Vacay!!!!

Last week found the house of Wiedz on the road. A year and a half ago we spent an amazing few days in Sunriver right after Labor Day weekend. This year we'd planned on visiting Mr. Wiedz's parents in Arizona so didn't plan our fall vacation. A fact that really upset the children (#1 particularly). So when we didn't take a trip to Arizona this fall Mr. Wiedz started making plans to make up our Sunriver vacation. In order to get a good deal on the condo we need to pick out of season dates so mid-January sounded just right.

We played board games and built puzzles. We took walks in the almost snowing, really snowing, and really melting paths. Went on a treasure hunt with Cousin B and her friend J :: geocaching for the first time for the Wiedz family. Everyone but the pregnant mama donned ice-skates for the first time :: amazing by the way, so much fun to watch each of their personalities come across in skates! We built snow forts. Played in the hot tub :: isn't Mr. Wiedz wonderful, took the kids to the hot tub everyday while mama sat back at the house with #5 in the quiet and relaxed. Vacation knitting :: I heart vacation knitting. And just spent an amazing week together.

Va-cay!

The Wiedz family headed out for a family vacation a couple days after Labor Day. Mr. Wiedz's aunt and uncle own a condo at Sunriver in Eastern Oregon. When Mr. Wiedz called her to set up a time for our family to rent the place she let him know the rental fee during the summer months and the rental fee after Labor Day. Always the bargain hunters, and at the time newly decided on homeschooling, we went with the after Labor Day dates for the significant savings and stretching our new homeschooling muscles with an unconventional vacation date!

We packed up our family games in case of needing to be in the condo. And found the condo came with a small stash, including Battleship! Oh, what a success that game was! So many destroyers sank! #2 has promptly but it on every gift-giving idea list. The first evening we were there was a little chilly so we made ourselves a fire and got out some games. Just the perfect kind of family vacation fun we were looking for.

We also packed all the children's bikes for use on the fantastic paved bike/walking trails throughout Sunriver. We rented bikes and a baby trailer for ourselves to use and by the end of the trip purchased the whole package as the rental place sells off their inventory at the end of the season for a great discount. Mr. Wiedz got a lot of use from the bike and trailer and the car remained parked for the duration of the vacation.

#4 still uses a trike, the paths and the kind of riding the big kids/Mr. Wiedz were doing just weren't for trike-riding so we let him ride around in the parking lot and I took him on his own ride one afternoon. He was so excited about going on a bike ride! Every time we'd mention loading up for a bike ride he would run out and get on his trike, it would take a lot of discussion to get him in his trailer.

One of our bike rides was to the resort park. The kids had a great time climbing, swinging, running, and playing.

Of course there was the pool for use by the condo visitors/residents. The first couple of days was kind of chilly but most of our days there the weather was perfect and the kids and Mr. Wiedz had so much fun doing "cannon balls" in the pool. There was a kiddie pool and a hot tub that #4 liked the most.

While we were there I realized how much work a vacation is. Mr. Wiedz and I were exhausted. Mr. Wiedz won an award for keeping up with the kids...they would come in from a bike ride peeling off their clothes to change into swimsuits for a swim then get back in from swimming ready for another bike ride. One of the days Mr. Wiedz went back and forth with the children, 3 bike rides (2-4 miles long) and 2 45-minute swims. I had it easy with #5 in the condo taking naps and knitting mostly.

Before we left #1 kept saying how she hoped this would be the best vacation EVER! and I think we accomplished that!

Or Not...

Well, we started school but since we're homeschooling we can take breaks whenever they work for us, right? And a week at SunRiver Resort at a discount since we waited until after Labor Day...works for us!

We're off like a herd of turtles to enjoy Uno, cribbage, checkers, lots of food, Yahtzee!, bike rides, hot tubs, walks, some fishing, movies...

...being a family!

Cousins Weekend 2010

Last year Mr. Wiedz's cousins got together for a camping trip. We went to Eastern Oregon on the only raining weekend they had last summer. Both tent awnings Mr. Wiedz's cousin had gotten as wedding presents broke in the wind. We all had a nice time, being with family is always better than the weather, but the boys said they were going to plan the next year.

This year we found a house on the second row of the beach in Pacific City. Small paths through the first row houses led to the beach. I'm usually not a beach person. I grew up going to the coast, all of my family lived at the coast but we never went to the beach. And the beach is so messy. But I decided that this trip would really be about the vacation. I would buck up about the mess and enjoy the journey.

While Mr. Wiedz and some of his cousins were out crabbing and #5 was asleep with another cousin at the house I took the big kids to the beach.

They ran...They built sandcastles...They dug...

They played... I knitted...

#5 woke up so cousin T was done watching him...the kids were ready to be done at the beach anyway so we went back to the house, showered all the sandy bodies and got into new clean clothes. Luckily the house had a washer/dryer so I was able to wash all the sandy clothes there.

After #5's lunch the kids and I headed out to Fat Freddy's for lunch. Fat Freddy's was the restaurant I went to with heather and tina in high school, we were in Pacific City for the fireworks on Forth of July and they'd had gotten hamburgers a this roadside burger joint. As a vegetarian I passed but I was so hungry I decided to have just one bite...until I HAD to have my own. I've always remembered that Fat Freddy's turned me from my vegetarianism (my mother was very happy).

The kids and I had a great lunch, Fat Freddy's would still end any ideas of vegetarianism. And walked back to the house. The big kids watched a movie while #4 found a sandy area next to the house to play. I sat outside knitting while we waited for Mr. Wiedz and the second round of cousins to come back.

