Billing Family Blog

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Oregon | Manzanita - Day 2

Day 2 in Manzanita was slightly less ambitious, but still packed with fun.

We started the morning with coffee on the porch (drawing and Legos for the kids).

Around 10am, we biked into town and wandered a few of the shops. Most were not open yet but it was still nice to get a feel for the main street.

I was excited to find Cala Lillies growing in a few spots! I keep thinking this place reminds me of Costa Rica (ocean, hilly mountains, surfing, small town, wet / humid / lush) and these were the local flowers in my wedding bouquet. :)

And we of course hit the beach while we were there. Lots of jumping and running by all the boys, and front flips from Logan.

Then the boys headed back to the house while I grabbed some coffee and a birthday massage! Something I’ve only done on vacation on our honeymoon. Such a treat!

We all ate lunch and ventured a little north for a hike at Short Sands Beach.

We have seen so much old growth, hollowed trees, and lush forests!

The hike was within Oswald West State Park, just a few miles north of Manzanita.

Logan loves flying our kite!

The temps have been in the 50’s and can feel cold or hot depending on the breeze, sunshine and rain.

After our hike, we continued north to Cannon Beach. Our first stop here was at Pelican Brewing for dinner.

Great food, cool atmosphere. Expensive (of course).

We followed that with a stop at Cleanlines Surf Shop and Haystack Rock.

When it came into view, Brecken stopped and eventually uttered: “Oh.my.gosh.” It was way bigger than he expected! So cute.

It was pretty close to low tide, so we were able to walk a ways out.

So pretty. I’m excited we’ll be up there again tomorrow.

Our last stop was at The Winery at Manzanita. I ordered a tasting flight, Shawn ordered a local microbrew and the boys ordered s’mores :)

We capped off the evening with one more hot tub soak to recharge for tomorrow!

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Oregon | Manzanita - Day 1

Kids slept in until 7ish this morning (after 8 for Breck!), which is great given the time change.

We started the morning by unpacking, soaking in the hot tub, and a grocery run by Shawn.

After breakfast, we took advantage of the bikes provided by our rental house and wandered around town a bit.

I grabbed some espresso from Laneda Ave in town and we kept cruising, enjoying the scenery until we hit the edge of town.

We found a great spot on the beach to chill out, throw the football and watch the kids play in the sand.

After lunch at El Trio Loco (tacos!), we packed a few things for a hike up Neakahnie Mountain.

The trail was super wet, muddy and incredibly beautiful!! We hiked in a fog with trees covered in green moss.

Brecken led the charge straight uphill most of the way and we were rewarded with amazing views of the coastline at the top.

We made BLTs at our house for dinner and capped off the evening with another bike ride (through the state park across the street) and another hot tub session.

Crazy-amazing first day!

Sunday, June 5, 2022

Local Saturday Fun

Last night after a 30 mile bike ride, we took our chances and went to Baja Haus on a Sat night with a 2 person reservation (that’s all we could get without much advance planning).

The staff was awesome and let our kids squeeze in at the bar. They were so perfectly behaved and we just love the food and drinks here - the evening felt like a vacation. Capped off by a walk by the water and Ben & Jerry’s.

Lunch at Theo Wirth

A stop at the Golden Valley ninja park.

Baja Haus

Ben and Jerry’s!

Monday, January 31, 2022

Tahoe | Day 1

Our travel day started early with a 5:30am departure from the house. It was a huge help to use the suburban to carry all our gear to the airport (ski gear for 5 people adds up!)

It’s also so helpful that the kids are big enough to lift and tow even the heavy bags!

We had a pretty easy flight with a SLC layover. Minimal naps but also no motion sickness! :)

Martina picked us from the Reno, we grabbed our grocery pick up and made our way to our rental house (Martina’s neighbors’ house!).

The house is absolutely perfect for our family. There are two rooms upstairs both with a queen bed and a bunk bed (and a queen room downstairs). The play area upstairs is outfitted with all the boys’ favorite games and toys (foosball, beyblades, legos, nerf guns, laser tag, indoor snowball fight, XBox and a bunch of board games)!

We had Martina, Chris and Hannah over for a taco dinner and drinks to kick off the vacation!

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Distance Learning 2022

I did not expect the change this year, but Omicron appears to be ultra-contagious. The estimates are that 25% of the staff and students in our district are out sick. So, on very short notice, the district pivoted to a distance learning model. I am hearing other districts are starting to do the same. It is anticipated to be short-term but we know this virus to be anything but predictable.

So in the meantime, we prepared for change. We set everyone up with tidy workstations again; this time including our kindergartener in the plan. Each of the big kids in their room, while Brecken works in the playroom with me (and Shawn still in the basement guest room).

Brecken was excited to try DL. He said he loves Google Meets and I bet he was excited to try something he had heard so much about.

The excitement lasted half a day and then he hid in his closet to avoid online music class…He warmed up to the idea again by the afternoon call and I’m going to go ahead and call the day a success. I don’t think anyone cried, we all got a little work done, and we spent a little time playing together (including sledding twice).