Roaring like a LION!

We are not sure which is roaring louder,
the wind outside or Mommy as she experiences technical difficulties.
What to do when you have reached the max storage space on your computer and iphone all in the same week!!!  But we are finally back up and running.

Being tricky or being tricked.  

The kids are are awaken once again by their green little friend who left them treats and a message.
They will have to try harder if they want to catch him!

The kids discovered that a Leprechaun will take anything shiny despite their efforts at trying to catch him by using super sticky duck tape.  They also discovered that a Leprechaun has no desire to take the shimmer and shine 'Arial' lip gloss.  Interesting.

Family St. Patties Party! 

Bringing on the matchy matchy outfits and the family dance party!  

We may not be Irish, but we know how to get jiggy with it.

There's no place like home for this little boy as he found (and fell in love with) a pair of ruby slippers left over from his sister's toddler days.

Swimming lessons for Lexi and Lei.  They are the only two in the class which is nice to have some personal attention.

Lexi is a little fish in the water.  She never wants her head above water.

Leighton is the opposite, she does not like to put her face in the water, and you can see how she has her legs crossed as she casually "swims" across the water.

Addi gets crafty and joins the millions of other kids making rubber band bracelets.

Our little cowboy.

He's secure in his masculinity to wear pink.

Cruz'in in our cardboard cars.  

Lexi made a car at preschool, and once one kid had a car, they all had to have a car. 

I came upon these kiddo's one afternoon all standing in the hallway.  I asked them what they were doing and they replied "we are texting".  This generation's form of pretend play.

Obviously we are in desperate need of a break, so here it is... 

Granat Family Spring Break 2014 in Vancouver Washington with our cousins.

Multnomah falls and the Colombian River Gorge.

A trip to a fish hatchery proves to be very interesting. 

Checking out Herman the Sturgeon, 70 years old and measuring 11 ft long.  He is one monster of a fish.

Cousin sandwich at cousin Ethan's band concert.

Our super find for free on the side of the road! 

Yes we are on vacation but we couldn't pass up this cute little rocker.

Matching cousin pjs!

Taking a tour at the Tillamook cheese factory.  Free samples and ice cream!

This is our version of being swept away by the beauty of the Oregon coast.

Haystack rock at Cannon Beach.

If you could smell what I'm smelling... DAYHEM!

Burgers, ghetto bag, and many references to a youtube video. 

(You can check it out by searching Five guys review, there is the original review and then the music remix of the review.  Very funny.)

A room with a view.

Mr. Independent, always insisting on going it alone even if it means he's 20 paces ahead of everyone else.

Stops for a minute to do a silly dance while he waits for the rest of us to catch up.

Alright, so I told Addison that someday when we re-tell this story we will laugh about it.

Addi was really excited to go to the ocean for the first time and she kept asking if she could go surfing because she really wanted to 'catch a wave'.

We get to the beach and within a matter of seconds Mommy finds a completely intact sand dollar.  Of course it's covered in sand so Mommy decides to run down to the water to wash it off, and of course Addi follows.  

Well it's a cold, windy day and the waves are breaking in various sizes which causes the tides to be "unpredictable".  A wave washed in on us quicker than we expected, and even though Mommy told Addi to run it was too late for Addi.  It knocked her over and she was soaked, but to make it worse, the waves kept coming and Addi was unable to get her footing.  She was screaming as each wave hit her.  Mommy was looking right at her (knowing Addi was not in danger) kept telling her to just stand up, she was only in a few inches of water.  As soon as Addi figured this out she was able to calm down and stand up easily, but she was soaked through and it was a very cold windy day and we needed to get her back to the resort in some clean dry clothes.  We were at the beach for all of five whole minutes.  We teased Addi that she at least caught her wave!  She was not sure that the story was funny yet.

So we decided to hit the pool instead.

Seaside Aquarium was a hit with the kids, there were so many things to see.  We started with the seals, and when the workers asked if we wanted to feed them the kids got really excited until they saw the fish that we were going to throw to the seals.  In Addison's words it was 'Eww gross, the fish have heads and eye balls". Shocking, who knew that seals would eat fish with heads and eyeballs {insert roll of eyes here}.  The heads and eyeballs did not seem to deter Lexi from feeding the seals.

 Touch tanks were really cool and the girls got to hold little crabs and touch star fish and urchins.

Attempt two at the beach, notice how far away the water is? 

Despite her first attempt, Addi decided that beach combing was really fun.

The Astoria bridge.  

We don't have bridges in Idaho like this so we were in awe every time we came to one of these spectacular structures.

The famous Astoria column.

Stopping for lunch at the Bow Picker, a local fish and chips shop served out of an old boat on the side of the road.

Mommy and the kids waiting across the street, in the rain, 

but at least we found a random picnic table to eat at. 

For Daddy.  A quick stop at the Goonies House. 

What's that sound?  Sea Lions just hanging out on the dock and creating a ruckus. 

Four of six asleep in the car.

Family talent show!  

Everyone took part and did a little something.  

Addi, Sulli, Lexi and Leighton all perform on the piano.

Karina shared her incredible vocal skills and Ethan shared his mathematical genius by reciting over 200 decimal points of pi.

And Austin showed his rough housing skills.

The children's discovery center at OMSI was the perfect place to spend a rainy day with the kids.  They could have played there for days. 

We had so much fun visiting our cousins, 

it was the highlight of our spring break!