Girls and Curls

This weekend I put the girls' hair in sponge curlers for the first time. I don't even remember how it came up, but once Adah and Maggie heard about these they just couldn't wait for me to get some and roll up their hair. I wasn't even sure that they made these curlers anymore until I found them at the store. My mom used to put them in my hair occasionally. I always hated sleeping with them, so I warned the girls that they might not like them. They were so excited and seemed to love every minute of it!

The curly results all ready for church:

Aren't they cute?

Gunnar's New Looks

Gunnar, who has always been attached to his pacifier, has recently started something new with it. He deliberately tucks the handle up under his nose. If you tap it down, he immediately swings it upward and tucks it in place again. So funny!

Gunnar also loves wearing goggles. I put a pair on him while we were watching the girls' swimming lessons, thinking it wouldn't last. He loved it! Here he is sporting them at home, along with his "kilt." (Heck--his sisters dress up. He wants to be included. Give us a break.)

Yurt Camping at the Coast

At the end of June we booked a last-minute trip to Cape Disappointment State Park. The cape was named in 1788 by an English sea captain when he failed to make it into the mouth of the Columbia River which is just south of the cape. In 1792 an American captain successfully crossed the river bar and named the river for his ship. Just over a decade later, Lewis and Clark arrived at Cape Disapointment.

We spent four nights at the state park, sleeping in a yurt. Yurts are circular "tents" made of a wooden frame and sturdy canvas. They have wood floors, an overhead light, a locking door, beds, and a heater. We brought all of our own bedding and the other usual camping gear. After the luxury of the dry, warm yurt on our chilly sometimes-rainy coastal visit, I don't know if I'll be able to go back to tent camping.

Below you can see Damon and Maggie outside our yurt just before we left to come home. There was a nice porch, picnic table, firepit, and neighborly racoon. (He tried to open my covered 9x13 Pyrex dish to get at our pan cookies! After that we put food in the car overnight.)

Here we are walking along the beach, which was just a short walk from our campsite. In the distance is one of two lighthouses at Cape Disappointment. (If you don't want the yurt, you can actually rent the lighthouse keeper's house for a vacation.)

And what did we discover on the beach that first morning? A dead baby gray whale. No joke. It looked as though it had been there awhile, but later that day we met someone at the Columbia River Maritime Museum who patrols the beach looking for just such a find, and he said it hadn't been there during his Sunday patrol. He suspected it had died at sea and then washed ashore. In fact, as we continued to visit the beach during the rest of the week the whale progressively moved further up the shore.

It was seriously gross (but not actually that stinky, surprisingly). Adah was totally fascinated with it and kept telling every person we met about it, especially the part about the scientists cutting it open to find out what killed it, and, as she repeatedly reported, "if they find out a human killed it, they'll find that person and put them in prison."

Astoria, Oregon was nearby, just south over the Columbia River, so we spent some time there at the Maritime Museum, riding the historic trolley (only $1!), swimming in their nice indoor pool, and eating ice cream.

We took a nice morning hike at Cape Disappointment which took us to the Southern Head Lighthouse (not the one pictured above). At the Maritime Museum we learned that the Columbia River Bar is one of the most dangerous waterways in the world. Those lighthouses are seriously needed, along with licensed bar pilots that are required to board and accompany every foreign ship across the bar and into port at Astoria.

We didn't tell the kids we were going on a "hike." We called it a "walk" and they seemed to like it better. I think "hike" must just sound too ominous to their short little legs.

In Long Beach, WA (north of our yurt-home) we flew kites and all the girls went horseback riding! We actually found an outfitter that would take any age rider. Under age five rode with an adult, so Maggie was with me, but Adah had her own horse. Maggie and I rode Becky along the beach . . .

. . . and Adah rode Sweetie.

On our last day, before heading eastward, we visited Ft. Clatsop, the winter headquarters for the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. It's now a National Park with a great visitor center and a replica of the original fort, complete with costumed interpreters.

It was sure a fun trip. We saw beautiful and amazing sights, learned new things about the Columbia River region, enjoyed being together, and roasted lots of marshmallows at our campsite.

McMillan Bed & Breakfast: Now Open for Business

As you know from a previous post, our garage was never really a garage. When we bought our house, the garage was the first room I remodeled . . . on paper. It was going to be my laundry-sewing-scrapbooking-utility-storage-mudroom extraordinaire. Other rooms and projects took precedent, but finally last fall I really began to move towards my dream in earnest. Damon wasn't convinced that we were ready for this home improvement project, but I knew that with some paint, an area rug, and rearranged furniture, I could make a big difference without pulling out a power tool or any dry wall mud. (That can come a little later.)

I painted the walls a cheery yellow and the dull brown cabinets a crisp white. Old plywood cupboards were freecycled and new free-standing ones put up for all the food storage. More and more items have gradually been moved to the shed for storage or sent off to the local thrift store.

The dream room has evolved over time, since originally we intended to build a new garage and make it attach through the existing garage, creating a large mudroom. When we put in a front yard instead of a new garage, we began to look at our "utility room" as a potential guest room. When Damon's parents decided to visit us at the beginning of June I had already been working hard on the room, but suddenly had an imminent deadline that really motivated me.

I've scoured all our photos of the house looking for a "before" shot of the garage, but only found this one. It doesn't really show a view of the part of the garage that has become our "guest room," but it shows you the lovely paneled walls.Here is a photo I took on Friday, June 5--two days before Damon's parents were scheduled to arrive--just after moving all the furniture and other items in preparation for laying carpet. I purchased a large remnant and some padding at the warehouse of a local carpet store on Friday morning and then worked the rest of the day at getting the room ready for our guests.

Have you ever laid carpet before? It is hard work!!

. . . but so satisfying! I'm really proud of my work, and it feels great underfoot.

Here's a view of the "room" when guests are not expected. The table is ideal for crafting and sewing.

The McMillan White Salmon B&B is now ready to accommodate overnight guests in their own private room. Please visit as soon as you can!

Future improvements: drywall to cover the studs in the new wall; a Murphy bed instead of an air mattress (we already have the frame!); a privacy curtain to further divide the "guest room" from the laundry/storage area of the garage.