Last Sunday was my birthday, wa-hoo! To celebrate in an extra-ordinary way, Andy, Alton and I went out to the Oregon Coast. (With Minerva, of course.) We'd taken a similar fall minibreak out to Seaside last October, but this time decided to try something a little more cozy and a little less touristy. We found a vacation home rental for the weekend in Pacific City, a farther drive from our house, but a quite small, friendly little beach town and fully-equipped house for us to stay in. It had a gas fireplace in case it got rainy and chill, was walking distance to the beach, and plenty of space for us to stretch out. We left Hillsboro on Friday after the work day, and arrived in Pacific City to check in and hit a pub for dinner just in time for this sunset.
The next morning we were up and ready to go amidst Alton's choruses of "We are going to the beach!" But first, breakfast at a local cafe called "The Grateful Bread."
We had bacon, challah french toast, and some unwilling kisses.
Alton was in apple juice heaven--his favorite treat ever.
Back to the beach house, loaded up with towels and chairs to sit on (Andy and me) and monster trucks to play with (Alton), and we began our trek up 'n over the dune bridge that linked the housing community to the sand.
Dune Bridge - Crossroads!
On the sand, settled happily in chairs in the sun, it's playtime.
Alton picked up seaweed debris to use as cargo for his monster trucks--they are not just crushers, they are a gloppy leaf delivery service.
Our view of the iconic Haystack Rock.
I took Minerva on her long lead to go for a swim in the surf.
The dudes on the beach.
After awhile, it was time to go back home for lunch. Alton downed some mac 'n cheese at the dinner table, then went down for a nap...
while I took one of the cruiser bikes that belonged to the house and pedaled up the road to Ben & Jeff's Burgers and got takeout lunch for Andy and me to enjoy on the sunny deck!
Someone begged to come outside.
After the meal, I settled back in the sunshine to read my book while Andy and Minerva went on a major hike. They headed back to the beach and this time decided to scale this huge dune, for which Pacific City is known: (note the tiny specks at the top that are people!)
Andy's views from the top, down to the beach where we frolicked earlier.
Pacific City is also known for kite flying.
The grey marine layer started rolling in and it was time to head home, where Minerva was finally, finally tired.
While I showered in preparation for our family dinner out, Andy and Alton enjoyed some bubbles out on the patio.
(Dang, does this kid like bubbles or what?)
He had time to squeeze in a little dancing...
some hanging out with a snack and a dawg...
...and a monster truck rally, of course. He loooooves crushing the cars.
I had put out an APB to my local Oregonian friends to ask for a recommendation for a nice place on the coast for dinner, and several suggestions led us to The Bay House in Lincoln City. True to its name, the dining room afforded views of a little estuary outside.
We perused the extensive wine list, enjoyed a delicious meal, and Alton was smiled at indulgently by most of the other diners in the room. He even hopped out of his chair to sit in Daddy's lap for a minute and take this picture! What a natural.
Too much fun! Rainy weather the next morning had us not-so-reluctantly saying goodbye to the beach, then heading home for unpacking (Andy and Alton) and mani/pedis (me). Hey, it was my birthday, after all!
Wow! Yesterday was my birthday, and I am overwhelmed by all of the cards and kind words and nice things that everyone said and did for me. What a great day! I will make another post with more detail about the fun things that we did over the weekend, but for now I wanted to tell you about reaching a personal goal and to thank a friend.
Some of you might know Jennifer Whitty, a friend and former coworker of mine, who wrote to me at the beginning of this year asking questions about starting a blog of her own. She told me that before she turned 40 this year, she wanted to really devote herself to Weight Watchers and working out, and lose at least forty pounds. She was calling her blog "Jen's 40 by 40," and posted a weekly update and photo of herself to document the whole process and to keep her motivated by her reading "audience." I admired her dedication, and jokingly admitted that I should do the same as a "30 by 30" endeavor (even though I had more than 30 pounds to lose), because after Alton turned two years old, it was getting a little silly to call my extra padding "baby weight." Jen responded with support, kind words and commiserations, then hit the ground running (just about literally) for her birthday goal.
A couple of months later in April 2010, Andy and I decided it was time for a change. I have mentioned in a few other posts that we started a little family Weight Watchers group of our own, began working out more regularly, and started incorporating a lot more fresh vegetables and produce into our diet. We had some vague ideas in mind about how much we wanted to lose, but started off tentatively, admiring our five and ten pound weight losses, noticing eagerly how much better our pants were fitting, and looking forward to our vacation in San Diego in July.
