people who just wanted to say hi. By the end I realized that a no-eye-contact policy was essential if you wanted to survive. It was interesting, colorful, chaotic and beautiful.




Harbor Front

In the 1960s the Singapore Tourism Board decided they needed a good hook to draw in more tourists. They hired a guy who invented the Merlion. It's a half lion, half fish monstrosity that has no basis in myth, local history or folklore. The locals see the 70 ton waterspout as a joke and refer to vomiting as "doing a Merlion." Naturally, Troy and I had to go see it. It was as grotesque and surrounded by tourists as we had hoped.

The rest of the harbor front held restaurants, museums, shops, businesses and odd statues.




Hungry Ghost Festival

August 1st marked the beginning of the 7th lunar month which in Chinese culture is the first day of the Hungry Ghost Festival. This is the time of year when ghosts from the lower realm come out for a holiday and visit the corporeal world.

People burn incense, books, money, pictures and food as an offering to these hungry ghosts. They also leave plates of food out on the sidewalk and set extra places at the table at home for the ghosts to enjoy. Public concerts will leave the front row empty for the ghosts to sit and enjoy the show.




Fireworks

In preparation for National Singapore Day on the 9th, the city put on a fireworks display every night starting on the first. We were sitting in our hotel room when we heard a bunch of explosions followed by some strange singing. We went out on our balcony and could see a barge shooting off so many fireworks that the smoke started to obscure any sign of the lights. They would take a break, sing some songs and then start it up again. It was a loud, hazy, glorious show of national spirit.






Chilicrab

Singapore is a mish-mash of cultures and doesn't have very many truly "Singaporean" things (ergo the Merlion invention). One of the exceptions is the Chilicrab. It's a Singaporean dish that everyone had their own version of. The one we tried was down at the harbor front.

I thought it tasted great. Troy thought it tasted ok. We both thought it was messy and overpriced.

Singapore Sights

So yesterday Troy and I wandered around Singapore. We found more great signs including one with some really great medical advice (I expect you all to start taking daily doses of essence of chicken).

Regular cross walk sign...I thought it was funny to "Press for green man" as if the green man were the goal instead of permission to cross.


Upper left corner...you may need to enlarge it to see just how dedicated the Singaporeans were to celebrating Malaysia Day.


Troy says the work in progress signs in Japan had this same bowing weird looking man on them.

This was on the side of a bus station but after we saw this sign we noticed it everywhere. We even know where to buy it now. Give me your orders so I can stock up before we leave!


I stumbled upon a 3 story tall pink paisley recreation of Michaelangelo's David. I've censored it for those who are as disturbed as I am by 6 foot tall pink paisley boy bits.

Driving In Malaysia

We've really enjoyed taking the subway around Singapore. It's clean, fast, cheap and for the most part, it takes us to within feet of where we want to go. When we've traveled to and from the different countries we've had to hire drivers and got to experience the commute that so many Malay and Singaporeans experience everyday.

The picture is our driver. He gave us a lot of advice on where to visit both in Malaysia and Singapore, taught us several phrases in Malay and even ended up giving Troy his number for the next time we're in town and want to go up to K.L.

They drive on the left side of the road so their cars all seemed backwards at first. It took me a while to figure out how that affects people walking around in the mall (I find myself swimming upstream in a sea of people far too often).

As we've traveled around the U.S. each state has a unique font and style to their road signs and it always strikes me as one of those things we take for granted until it's suddenly different. Thus, I took lots of sign pictures as we raced down the highway. These are all taken through the windshield at 100 kph so forgive me if they're blurry. I still find them fascinating.

News From Home

Well it looks like the kids are having a blast. I was getting a little worried about them since I hadn't heard anything since Saturday. I figured either they were having so much fun that no one had time to email me OR they had torn down the house, ran everyone ragged and drove them insane with all their chatter. I should have known my mom and my sister Emily were made of tougher stuff!

My mom took them to Toys R Us and Michael's to pick up some activities for them to do. What a great Grandma. On her blog she mentioned not wanting them to be able to sum up their entire visit by saying they "watched tv and played on the trampoline." I have the same feelings about their summer vacation while we're at home. I dread getting their "summer journal" paper back with a little stamped smiley face on it proving that the teacher knows as well as I do that it was a good day if we all got dressed...let alone brushed our hair.

