FAVES

Stella's second birthday was Sunday, Nov. 19, so Nate and I drove out to Lincoln City to join Rae Ann & Tom, Ron & Linda (Tom's dad and stepmom), and Mom & Dad at the beach house where they were staying. It was wonderfully relaxing! The girls shopped the outlet mall while the guys stayed warm indoors and cooked Thanksgiving dinner. The girls took advantage of amazing sales at the Columbia outlet store, but we all wore out pretty quick and had to head home.

It was super rainy when we first arrived at the coast, but it eventully cleared up enough to provied an incredibly sunset. I don't have any pictures of the sunset on my camera since my silly card holds like 40 pictures and that's it. So, I used Tom's card, and once I get copies of the pictures from him, I'll post some here. It was fantastic! The beach house sat up on a cliff overlooking the water and the shore, so the perspective added to the photos, definately. Rae Ann, if you're reading this, could you please e-mail me some of those pictures????

Dinner was exceptional. Rae Ann and Tom made some great food! The turkey, man, I'll be hard pressed to do as good a job when it's my turn. Last year I accidentally bought a chicken instead of a turkey, but I cooked it the same way as I would have the turkey. It was okay, but Nate and I did alot of laughing. Actually, this year Mom is bringing the turkey to the table, you know, the friendly birds that she's been raising in her backyard. Well, they're dead now. Butchered. And weighing in between 30 and 33 pounds. That's alot of bird...

The babies were both oh-so-adorable. It's easy to make Ivy laugh these days, so I took full advantage of it while we were there! With all of the adults around, the girls had quite a fan club right at their fingertips. I admit, I'm easily manipulated by their pouts and smiles. I don't remember exactly what it was Rae Ann said no to, but Stella began to make her rounds asking for huggies and sticking out her lower lip whimpering. She found comfort in her auntie's arms! Even though she was so obviously faking it, I couldn't resist:)





This is Nate, distracted and mildly irritated that I kept sticking the camera in front of his face for a picture. Well, buddy, suck it up.



Mom, Dad, Nate, and I eventually made it down to the water before heading home. Nate and I started to walk out toward the water, but we found ourselves sinking in sad that was holding water even though the tide was out away from us. Ah, I miss living at the beach!