My "little" brother

A week after Mason went home, we picked up my little brother Seth at the Portland airport.  I cannot believe he is almost 18!
It was SUPER hot in Portland that day (as in 93 degrees, but hey, we are spoiled here with the coastal breezes and 65-70 degree days!).  We went shopping for a couple hours and then decided to hit up a farmers market on our way home.  The market was amazing!  It was mostly all food -veggies, produce, prepared food, etc.  We wandered around and bought a bunch of different kinds of berries:  tayberries, boysenberries, and marionberries.  We also got some various breads and rolls.  Seth decided to try a homemade tamale and Skott and I opted for wood fired pizza.

Although Seth was only here for two weeks, we tried to squeeze in as much sightseeing as we could.  Unfortunately, we have been SUPER busy at work lately =working later hours= sleeping later in the day. 


Daily walks on the beach

Newport Bay Historic Bayfront

Trip to Tillamook Cheese Factory

Oceanside beach

Crabbing/Relaxing at the Bay

the dogs LOVED their Uncle Seth!

We shared a lot of laughs, cooked a lot of new foods, and had a great time.  Too bad the trip wasn't longer, there was so much more we wanted to show him.

On our way back to the airport, we left early enough to stop by VooDoo doughnut in Portland.  They have the most amazing combinations and I love that all their packaging is 100% compostable/recycleable

Getting ready to head in to Voodoo doughnut

Skott got the bacon and maple bar. 
Two giant strips of bacon on a light fluffy maple bar

(I was trying to make the same face as my doughnut)
I got the Voodoo doll.  At the center of the green swirl is a pretzel stake,
 like poking a voodoo doll, and the inside of the doughnut is filled with red jelly.

Seth got a couple extra doughnuts to take home.
Being that this is a family friendly blog, the giant
chocolate doughnut shall remain unnamed :)



Cherry Picking!

After dropping Mason off at the Portland airport (sad, sad, sad), we decided to stop by a U-Pick Cherry farm some friends of ours told us about.  It's located about halfway between the airport and our house.

We got some instructions, some bags, and the last available bucket, and set off to the cherry trees.  We wanted mostly Rainiers cherries, but they ended up being smaller and not as ripe.  Neither one of us had picked cherries before and we quickly got frustrated with trying to carefully pluck the cherry+stem off, but not too much of the base of the stem so the cherry could grow next year.  If anyone has any suggestions, I am ready to listen :) 
Since the car was close by, we walked back and got a knife and I just so happened to have a pair of scissors in my purse that day...

It went MUCH faster after our new tools and we quickly filled two grocery bags with cherries.

We laughed and talked and had a great time.  It reminded me a lot of picking raspberries when I was little.  All of us cousins would be out there with dishrags tied around our waists to hold the jars.  We probably ate more than we picked, and I remember Grandpa Rex telling us he couldn't hear us whistling.  He said we couldn't whistle if we had a mouthfull of raspberries :)  I must say though, picking cherries is waaaaay easier than picking raspberries :)

Catching Up

We are really enjoying having my nephew Mason visiting.  He is a great kid and a lot of fun!  Consequently, I haven't been doing much with my blog so here is a quick recap of the last few weeks:

We learned how to crab!  The Siletz Bay is great for crabbing.  We learned that it is better to use chicken instead of fish for bait.  If you use fish, the sea lions across the bay will steal your bait :)
We also learned that it is very, very important to have good gloves!

putting chicken in the trap

Mason getting ready to toss out

I like Skott's form!

It is also very important to remember sunscreen!  We were all pretty crispy by the next day...

Our first (legal) catch.  They have to be male and they have to be a certain size.  We ended up catching three crab that day.

The following weekend we went camping at Fort Stevens State Park in Seaside, Oregon (about 2 1/2 hours north).  The mosquitoes were shockingly HORRIBLE!  

Izzy made herself at home in my camp chair

playing basketball at the arcade

We ended up cutting the trip a day short, as the weather forecast changed and there was 70% chance of rain starting at midnight and continuing through the following day.  We did not want to take down a tent in the rain!

 

Izzy has grown quite fond of Mason and loves to snuggle on the couch with him:

I cannot believe the entire month of June has passed by so quickly!  It has been so much fun having Mason here, it feels like he just got here yesterday.