Oregon Coast Trip Journal

We just returned from a week long trip to the Oregon coast. 30 people spread between two beach houses, 17 of them children.

I always take a million pictures on trips. In fact, since having a digital camera, I probably have 10,000 + pictures on my computer. Not ONE of those pictures is printed. So for this trip, I took along my FUJI Instax camera, and plenty of Instax film.

Each child was made a journal for the trip. I used Oregon coast maps to cover it, and filled it with blank paper. I brought along plenty of colored pencils, glue (for gluing in tickets, maps, etc.) and photo tabs for mounting Instax pictures.

Each day, I took one photo of each child at one of the outings (the beach, sea lion caves, lighthouses, etc.) And each night we gathered to journal the day.  Here are a few outtakes from my daughters:

New York City Chapter 4: This is the end, I promise

You've all been so patient. All four of you. I noticed that as I keep adding New York posts, comments keep dropping. This is my last NYC post.

Chip and Bryan at the Natural History Museum. It was very much worth our time.

Chip really wanted us to mediate the discussion between the settlers and the Native Americans, but we weren't very successful.

Yes, we were that scared. We're not even acting.

Washington Square Park? I think? That arch is cool.

View of...Uptown Manhattan. You can see Central Park right smack in the middle.

View from empire state building.

View of Downtown Manhattan. And Brooklyn on the upper left.

It was way cold, but clear and beautiful on top of the Empire State Building.

Downtown Manhattan again. If I were nice I'd circle the statue of liberty for you, but I'm not. It's to the right of lower manhattan.

This is where John Lennon was shot. We like his music.

The "Imagine" circle. All decked out for Halloween?

This display was cool. big chunks of grass made out of different green fabrics. I'm going to one day make some for Milli's room.

Manhattan Temple.

Our hosts! We miss them so much! They were so fantastic to let us stay with them and take up their time for four days. Poor Katie, I think we kept her up WAY too late every night, but we couldn't help it, they kept telling funny stories.

I loved this trip. Yes I would live there. Yes I want to visit again.

New York City Chapter 3: Parks and Pottys

Day 3 was relaxing. Highlights:

Central Park

More central Park. It is such a nice park. We thought it was beautiful.

Bryan in Central Park. His feet were in agony from all the walking.

Max restaurant in Manhattan. Delicious.

Yep, it was a big enough problem that a metal sign needed to be made, and permanently attached to the building.

Our host's children. So cute, so funny, and so good.

New York City Chapter Two: Hot Dogs and Design Shops

Day two of New York was so so great. Our great friends Chip and Katie along with their girls Eve and Ruth showed us around Brooklyn. We went to the area where the Cosby Show was set, had a real slice of New York pizza, and saw lots and lots of great shops with cute things that we wished we could buy.

Highlights:

By the Brooklyn Bridge. Maybe Manhattan Bridge. I don't remember.

Pizza. Nice big pieces!

Views of Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn.

We started the day at the local market getting goodies.

Pie from Dean and Deluca. The lemon tart was the best thing I've ever eaten.

Fun furniture shop in Brooklyn. I really wanted this dresser.

Bryan went all the way to New York for this hot dog. It lives up to its reputation apparantly.

And the pina colada was awesome too.

At our friends Ward Chili Cook off we ran into a very good mission buddy of Bryan's - Blake Marsden.

New York City Chapter One: Museum day

Bryan and I have been visiting friends. (And you should visit her blog for some creative inspiration). They live in Brooklyn and have a charming life there. It was really great to be with them, have them show us around, and see lots, and lots, of cool things.

On day one, Bryan and I visited the MoMA and the Met. I think I prefer the MoMA over the Met, but we saw great things at both places. Bryan was able to see his favorite painting of all time - The Three Musicians by Picasso. I was really hoping for some Degas because they are so much better in person, but, the area they where they would be in the Met was closed.

We stopped at the American Girl doll store even though we didn't have our little girl with us. She is always asking for one of these dolls.

The first night for dinner we went to a great Thai place named "Song" in Brooklyn. It was the best Thai food I've ever had. Eve and Ruth crashed while we waited for our food -we maybe wore them out in the mile walk in the rain to the restaurant.