After a few months, the "dieting" became easier, the working out came more naturally, and our losses were hitting the 20 and 25 marks while we tore through stored-away old clothes looking for smaller sizes we might have kept around. I proudly shopped for some new vacation togs while my mom and sister were in town, admiring the smaller sizes I took to the dressing room and the way they looked when they were on. We enjoyed our vacation and stuck pretty well to our fitness regime during the trip, then a month after we got home, I hit a big milestone: 30 pounds lost. I could hardly believe it! Hooray! Despite Andy's birthday and some other fun celebrations in September, I persevered and last week, right before my 30th birthday, my weight loss totaled 32.5 pounds. A pound here and there really makes a difference. With trips and travel and vacations from the summer over with, my local friends and I are all now settling into a fall routine of outings and music class and such, and over the past few weeks I've received many compliments from people who hadn't seen me in a while or hadn't noticed the slow, gradual weight loss as dramatically at the beginning of the summer. It feels great! And birthday gifts and gift cards have arrived just in time for getting long-sleeved items in smaller sizes.
So I am jubilantly sharing my big milestone with you--30 pounds lost by my 30th birthday--and also sending a big, fat (slim, actually), personal thank-you to Jennifer Whitty, who was a big catalyst in getting me to see how much I wanted to make changes in my life. I will let her choose whether or not to share her blog, but I will tell you that she is currently only a couple of teeny, tiny pounds away from her end goal and ready to reach it! I will continue with my routine in order to reach a healthy final weight for my height and age, but I don't think that I am brave enough to put a time limit on it. I will be content with my 1-2 pounds lost per week and be sure to share it with you when I'm "all done"!
But, I am going to be brave like Jen and show you a "before" and "after" picture of my experience. It was hard to find a full-length "before" picture to share--I was consciously and subconsciously making all the photos of Alton instead of about me. But here's a family one from last December:
And here I am today, wearing a nice autumn-y shirt that was a birthday gift from my friend Julie.
Last Friday, Alton and I made a pilgrimage down to Salem to visit Discovery Village, a children's museum-type attraction. The unique thing about this place is that the "village" consists of three beautiful Victorian homes that have been converted into room after room of things for little ones to explore, along with a huge outdoor play area with even more things to climb over and under. The exhibits are a little ecletic and some are in tiny, poky Victorian rooms, but it was very entertaining, the weather held off so that we could enjoy the outdoor structures, and Alton and his playbuddy had a wonderful time!
Here they are in a Chinese-themed room, having tea.
Alton enthusiastically slurps his pretend soup.
He hugs a big stuffed panda and we learn he was born in the year of the Rat!
Right next door to mini-China is a water and fishery room with a pretend boat and facts about Pacific NW waterways (see? random collection of exhibits!).
On the outdoor structures, most of my pictures looked like this!
One particularly cool piece, called the Erector Set, was like a multi-leveled maze with little hidden corners and corridors, all linked by stairs and bridges. Alton and his playmate twisted and turned and called to each other through the mesh walls.
Chase!
A rare moment of looking at the camera, briefly.
Too much fun! Time to hop in the car and go home. Beep beep!
As you might have noticed with last year's Labor Day Camping post, we have spent almost every Labor Day weekend in recent years with our good friends Brian and Alexa (also known as Alexa and Bee!). This year we decided to forfeit the camping, since it's usually rainy up here by that time of year, and just spent the long weekend hanging out in Seattle. We drove up there late Friday night, which left Saturday morning for Alton to play with Lego trains.
Woohoo!
Saturday night Brian and Alexa insisted on taking Andy out for a birthday dinner, for which pizza was a natural choice. Pizza and beer, walking distance from Alexa and B's house. What could be better?
When you sit down, they give children a little wad of dough to play with at the table. Alton has his doughball and his monster truck in his two hands.
Fun dinner with friends.
The pizza came, and the little dude wasted no time in chowing down!
His "cheeeeeeese" face.
On the walk home, we passed by a bicycle store and Alton was captivated.
Our group walking home; Alton of course holding his best friend B's hand.
The whole way.
The next day, Andy and Brian spent some time on handyman projects...
while Alexa and I took Alton on a long walk down to a West Seattle crossroads where the Farmer's Market is held. We perused produce of all kinds, bought some strawberries (guess who ate those?)...
and some super-sharp gouda, then headed home by way of Bakery Nouveau, the delicious new French bakery in their neighborhood. Mmm, pastries. We prepped for a delectable dinner, with our fun new challenge being potato gnocchi from scratch. 
Brian and Alexa also joined a CSA this summer, and so with our combined abundance of farm fresh veggies, we had all the ingredients for a top-rate dinner. We had both ended up with a plethora of potatoes, so in addition to the gnocchi on the menu, we also grilled veggies like zucchini, onions and corn. And a beautiful setting in which to eat it!
We gave Alton some mac 'n cheese ahead of time because we thought dinner would be too late for him to eat, but in retrospect I'm sorry we did: I made the gnocchi at home again a week later, and Alton was wolfing it down and asking for more, more, more.
A great weekend with fun friends! One of the smaller tokens I gave to Andy for his birthday was an app for his iPhone, which lets you give a retro, aged look to the photos you take. He was still playing with it and figuring it out over Labor Day weekend, and here are a few of the photos he snapped.
Alton at the breakfast table.
KT, likewise.
The Mini, with roof box on top for the first time!