I actually laughed out loud when I saw that Scout had picked a Chuck E Cheese's Birthday Party Picnic set. Her birthday is on the 8th of August and she's been doing nothing but planning her party since Rand's was over back in May. If that set had a mini skee ball set I think I would have picked that too...I just can't get enough skee ball in my life.

As I looked as these pictures I realized that I know my kids pretty well. If left to their own devices (and given a wad of cash) I knew that Scout would have inevitably chosen something that had to do with birthdays, Random would have gravitated toward legos and Savannah would have gone totally native (she's the one I keep taking pictures of crazy Malay bugs for).

I'm so happy to see their smiling faces and I'll be glad to be reunited soon. It'll be great to get back to Oregon with all the familiar sights, smells, foods but most of all to give those cute kids some long awaited hugs.

Malaysia

Troy works with a company in Senai, Malaysia and so on Sunday evening we took a hotel shuttle to our new hotel: The Sofitel Palm Resort Golf & Country Club. The hotel is full of character and surrounded by amazing life...plant, animal and insect.

I've never knew palm trees could be so diverse. I feel like a horticultural noob as I keep looking up trying to find the coconuts. The trees to the left are directly outside of our hotel room. On the way to the hotel we passed fields of palm tree farms. The area here is known for their palm oils.

The hallways all have wall sconces that not only light the way but also heat up and provide a warm and bug filled nest for geckos to hunt in at night. Almost every wall sconce has a gecko or two hiding inside.

Troy goes off to work during the day so I'm at the hotel free to lounge by the pool, go to the spa, play pool, bowl, commit archery, snooker, racquetball, ping pong or golf. They have bicycles to rent, boardgames, squash courts, fitness rooms and an entire room dedicated to Majong. Of course it's 70,000 bajillion degrees with 493% humidity outside and I've yet to wrangle up enough people to put together a decent squash team. I also think everyone in the hotel is here on business so the fall-over-themselves-with-politeness-staff who won't make eye contact with me, let alone pick up a ping pong paddle and hit something at me, are the only people around during the day.

I've gone on lots of walks around the grounds and tried to enjoy the beauty of such a diverse ecology. My favorite view is seeing the roofs of the hotel rising out of the jungle.

Every path I've taken has been paved differently. I wonder what the story is with that. Did they run out of stones? Is it art? It's definitely interesting and adds to the tactile beauty of my daily jaunts.

The paths through the grass have railroad ties embedded in them so the earth doesn't slide away in the rain. There are deep canals crisscrossing the property. The freeway overpasses have signs indicating which side of the road has rain shelters for motorcyclists. So much evidence of a dramatic rainy season.

The inky green pools have thousands of coy living in them. They're difficult to see through the murky water but they'll suddenly begin jumping and the water comes alive. I have to admit, that's a little creepy.

Here are some more of the pictures that I took on my trip around the resort:

Paths:

Plants:

Random things that struck my fancy:

Singapore: Cultural Differences

English is one of the official languages of Singapore. The children go to a school that teaches in both their parent's language and English so most people are bi or tri-lingual. We learned that some words are used differently there than they are in America however. Here are some of the finds that made us giggle:

Singapore: Our Hotel

In Singapore we stayed at the Swissotel on Stamford Road.

The location couldn't have been better. We were just steps away from the subway so we had great access to the whole city for just a few cents.

We were on the 56th floor of the hotel so the view was fabulous. We could see the famed Merlion, the Esplanade (theaters that look like bug eyes), the Parlament buildings, the National Museum of Singapore, part of Sentosa Island and tons of sky scrapers, apartment buildings and churches.

We were so high up in the hotel and the elevator traveled so fast that our ears popped as we rode up to our floor.

We could see our hotel from far all over the city and actually took this picture from over 2 kilometers away.

Here are some pictures we took from our hotel balcony.

Customs in Singapore

When I arrived in Singapore the first thing I did was to choose a line to stand in while I waited to go through customs. I picked what looked like a small line behind a group of about 8 short, well dressed young men. I was at least a head taller than most of them. Their bright pastel colored button up shirts contrasted pleasantly with their dark skin. They looked like they were getting back from an insurance salesman convention and had coordinated their outfits for the trip. I immediately thought of what Scout would have said were she with me... "Hello tiny men. Why are you so tiny?"

