Olivia was a rockstar and decided to ride a bike. At 6 years old. This was a big question around our house because there was a moment in her uncertainty of actually venturing onto two wheels sans parental supports that she claimed Maia would be riding a bike before her. Nonetheless, she was successful.
Once she mastered the bike-riding, she took it upon herself to use her latest transportation modes to do what would make her mama proud and CLEAN UP THE EARTH!! Seriously. She put a plastic bag on the front of her bike and rode up and down and up and down the street picking up the garbage. Girl on a mission! When asked, she said, "The earth will thank me very much for my responsibility." You are right. And so would our neighbors who had left-over fireworks strewn from sidewalk to sidewalk. Her only problem, the bag was not full enough! Can it be more obvious she is a spawn from my creation??
Onto the rest 'o the fam... Phil is a ROCKSTAR on the wakeboard. He has officially cleared the wake. Like ALL the time. I am jealous. AND he gets some crazy air while he's at it.
I can't make it all the way over yet, but I am working on it! We spent quite a few days, afternoons, late mornings atop the water. Thanks to all our BFD friendlies for sharing the fun!
This is how Maia spent our days of fun in the sun. 
Olivia put on her own show in the back yard. Love this little model-in-the-making. Can you say muscle definition? Seriously.
Trying to make a break for it. Luckily the wings don't work so well. We could very well not see her until she makes her way back from exploring every other continent/climate zone on earth, looking for a new species of... anything.
MAIA TURNED 1!!! I made some semi-homemade cupcakes and was obviously VERY proud. Chocolate with chocolate & a cinnamon twist. YUM.
Happy Birthday beautiful girl! Who couldn't love that sweet face?!!!
Telling us she is "all done"! Sign language has (at times) come in handy when her native tongue sounds like gorilla.
Okay, onto the fun! We took a family trip to the Oregon Coast. It was AWE.SOME! I don't know how else to explain it. Our kind of trip, for sure. We left bright and early at 4 am. The ONLY way to do it when you have kids (thanks Dad!). We always did this when I was a kid going to the coast and it was so nice to wake up in the morning and already be 1/2 way there! Plus it is nice for us to have some quiet time to catch up since that is a rarity for us at times. We saw many a truck stop, drove through the Dalles, skirted through Portland and arrived in Netarts Bay.
Once our adventure on the Oregon Coast began, so did the mass amounts of sand consumption, seashell collecting (or in our case, partially fragmented hard things that could possibly be in the right light a seashell) and of course, fun-making (both juvenile and adult). 
Where we stayed was not one of those cute, seaside bungalows with cool shingles and a warm fireplace. No. We stayed in a renovated motel. That's with an M. Motel. It was straight out of a 70's porn or horror flick (depending on the time of day) and we tried to use our cliche' of a vacation spot for both... but not luck. There were no stairs for me to run up and away from a killer just to be stabbed to death and no pizza delivery man to... stab me to death. Did I mention it was one room? With two kids? And an aging lab who drank so much salt water the first day she looked like she had swallowed a smaller version of herself? No killing. No stabbing. 
That small, silver thing floating out in the bay and potentially out to sea... that is our boat. Good job Captain Phil. So what does any red-blooded man do who is about to lose one of his prized possessions to Poseidon? He ran. RAN! As fast as he could. What did we do???
Every good and faithful dog must be abused by her child-owner in order to know true love and devotion. Bailey is the BEST DOG we could ever have. She never moved, never whined, just lay there and take it... like a good bitch. Her expression says everything.
Now every Butler knows that a trip to the Oregon Coast is NEVER complete without a dip in the ocean. Behold - Maia's baptism. Please don't call CPS for giving my child pneumonia.
Her dad was quick to wrap her in a sweatshirt to keep her warm. But I could not keep that child out of the water! Where does she get it?
Then, as can be expected, it was off to Mo's for the best clam chowder! I have to say, it was not as good as I remembered it to be and Mo's seemed like a diner version of Joe's Crab Shack. Minus the ambiance, the chowder was good.
Onto the rest 'o the fam... Phil is a ROCKSTAR on the wakeboard. He has officially cleared the wake. Like ALL the time. I am jealous. AND he gets some crazy air while he's at it.
I can't make it all the way over yet, but I am working on it! We spent quite a few days, afternoons, late mornings atop the water. Thanks to all our BFD friendlies for sharing the fun!
This is how Maia spent our days of fun in the sun. Olivia put on her own show in the back yard. Love this little model-in-the-making. Can you say muscle definition? Seriously.
Trying to make a break for it. Luckily the wings don't work so well. We could very well not see her until she makes her way back from exploring every other continent/climate zone on earth, looking for a new species of... anything.
MAIA TURNED 1!!! I made some semi-homemade cupcakes and was obviously VERY proud. Chocolate with chocolate & a cinnamon twist. YUM.
Happy Birthday beautiful girl! Who couldn't love that sweet face?!!!
Telling us she is "all done"! Sign language has (at times) come in handy when her native tongue sounds like gorilla.
