Monday, August 28, 2006

The price of joy

Lunch at a burger joint with a monkey named Elvis: $22
Two nights at a hotel room at the coast : $257
Seafood dinner eaten with a view of the bay: $34
Dinner at the Tiki Hut with the nicest hosts you could imagine including a Macaw named Gypsy: $30
Trip to the Newport Aquarium: $24 (with free entry coupons for the kids)
Fixin's for Smores at our beach campfire: $5

A wonderful weekend with the family, creating memories to last a lifetime (or at least through the crazy days of fall): Priceless.

OK, so I borrowed Mastercard's formula, but the fun was all ours. We had a wonderful "last hurrah" of summer weekend at the Oregon Coast. The kids were great (who am I kidding, they always are great!) and the weather was cool and crisp but warm enough to play. We had a wonderful time and feel so blessed to have had this special weekend together. It was a busy summer for us and fall is always crazy with Brad heading back to school, both kids in soccer and my work gearing up for one of its busiest times. (In fact, I really should be working now, but I couldn't wait to share the fun pictures with you all. I promise, I'll post and then it's straight to work for the rest of the day!) The memories and experiences of the weekend will hopefully get us through the busy months to come.

I'm so blessed to have a husband who makes so many sacrifices for his family (painting houses all summer so we have the money to do fun things like this) and kids who are so good and appreciate spending time with their parents. With N. heading off to middle school next week, I know the days of wanting to "hang out" with her parents will quickly become fewer and I'm trying to make sure I make the most of this time while I still can.

Hope you are all enjoying the last days of summer. Leave me a note in the comments if you have any special traditions to close out the season!

8 comments:

Roadchick said...

Roadchick and her son, Rockboy, make a point of hitting as many county fairs as possible. It's a tradition and the summer/fall transition would not be the same without them!

So glad you had a lovely trip!

Deb R said...

It sounds like a wonderful time. I love the photos!

I can't really think of a particular end-of-summer tradition we do.

briliantdonkey said...

ahhhh the end of summer. Hard to believe how fast it flies. Other than packing up the summer clothes and breaking out the winter shorts I can't say I have much by way of tradition anymore either.

BD

Amber said...

Oh that looks like SO much FUN! I would much rather my brother got married there than in Vegas (yuck)! That looks much more my speed,for sure. I can't wait to take trips like that with our kids.
And aren't good husbands a blessing?

:)

Kamsin said...

Looks like you guys had a lot of fun! I liked the Mastercard "priceless" thing! Other than buying new clothes and getting depressed that the long dark winter will soon be here, I don't really have any end of summer traditions. Maybe I should start some to build into traditions in future years!

Laini Taylor said...

So glad you had such a nice trip! Jim and I have really fallen in love with the Oregon coast this year -- for some reason our first few times there a few years back we weren't that smitten. Must have been the weather, and that we always just went to Cannon Beach. Now that we've explored a little more we really love it. And family trips like that are so important -- I really remember the little trips I took at that age!

Left-handed Trees... said...

We just passed our weekend with a last "hurrah" ourselves! Hit the beach, found some art, ate some of the "world's largest pizza". Glad to hear we were in good company with celebrating those last moments of Summer...

Michelle O'Neil said...

Great fun Kim. Your kids will always remember it. They are too cute.