CNR ~ OREGON COAST

Well I finally got to have my summer vacation and boy was it a blast! (It should be since it's been 3 years since I've been on a real vacation!) We started it off last Thursday by going to the Caldwell Night Rodeo, the best rodeo around! The rodeo is one of my favorite parts of summer because I get to eat all the Crookham Corn I want (best corn EVER!) and I get to watch the broncs and the bulls. The roadtrip began Friday morning after making a stop at Mom and Dad Bitsch's and a stop at the Thomas' so I could say goodbye to my best friend Allison who moved to Minnesota so her hubby can go to law school. (MISS YOU ALREADY!) I have to say I've had some good road trips, but this one tops the charts. Me, Heather, Sheena and our friend Annie were laughing the whole time. Annie is such a hoot, love her, makes me laugh and she was getting Sheena going which got Heather and I going and it just got crazier from then on. Our destination for the road trip: Rockaway Beach, Oregon. It was one of the best vacations I've ever been on and I would love to make it an annual trip. The beach house we stayed in belongs to the family of one of Heather's co-workers and it was just perfect. It was practically right on the beach. I loved being out on the balcony looking out over the water and listening to the sound of the waves as I fell asleep. Here's a little run down of what we did while we were there.

Friday: Lot's of driving, ate at the Upper Crust ~ kind of hoity toity for a pizza joint. They only took cash, you could only have one refill of soda, and there were signs that said kids must remain in their seats. Good thing the pizza was good, sheesh! After filling our tummies we took a nice little stroll on the beach and got some good pictures of the sun going down.
Saturday: We got up and got our swim suits on and headed to the beach! It was a little cloudy and on the cooler side, but that didn't stop us. We all had a turn on the skim board with much success and also many failures. Some of us still have bruises. :) The water turned out to be pretty nice, once the initial shock wore off it was actually pretty nice. My brother Mike and my nephew Topher came up and hung out with us for the day. We roasted hot dogs, made tin foil dinners, and ate s'mores. My nephew insisted on helping start the fire and keeping an eye on it so it wouldn't go out. He also preferred to stay in the house and play Settlers of Catan instead of going to the beach. Silly kid.
Sunday: Went to the Rockaway Beach branch for Sacrament and it was a gloriously warm and sunny, beautiful day. We couldn't let it go to waste so we changed our clothes and had a nice walk on the beach with a little mini photo shoot along the way. Heather and Jared fell asleep on the beach and as a result Jared got burned and Heather ended up with a funny tan line on just one arm. Annie and Adam cooked salmon for dinner and it was so delicious.
Monday: Headed into Portland to go to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) They have the Body Worlds 3 exhibit there right now so we thought it would be fun to check it out. It was over priced like always, but the exhibit was pretty cool. Afterwards we went to Red Robin where I was introduced to the most delicious soup ever. Chicken Tortilla Soup with Avocado, Mmmmmmm, which was perfect because it was a rainy day and a little cooler outside.
Tuesday: More beach time. We broke out the football and the skim boards again and went and had a great time on the beach. Fortunately for us it was another some what sunny day. We also went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and had some excellent samples of cheese and delicious ice cream.
Wednesday: Last day at the beach. :( We all got up a little early and had our last walk/run on the beach. Then we got all our stuff packed up, tidied the beach house up a bit and headed for home. The drive home felt like it took forever and the winding roads just wouldn't end. The worst part was the speed limit there. It never went above 65! And for those of you who know Oregon cops, they get you good if they catch you speeding. I just felt like I was crawling along at a snails pace which made being cooped up in a car for 8 hours even more unbearable.
Overall the trip was wonderful and if I had the money I would defninitely invest in a beach house. For now though I'll just settle for renting one. :) We ate lots of food, had yummy marion berry pie ice cream, did tons of relaxing, walking on the beach, reading, laughing, movie watching, took tons of pictures, got better aquainted with friends, and did more relaxing.
Here's some pictures of the fun we had to go along with the novel I just wrote.

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Swiss Picnic

We had our annual Swiss Picnic today to celebrate Swiss Independence day which is on the 1st of August. Every first Sunday in August the Swiss people in the area get together and have a picnic. I don't know how long we've been going to the picnic, but it's been a long time and I love going to them. There is always great food there and people bring little toys, chocolate, Swiss jam, etc. that we hand raffle tickets out for and when your number is called you get to pick a prize. This year a lady brought this cute toy that all the kids wanted and of course Heather and I were eyeing it too. Well, this year they made the rule that if a parent's number got called then they would let their kid go first to make sure that all the kids got a prize. Well my dad's number got called second, so Heather got to go and guess what she picked? Of course the cute toy that everyone wanted. Here's a picture of it. You can't see it from the picture, but there's a spring on the back so
you can make it bounce. We also had a lady come and play her alpine horn for us and she was pretty good. There was this cute little old guy there that we found out made the biggest alpine horn in the world by hand, 35" across at the opening of the horn. Now my dad's trying to see if he can get one from this guy, which would be awesome if he could. I want one too. :) After the raffle we had the auction with the bigger stuff and the money from that goes to help pay for the band shelter that we rent at the park. Overall it was a good time, with great food, and good people.





This is the Zaugg's cute little granddaughter Alta. My dad put his hat on her and she just sat there and stared at him with this look like why did you just put that on my head? It was the cutest thing.

More pics with the new camera

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I found this really cool flower garden and gazebo while out driving and it was so beautiful that I had to stop and take some pictures.