Okay, onto the fun! We took a family trip to the Oregon Coast. It was AWE.SOME! I don't know how else to explain it. Our kind of trip, for sure. We left bright and early at 4 am. The ONLY way to do it when you have kids (thanks Dad!). We always did this when I was a kid going to the coast and it was so nice to wake up in the morning and already be 1/2 way there! Plus it is nice for us to have some quiet time to catch up since that is a rarity for us at times. We saw many a truck stop, drove through the Dalles, skirted through Portland and arrived in Netarts Bay. Netarts Bay is a quaint little crabbing/fishing/small town about 4 miles south of Tillamook. It's on a bay and VERY small. We rented a one-bedroom "cabin" meaning a converted 1970s motel. It was perfect and easy... claustrophobic. I almost couldn't breathe by the last day. But it was still awesome! We met some great people: the manager and his wife are about the nicest couple I ever met and work their asses off! It was insane the hours they put in - and still did it with a smile! We will most definitely be back - mainly because of them.
One of the FIRST things we had to do was check out a real life LIGHTHOUSE. The closest place was Cape Meares. Its in the middle of a beautiful Sitka forest. And the coolest thing...
This Octopus Tree. It legit.
This Octopus Tree. It legit.
Once our adventure on the Oregon Coast began, so did the mass amounts of sand consumption, seashell collecting (or in our case, partially fragmented hard things that could possibly be in the right light a seashell) and of course, fun-making (both juvenile and adult). 
Where we stayed was not one of those cute, seaside bungalows with cool shingles and a warm fireplace. No. We stayed in a renovated motel. That's with an M. Motel. It was straight out of a 70's porn or horror flick (depending on the time of day) and we tried to use our cliche' of a vacation spot for both... but not luck. There were no stairs for me to run up and away from a killer just to be stabbed to death and no pizza delivery man to... stab me to death. Did I mention it was one room? With two kids? And an aging lab who drank so much salt water the first day she looked like she had swallowed a smaller version of herself? No killing. No stabbing.But we had fun. This is our kind of place. No suburbia. No chain restaurants. No gas station on every corner. Even no Redbox. We had to bring our own. And what did we fill our evenings with since there was no "adult play" to be had in our one bedroom bliss? Rescue Me. That's what. We got ridiculously addicted to this show and I rented the entire last season for us to watch. And we did. Tommy, Franco, Uncle Teddy, Janet, crazy Sheila... they spent every night with us. I even dreamed about them at times. It was horribly indulgent. I hated/loved it. And then I cut the cord. No more Rescue Me. Ever.
The BEST part of our entire vacation happened one wonderfully overcast day while we attempted to dig up clams. We had parked our boat along the shore and hiked through the sand mountains, jumped over ravines all in search of the elusive clam. Not realize how far we had walked AND that the tide was going OUT, we looked back to check on our boat (which did NOT have an anchor in spite of what I recommended). Lo and behold, this is what we saw after I zoomed the camera to the highest level:
That small, silver thing floating out in the bay and potentially out to sea... that is our boat. Good job Captain Phil. So what does any red-blooded man do who is about to lose one of his prized possessions to Poseidon? He ran. RAN! As fast as he could. What did we do???We sat and ate goldfish covered in sand. As Phil approached the drifting boat (a good 1/3-1/2 mile run back to the shore), a kind couple was there to rescue our sailing beauty and bring her home again. Thank you kind stranger! This is why I love places like Netart's Bay - because everyone that is there (native or visiting) is NICE! No frills, no need to impress, just good, old-fashioned kindness. 
Onto the rest of our trip... We saw beautiful sights, gathered beautiful, rock-like-seashell-things, tasted delicious ice cream (TILLAMOOK CHEESE FACTORY was only 6 miles away!) Tried on hats (this is a MUST when visiting Seaside), rode the merry-go-round, ate 5 lbs. of salt water taffy, and caught crab. MAJOR CRAB.
Onto the rest of our trip... We saw beautiful sights, gathered beautiful, rock-like-seashell-things, tasted delicious ice cream (TILLAMOOK CHEESE FACTORY was only 6 miles away!) Tried on hats (this is a MUST when visiting Seaside), rode the merry-go-round, ate 5 lbs. of salt water taffy, and caught crab. MAJOR CRAB.
Every good and faithful dog must be abused by her child-owner in order to know true love and devotion. Bailey is the BEST DOG we could ever have. She never moved, never whined, just lay there and take it... like a good bitch. Her expression says everything.
Now every Butler knows that a trip to the Oregon Coast is NEVER complete without a dip in the ocean. Behold - Maia's baptism. Please don't call CPS for giving my child pneumonia.
Her dad was quick to wrap her in a sweatshirt to keep her warm. But I could not keep that child out of the water! Where does she get it? 
Then, as can be expected, it was off to Mo's for the best clam chowder! I have to say, it was not as good as I remembered it to be and Mo's seemed like a diner version of Joe's Crab Shack. Minus the ambiance, the chowder was good.But this was what we came for:
He was like a kid in a candy store. Could you see a bigger grin on a grown man's face?! LOVE IT! The seals were pissed, but too fat and lazy from all the tourists popping by and throwing sandwiches at them to actually care.
Maia didn't love crabbing so much. She pretty much looked like this the entire time... unless she was crying. Yeah.
Don't be jealous.
He was like a kid in a candy store. Could you see a bigger grin on a grown man's face?! LOVE IT! The seals were pissed, but too fat and lazy from all the tourists popping by and throwing sandwiches at them to actually care.
Maia didn't love crabbing so much. She pretty much looked like this the entire time... unless she was crying. Yeah.
Don't be jealous.All in all, We had an AMAZING time on our family vacay and can't wait to go back with baby boy. Thank you, Netart's Bay, for reminding me just how awesome the Oregon Coast is. We will see you again soon!
