Summer Fruits

 

The four older children blessed the family by picking nearly 100 lbs of strawberries at a local U pick farm. We spent a few days canning and freezing delicious sun ripened berries. So grateful!

  

We also picked up 20 pounds of oranges and made a few batches of marmalade

Ryan and Grant made three raised beds for us out of some materials we had laying around

Here the girls plant some herbs

The tomato plants are getting bigger!

In addition to the veggies we are anticipating from our raised beds, we are also receiving lovely organic veggies from a local farm where some in our family are working weekly. That has offset our lack of space and variety here at the rental.

One of our favorite dishes currently is roasted veggies~ we just chop up the carrots, beets, turnips and onions and put them in a 9x12 pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Simple but oh so yummy!

 

Oregon Coast Aquarium

After visiting the old vessel, we headed over to the incredible Oregon Coast Aquarium. What an amazing family outing! We would highly recommend it. Unfortunately it is pretty costly. We ended up purchasing a year membership for the same price as what our one time admission fee would have been. So at least we can go back later this year if we find ourselves in Newport again!

 

 

We enjoyed the aquarium's newest exhibit which is entitled Secrets of Shipwrecks'

 

This lovely fellow had our girls quite captivated..

The girls really enjoyed these Pacific Sea Nettles

 

 

 

Laura makes a friend

Everyone participated in the interactive saltwater 'petting zoo' including barnacles, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and starfish

Beautiful sea urchin

This Japanese Spider Crab could potentially grow to be 45 pounds and 13' across!

This tufted puffin comes to say hello

the family enjoyed watching the sea lions and harbor seals

Passages of the Deep- our favorite exhibit!

The ceiling and part of the floor is made up of glass!

Daddy and Laura look at all the fish which surrounded them

Grace and Laura enjoy looking at the fish who were under their feet

This shark jaw makes our boys look so small!

We had waaaay too much fun in the gift shop

 

                      With it being a holiday weekend, there were lots of visitors at the aquarium. Thankfully we had remembered that we had parked in the octopus lot!

 

At the gift shop, Grant had purchased the quintessential Oregon Coast treat-

Salt Water Taffy!

 

What a fun day! We look forward to going back again

Newport,OR

 

We enjoyed visiting the Oregon Coast Memorial Day weekend. One thing we did  was visit a replica vessel called the Hawaiian Chieftain which is the name of a sailing vessel known as the Spirit of Larinda. Built in 1988 in Lahaina on the island of Maui, the Hawaiian Chieftain is a contemporary interpretation of a traditional design. She is unique with the rig of a 19th-century trading vessel and a modern triple keel, shallow draft hull. Drawing only 5.5 feet, she is highly maneuverable in shallow waters.