Vacation--Part 2

We woke to rain Tuesday morning, so we lounged around the house for a while, hoping that the rain would clear up. It didn't, so we decided to just do indoor activities that day. We drove to Newport again and found a taffy shop down on the bay front. After that we started looking for a good glass blower to visit. We found one, but the glassblower wasn't going to be back for another 45 minutes. And since we didn't want to sit around with 6 kids in a store with hundreds of expensive breakables, we decided to look for another one. We found one closer to our house, and the kids LOVED getting to watch him create things. We watched him make 2 bowls and a vase.






The older kids were so fascinated, that they wanted to stay and watch for a long time. Owen slept the whole time, which was a blessing. The younger kids got a little bored after a while, so they entertained themselves by posing for pictures for me. (Aaron's tongue is red from the sucker he had been eating that he got at the taffy store.)





I had been saving the birthday money my in-laws gave me for my birthday, and I used it on a beautiful glass vase. It is now placed way up high on my mantle where the kids can't touch it. Thanks Mike and Jo!

After that, we headed home and let the kids sit in the hot tub in the rain.

Wednesday we had rain again. We drove to Newport and explored the Yaquinna Light House (the tallest in Oregon). Nate was too short to make the climb up to the top of the light house (you had to be 42 inches tall), so he and Owen and I stayed at the bottom while Scott took the older 4 kids up to the top. Nate was really quite sad to get left behind (notice he's crying in the group picture).



After climbing the light house, we braved the elements for just a moment to look at the Ocean view. Then Nate and Owen and I sat in the suburban while Scott took the older 4 kids down to look at some tide pools (it was low tide).





We finished off our lighthouse experience in the warm indoors in their visitor's center. They had an area that had old fashioned kids games (parlor games) and the kids loved getting to try all of them out (it helped that we had the place to ourselves).

Then it was back home to have dinner and let the kids play in the hot tub (again).

I'll save the last days of our vacation for another post.