Vintage Vance: July 2014

As we have done several times in the past, we went to Newport on Memorial Day weekend to celebrate our anniversary (36 years on May 31, 2014). So here are some pictures of this year's trip:

Heceta Head Lighthouse from a long ways away.

Heceta Head Lighthouse zoomed in a little closer.

Now we're standing next to the lighthouse, which was re-done about a year ago, so it's nice and pretty now.

We stayed at the LaQuinta of course. The manager is a friend so she offered us free tickets to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We had been once, a couple of years ago, but we were excited to go again.

We really enjoyed walking through the "Passages of the Deep" exhibits where you walk through three different tunnels, representing 3 zones of the ocean, and the fish, including the sharks in this photo, are swimming all around you. The acrylic is about 4 inches thick, and many of the animals swim right up to it, so you can really get "up close and personal" with them.

I've always loved seahorses -- not sure why. I spent a lot of time watching them glide through the water.

The puffins were fun to watch also.

We went to some more of our favorite spots: Cape Perpetua and the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

We (and a whole lot of other people) stayed past closing time at the Lighthouse to take photos of the sunset. I was sad when my camera battery died unexpectedly before the sun went all the way down, but when I saw that the few photos I had taken before the battery died had turned out pretty nice, I didn't feel too bad about the situation.

June was a fun month for us!

We got to babysit Anna a couple of times. She likes to suck on her two middle fingers, which looks quite funny.

Here's Anna and Grandpa just chillin' out on the front porch swing.

Mandi decided to put Anna's hair in a mohawk for the day. Not too many 3-month old babies even have enough hair to attempt this hairstyle.

Melissa and the kids flew up from Texas the middle of June. Clay went up to Portland to pick them up at the airport, while I stayed home to give the Family Home Evening lesson to our Empty Nesters FHE group (there wouldn't have been enough room in the car for me anyway).

Here are all the cousins together for the first time.

We spent an evening at Skinner's Butte Park, watching the girls play and visiting with Rob's brother John and his friend, Maria. It was a very pleasant evening.

Melissa's got Mira trained well --

she really knows how to pose for photos.

Legos were definitely a theme of this visit. We gave Mira this set of Rapunzel's tower from the movie "Tangled". The girls put it together, then spent a lot of time playing with it.

Clay and Mira put together my Spiderman set. Then somehow Spiderman and his arch-enemy, Venom, spent quite a lot of time hanging around with Rapunzel.

We also had a set of Legos that can make three dinosaurs (one at a time from the same pieces). Mira made the first one, a pterodactyl. I don't think she wanted to break that one apart in order to make one of the others.

A picnic and hiking trip to Shotgun Creek was planned. I didn't make the trip since I wasn't feeling well that day. But I believe everyone else had a fun time. (They didn't end up hiking after all because of cougar sightings on the trails).

The girls took a "selfie" on the way to the park.

Danica likes to see how high she can

get going on the swings.

Now that Neil has a baby of his own, he's not so afraid of holding other babies.

Anna was in a good mood -- at least

when this photo was taken.

Mira really likes "smashed potatoes," Legos, books, having stories read to her, playing videogames (especially Animal Crossing) on the DS, and many other things.

Mira really really really really HATES bugs...really! Whenever she saw a bug (or thought she saw a bug), there was a lot of screaming, crying, and carrying on. Melissa is hoping this stage passes quickly. It's funny that Danica loved bugs when she was this age (and probably still does). Danica would hunt for them wherever we went, and carry one around with her as long as she could.

Oddly enough, although Mira is terrified of bugs, she has no problem with snakes!
Clay took them to a "petting zoo" at the Zany Zoo pet store.

Danica only tolerated the snakes --
she was more fond of the guinea pigs.

Calvin is at that age where everything

goes in his mouth -- even boxes!

Out of all the toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house -- and there are really a lot -- Calvin's favorite "toy" was to pull DVDs off the shelves to play with.

And no visit would be complete without a trip to Chuck E. Cheese with Grandpa. Clay said that Mira actually drives really well, considering that she has to get right on top of the steering wheel in order to reach the gas pedal.

I have this photo of me with two of my grandchildren. Mandi took some of me with all 4 of them, but I haven't seen those pictures yet.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Since Danica had left after the first week to spend some time in Portland with her dad, we borrowed Neil's car so both Clay and I could take the rest of them to Portland to catch a plane home. We got passes to go through security and accompany them to the gate.