Beach Getaway

This weekend at the coast was unbelievable.

Not only was there a lot of quality family time, the weather was perfect and we truly felt like we were in Southern California and dare I say it - Mexico!

After a long week of working hard, this image about sums it up:

Getting rays down by the sand, taking naps on the porch, watching puppies run wild and eating tasty foods can make any weekend spectacular - I thankfully got to experience all of these!

Little lady Bella is still getting acclimated to the harsh ocean waves and it was fun to watch her curiosity as Bailey and Dad played in the surf.

She saw how much fun her sister was having out there in the waves so she stood on all fours and we could tell that she was processing what her next move would be.

It wasn't natural or instinctive, but when she decided she would jump in - she went at it full force!

A day at the coast isn't the same without puppy camaraderie and expert hole-diggin'!

In no time these two struck water and rested in the shallow pool they had created.

For such a gorgeous weekend we were lucky enough to find empty patches of sand where the puppies could run free.

If only every weekend on the Oregon Coast looked and felt as wonderful as this. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us enjoy your home!

Unwind

Thanks for not throwing things at me on Friday for lamely re-directing you to another post that explained how I was feeling - a quality post just wasn't going to happen.

Some things that did happen on Friday:

• Scrambled and flustered practice-round presentation


• A slap in my own face for revealing how scrambled I felt to my team and manager


• Twenty minutes to myself to get game-time ready


• A solid, composed and confident presentation when it counted.


• A celebration patio beer with the team Except they got lunch too


• A surprise work-birthday party... followed by not much other work.


• Supergoose IPA in the sun while waiting for Dan to meet me at the theater


• Iron Man 3 (great flick!)


• Crashed hard when we got home at 10pm

Saturday morning Dan and I woke up early and refreshed. We quickly packed a bag (that held mostly our electronic devices) and hit the open road to meet up with my parents and little sisters at the coast.

The sun roof open and our sunglasses on the entire trip made us feel like it was mid-July. While the temperatures crept into the high 70's and the rays of the sun soaked into our skin we felt nothing but joy, relief and a youthful nostalgia of summer break. We talked more in that two hour car ride than we've talked in the last few months, and even though a good majority of it was about work - it felt great to listen to his voice, talk about ways we can help each other and get inside of each other's heads more than the usual "what do you want for dinner, how was your day, did you feed Tiger" conversations.

Unwinding for the weekend was the best thing we could have done for ourselves and definitely helped me with my 'be spontaneous' goal. As you can imagine, no additional work for the week was done for this blog, no work was done, no food prep was accomplished and we'll have to save our Costco trip for another day.

And I'm fine with that, because nothing can beat a sunset like this one.

Stormy Vacation

For weeks my family had planned a beach retreat while my brother is home and it just so happened to be during the biggest storm the Oregon coast has seen so far this year.

On Sunday after spending some quality time with friends over food and drinks at the annual Fakesgiving get-together, we headed south to our beach house in Lincoln City. We knew there was a storm brewing, but had never experienced 100 MPH gusts of wind first hand. When we arrived at the house, the trees were swaying and the rain was falling. As the night went on, we feared the stability of our backyard trees and the roof over our heads.

We made it through the howling winds of the first night to wake up the next morning to no power. My dad delivered latte's to mom and I while we witnessed recycling bins scooting down the road, signs leaning closer toward the ground and maintenance trucks driving past surveying the damage.

We wanted a change of scenery so we hit the road and went to see where we could find the best views of the storm doing work. Bailey was intrigued and the rest of us had never seen waves like these. Instead of breaking like they normally would, the wind would take the surf and blend it into the rest of the ocean.

We still didn't have any power when we returned back home from our adventure, so we devised a plan to eat save the ice cream, refrigerate perishables and heat the home with a crackling fire. After a few naps were taken, we played a few friendly rounds of power-outage jenga and decided to hit the town for dinner and some Monday night karaoke fun.

Our power came back late Monday night and was party-worthy. We all slept well Monday night knowing that the worst of the storm had passed and that we would be able to charge our gadgets overnight not worry about the trees in the backyard causing any damage.

Bailey is starting to feel better from her Saturday illness, but still prescribed for a special diet and the take-it-easy plan. She sure knows how to relax!

<3 JE