After 5 minutes with the customs officer the first man was sent back. I watched him pass his friends whispering what had happened, the looks of worry reflected in all their faces, and join a line of about 20 short insurance salesmen waiting to enter an unmarked door. They were being watched over and yelled at ("Form 1 line! Stay in line!") by two taller, fairer men in uniforms standing on a platform so that they towered over the men in line.

I quickly realized that as far as quickly moving lines go, I had chosen poorly. Each of the men took at least 5 minutes and I watched as people with US, European, Japanese and Singapore passports flew through the lines next to me. After about 3 of the men had been sent back to the mysterious angry line, one was finally let through. He looked back at his friends and lifted a piece of paper, showing it to them surreptitiously. They all began to frantically dig through their backpacks and satchels to find the magical paper that would let them through. After that only one was sent back to the line that had now reached the end of the room and was wrapping back on itself.

It turns out this was a group of Malaysians and unfortunately Singapore is as suspicious of its neighbors as we are of ours. In their political landscape I'm sure it all makes sense just as we've convinced ourselves that how we treat Mexicans makes sense. It's definitely made me reconsider some things though.

When I got to the customs officer I handed him my passport and disembarkment form. He stamped it, scanned it and I was on my way. Having a United States passport was like having the golden ticket. No questions asked, no strip searching or strange lines to stand in at the back of the hall. I was all ready to explain why I was in Singapore, declare my leftover granola bars or demand to see the consul but I didn't have to say a word. I'm glad to be an American and have the opportunity to travel. I hope I live to see the day that everyone has the same rights.

World Travelers

Troy has been in Singapore for the last week working on Xerox's latest supa-sweet solid ink printer. On Tuesday I dropped the kids off with family in Washington and right now I'm blogging from the Tokyo Narito airport. Crazy.

I got a picture of the kids having a great time with my sister. They look happy and I really hope that right now they're sleeping (it's 1:41 am in Puyallup right now).

I miss them but I'm sure they're going to have a really great time playing with cousins and their grandparents.

The first leg of my flight was 10 1/2 hours and now my neck is killing me. I'm hoping that I'm on the other side of the plane for the Japan to Singapore jump so I can even out this kink!

So what do you think about during a 10 1/2 hour flight? I'll tell you. You worry about whether or not you flushed up or down when you went number 1 back at good ol' PDX.

Hehehe, anyway, there's a flurry at the gate so I think I better pack up. Wish me luck!

Coastal Camping

We've had a really busy summer. Between house guests, road trips and projects, we've been on the go almost the whole time. When we got back from visiting Boise and realized we only had one weekend before Troy would head out to Singapore for work, we decided that we needed some quality family time before he left.

We got online and reserved a camping spot at a KOA in Newport, dug through the storage unit to try to find some gear, crammed the Focus till it nearly burst and took off Friday morning. We took the longer route so we could enjoy the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway. Instead of using the portable dvd player to zombie the kids we listened to a radio drama so we could all look out the windows and appreciate the gorgeous scenery.

It was about this time that things started to go a little crazy. I had been struggling with that mysterious joint pain for a few days and by the time we reached Lincoln City for a pit stop I couldn't so much walk as I could waddle...picture walking without moving any joints including all the tiny joints in your feet. Now that I'm no longer in excruciating pain I can totally see the humor in the situation. I was wandering around this tiny bargain grocery store (where the discards of real grocery stores go to die) trying my best not to be a whiner and find the mini-marshmellows I needed for the banana boats I had planned. I was dottering along on my quest while Troy and the kids ran around getting snacks from all around the store. I think they did 7 laps before I got to the other side of the store. I felt like the old lady in her house coat trying to remember where she put her glasses. "Where are the marshmellows?" "OK honey it's time for you to sit back down." "But I need the marshmellows." "Kids, take your mother to the car, she's lost her mind again and she's walking like a penguin that had a flipperectomy." "But the marshmellows..." Of course in the bargain grocery store all there actually was by way of marshmellow were the pink and green tree shaped ones left over from Christmas.

We also noticed that Lincoln City isn't the Kite Capital of the World for nothing. The wind was refreshing and invigorating in the bright summer sun, but also should have been a little bit of a clue as to what the weather was going to be like a few miles down the road at our campsite.

