Substitute Days

Substitute Teacher Christian here. We saw Kristine out the door Tuesday morning off on her grand space adventure, and immediately the educational standards dropped like a first stage after second stage ignition. I'm not going to lie, the lessons learned over the next several days were decidedly eclectic and real-life centered. We had lots of PE, mostly in the form of free-form swimming, and also did a fair amount of study in the field of Recreation Science.

Getting a late start, we finally hit the road southbound from Seattle to Vancouver at 2:00 pm on Tuesday afternoon. We made it through a pouring rain to Grandma and Grandpa's house by 5, where we spent the night and were back on the road by nine the next morning after a nice breakfast. Another 3 hours worth of drenching drive later, we arrived at Siletz, OR.

Once at Nonnie and Bops', we settled down for a few days of family, food, and fun. There were more than a couple of evening bouts of Apples to Apples, a fun word game that can be played effectively by all ages.

 Annabelle was particularly enamored by this game and would have happily played every night (and day) if others had been amenable.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner for the second time in a week. But who doesn't love turkey and gravy and mashed potatoes and green beans and cranberry sauce?

Aunt Erika volunteered to read bedtime stories, but was a little skeptical that "Creatures of Star Wars" was an appropriate title.

 

On Civil War Saturday, we decided to DVR the game because some other family members who also wanted to watch the game were driving up from California, and would miss the first part. Since it was a beautiful day, and we knew we wouldn't miss the game, we opted to take the 20 minute drive to visit the beach for a while.

When we got there both kids took off for the surf

CJ doesn't like the idea of his pants getting wet, so he holds them up, but apparently couldn't care less about running into the surf with his shoes and socks on.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It was positively balmy, and much warmer than many, if not most, summer days I can recall at the Oregon Coast.

It was a good week, but we miss Kristine, and are greatly looking forward to her triumphant return from being a NASA reporter.