The cousins and Mr. Wiedz had had wonderful luck on Wiedz Wonder and Cousins Weekend had a crab feast!

No one counted but we think there were nearly 30 dungeness crab on Saturday. The cousins and Mr. Wiedz had SO MUCH FUN on the boat! They pulled crab pots, watched the cooler get fuller and fuller, and motored around the bay.

After our fabulous crab feast Mr. Wiedz took the kids on a sunset beach walk as he had promised. Many of the cousins joined in. #5 was having his evening nap so I took the opportunity to have some minutes to myself. Some much needed minutes sitting on the couch, watching the sunset from the window, working on my quilt project.

Of course a sunset beach walk meant wading in the ocean, rolling down the dunes, and a new batch of sandy bodies and laundry to be washed. But we did it...got everyone clean and warm and in bed.

The next morning was clean up time and getting everything packed back up to head home. As we worked to get that all done Mr. Wiedz's cousins T and B were cooking up a delicious Sunday breaky!

Thank you everyone for a wonderful Cousins Weekend! Can't wait for next year!

Once in a lifetime

Mr. Wiedz and #1 went to Florence the other day for Daddy/Sissy date camping trip. They drove down the South Jetty and saw orcas (killer whales) swimming in the river. Mr. Wiedz grabbed the camera and was able to take this awesome shot before the orcas disappeared.

Mr. Wiedz contacted some coastal publications (The Siuslaw News and Oregon Coast Magazine) who are publishing the photo!

My grandfather had taken my brother, mother and I on a similar whale hunt when I was little. We also saw the orcas surface right out in front of us. Something we all still remember. #1 will remember this for a long time!

Philly : Day 3

My last full day in Philadelphia was the day I had saved for the historic "stuff".

Last night we went to the casino night put on by Mr. Wiedz' convention. It was really fun. The convention gave us each "$2000" to play with. After an evening of playing black jack, poker or other casino games you used the money to buy raffle tickets and put them into bowls for the different prizes the sponsors had supplied. There was a lot of prizes, I put in for gas cards and Macy's gift cards. I didn't win but we were there until 11:30pm so it was a late night.

So after sleeping in for my last morning I got down to the Phlash trolley and rode to the Independence Visitors Center area. My first stop was the National Constitution Center.

I had gotten a brochure about the center one of my first days here and thought it looked like the one thing I'd like to spend money doing. If you're ever in the Philadelphia area I totally recommend the Constitution Center. Part of the $12 admission was the "Liberty Ring" show. The show was wonderful! I was teary by the end just from the power of it all.

Part of The National Constitution Center is the Signers Hall, life-size bronze statues of the Constitution signers.

One of my favorite groupings was the dissenters. There is a note on their table that says "dissent is an honorable American tradition". I really liked that part.
The hall of flags was also really great.
After The National Constitution Center I met Mr. Wiedz and we went on to see the Liberty Bell. The whole Liberty Bell Center is really well put together and it really leads up to seeing the bell nicely. We both enjoyed the Liberty Bell.
We walked around a bit, seeing old buildings, the new Quaker meeting house, the burial spot of Benjamin Franklin and such.

We went on the free tour of the US Mint which was neat. They weren't actually working the machines which would have been better and there is only one path to take through the building so that once you start you just keep walking and walking until you're done. It got a little long and a little stuffy but it was free and a fun thing to see.
Another tall building because every time we see them we think the kids would think it is cool.
I disappear again tomorrow. Back home again with no Internet access.

we are really missing the kids and can't wait to get home. It will be a long trip back. We have to leave the hotel at 3:45am and fly most of the day but we are really to be home!

Philly : Day 2

Today I had a relaxing day. After sleeping in I went for a walk to the Rittenhouse District, which I thought would be a cool boutique-y district but it wasn't. It had a nice park but not very many shops that I was interested in. I had seen an ad for a needlepoint store which I was hoping to go to but, of course, it was closed. My luck!

I had lunch at the same place as yesterday. Another delicious slice of pizza!

After lunch I walked down to Antiques Row but was again a little disappointing. Another GREAT park which I sat and had a chat with a great friend and made some lists and jotted down some thoughts. But no antique shops that I was interested in.

A long walk back to find protesters outside the convention center near our hotel. President Obama was on his way today to an event in the convention center and my guess is that protesters show up every place he does.

We even watched the motorcade arrive from our hotel window.

We walked the LONG walk to "Jim Steaks" for Philly Cheesesteaks on the recommendation of a friend. I wasn't interested in the cheesesteak but Mr. Wiedz enjoyed his. Another LONG walk back to the hotel then we changed and went to the casino night that his convention put on It was really fun although we didn't win any of the raffle prizes.

Tomorrow is the Liberty Bell and all the other historic tour stuff. I'm really looking forward to it and starting to really miss my kids. The pictures below I took mostly for their benefit. We don't see big buildings, police just standing waiting to be helpful, motorcades or cheesesteaks where we're from.

::big buildings

:: our hotel

:: ornate Chinatown arch

:: police waiting and watching the area

:: President motorcade, the closest to any President Mr. Wiedz and I have ever been

:: cool police motorcycles that were part of the motorcade

:: protesters

:: protesters

:: Mr. Wiedz' dinner, Philly cheesesteak and St. Pauli Girl beer

:: worth the walk

:: on the way back we stumbled onto Washington Square and found the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I was hoping to see this and was glad that we stumbled upon it as I wouldn't have found it otherwise.