Our campsite was called the Waldport/Newport KOA and is between two tiny resort towns that exist solely to make and sell Salt Water Taffy to tourists. We had printed out our google maps directions and followed them to the letter. Of course once we got to the alleged location we were in the middle of a row of weathered vacation homes with BMWs in the driveways and glorious ocean views...not exactly your typical KOA. Google maps had failed us! We booted up our computer with its trusty GPS and finally found our campground.

We got out of the car, checked out our tiny campsite and nearly froze our buns right off. The wind was whipping so fiercely that we were chilled to the bone. At this point I turned to Troy and asked if, when he was checking out the weather and it said the highs would be 95-100 and lows in the mid 50s, was he actually checking the weather for where we would be or for where he was at the time (sitting on the couch in Wilsonville). He said something like, "ummm heh heh." So we loaded up the kids and drove back to Newport to find some jackets.

An hour later, ten degrees colder but a few layers warmer, we made it back to the campsite. I started setting up the tent while Troy and Scout went off to buy firewood. Rand, Savannah and I had part of one tent partially emptied out of its bag by the time he got back (I couldn't close my fingers tightly enough to grip...I'm really not THAT bad at setting up tents :-P). Troy took over the tents while I started the fire.

I don't know about your experiences with campground firewood but we've always noticed that it's dry and eager to light with only the slightest coaxing. Not so with the Fancy Campwood from the Waldport/Newport KOA. It's the new-fangled slow-burning soggy wood that all the kids are raving about this season. It took forever to get it dried out enough to burn and then even longer to get it down to coals so we could cook the foil dinners we had brought. The foil dinners ended up being the best thing I've ever eaten from a campfire though so it was worth the wait.

The night was cold and I kept worrying that the kids were freezing in their little tent. They did all right and Random even took Scout to the bathroom in the middle of the night. What a good kid.

Breakfast was an egg/potato/sausage foil concoction that I found the recipe for online. Troy was pretty anti-fire in the morning though so I poured it into a frying pan and cooked it on the propane stove. That worked out great, tasted good and gave us lots of greazy fuel for a fun day at the beach.

We followed the signs in the campground to the "trail" to the beach. We found the trail...it was actually a sand cliff that you just sort of banzai down. Tough to do when you can't bend your knees but I made it! The kids found some shells, dead crabs and lots of smelly seaweed. The water was exceptionally cold and the beach was rocky so we decided to drive up the coast and find another beach that wasn't so smelly. Getting back up the "trail" was a feat and by the time we got up all of our thighs were burning and we were pretty sweaty. Gratefully, the wind was still a bajillion knots so we dried off quickly.

We went up the coast and pulled off when we saw some awesome rock outcroppings. We climbed around on those for a while and got back in the car.

Arctic Circle for lunch (Yay for Lime Rickies!) and then off to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. First of all, I think that's a hilarious name. It should go in our scrapbook right next to pictures of Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp. It seems like some eager beavers should take a breath and let people add their own adjectives but you know, whatever.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse on the Oregon coast and we climbed all the way to the top. The last time I climbed a tower on Oregon's coast it was the Astoria Column. I was 16 and had an undiagnosed case of mono so at least we stuck to the tradition of mysterious illnesses and tall buildings near highway 101.

Next we were off to the tidal pools which were great but we all suffered from a little Lime Ricky revenge and had to hustle back up up up up and up the trail to get to the bathroom...and FAST. We all made it but it was touch and go there for a while for poor Scoutie.

We got back to camp exhausted and found that our tents were nearly on their side being blustered at by that unrelenting wind. Our tent stakes were not up to the task of the cement-like soil of the campsite. We bought the camp store out of stakes and were able to get the tent secured and make dinner.

That night was much warmer so everyone was very comfortable. There was free wifi access (I know...what has camping come to?) at the KOA so Troy and I got online and bought some t-shirts. That was probably my favorite part. Laying on a nice full air mattress and laughing at how geeky I am to have just ordered a Bassoon Hero t-shirt.

The next morning we made pancakes, cleaned up, broke camp and headed home. It was a great camp and I'm glad we didn't let our crazy summer, my crazy broken body or our crazy-small car stand in the way of the memories we made.

Here are more pics from our trip: