January is Birthday Month

The Cruzes haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  We just haven't done anything at all interesting in the last couple weeks.  That all changed this week with a flurry of birthdays to go with our brief flurry of snow.

Starting off the festivities was the Monday birthday of Mason's stuffed pet Rufi dog.  Yaya and the kids were at our house as it was the MLK holiday and were primed for celebration.

They even made a cake.  Of course this tasty looking cake manifests during the period that I'm doing the health contest.  I'll spare you the details but it involves a lot of exercise, a lot of fruit and veggies, and no sweets.

The kids and the pets played party games...

...and sang and danced to celebrate Rufi's birthday.  It may be a birthday for a stuffed dog, but a lot of fun and excitement was had by all.

Saturday was a more legitimate birthday party to celebrate Giada's 4th birthday.  As you may recall, we joined Giada last October on our trip to Disney World.  Giada's party was at a place called Playdate PDX which is as follows:

Mason had basketball so he couldn't make it but Siena and I went and Siena LOVED playing on the big play structure.

Of course I had to memorialize the moment when Chris spilled the pitcher of water all over the floor.  It was a rough weekend for Chris - in addition to the water incident, his Niners lost a tough one last night.  We were watching the game at Yaya and Papa Ron's which is why I'm a day late blog posting this week.

Here's the happy birthday girl!

Sunday was the birthday of Siena's special pet, Snowman Snow.  She spent the better part of Saturday preparing and wrapping presents for Snowman Snow.  All of those came up with us on Sunday for Miss Snow to open.  First though, there were cupcakes to be decorated.

The finished product.  Here's where I'm going to remind you that due to extreme competitiveness, I can't have any.  Cue violins.

The 6 candles are lit (Snowman Snow turned 6) and here's Mason and Siena with Snowman Snow's other friends just before singing.

Opening presents.  Siena is super surprised with this one.

Mason made Snowman Snow a snowflake for her birthday.  Mason was getting a kick out of the whole thing.

Snowman Snow opened about 20 presents...quite a haul for a little snowgirl's birthday.

After dinner we had to go out to the shop to check out the newly finished paint job on Papa Ron's '67 Firebird.  Pictures don't do it justice.  It looks amazing!

It's been painted and shined down to the smallest detail.

Dad's got some work to go with the interior but it still looks hot.

Going Back in Time to Ring in 2012

Luis and I are suckers for history.  When we first learned of the Oregon coastal ghost town Bayocean, we knew that we would be making a trip to the site.  Thanks to a New Year's trip to the beach, December 31 seemed like a good day for our adventure.

Bayocean was to become the Atlantic City of the West. Bayoceans's post office was established on February 4, 1909, and by 1914, the town's population was 2000. Bayocean had many features uncommon for a small town of its time, including a dance hall, a hotel with orchestra, a 1000-seat movie theater, a shooting range, a bowling alley, tennis courts, a rail system and four miles of paved streets. One notable attraction was a heated natatorium (shown below), complete with a wave generator and a special section for a band to play music to entertain the swimmers.

Despite having paved roads, Bayocean was not connected to the rest of the country until the 1920s. Most residents and tourists arrived to the town via T. B. Potter's steamship, the S.S. Bayocean, in a three-day trip from Portland. The final leg of the journey, entering into the unprotected mouth of Tillamook Bay, could provide a rough and frightening experience to passengers.

Eventually Bayocean's residents asked the Army Corps of Engineers for a protective jetty to reduce the waves. The Army Corps of Engineers studied the location and suggested that two jetties be built, one on each side of the bay's mouth, at an estimated cost of $2.2 million. Half of that amount was required to come from local residents. With the multi-million dollar price considered unaffordable, Bayocean's residents proposed and eventually had a single jetty constructed. The price was a little over $800,000 with Bayocean's citizens paying half.

Although the new single jetty made for a much smoother journey into the bay, the one-sided change to the coastline began a process of erosion to Bayocean's beaches, slowly narrowing them before overtaking them completely.

In 1932, waves from a massive storm finally crossed the beach and destroyed the huge natatorium. The hotel started falling, room by room, into the sea. Each winter, the sea got further in. By 1938, 59 homes were gone. Finally, in the early 1950s, the sea breached the spit and rushed into Tillamook Bay, turning Bayocean into an island. Instantly, a multi-million-dollar oyster fishery was ruined, a thousand acres of oyster beds buried in sand. Salinity in the bay surged. The estuary’s fisheries started to collapse.Bayocean's post office closed in 1953. What little remained of the town was demolished during the reclamation and dike-building project of 1956. In 1960, Bayocean's last house was washed away, and in 1971, the last remaining building, a garage, finally fell into the ocean.

With the addition of a second jetty built in the 1970s, sand began to re-accumulate on the spit.

Luis and Mason at the south end of the spit.

The high bluffs behind Mason held houses, buildings, and roads back in the day.

This seems like a good time to mention that we had no idea how long the walk along the Bayocean peninsula was.  We just wanted to get further north as we knew that's where more of the town had been.  Siena wasn't entirely on board with this walking idea.

She needed a little help.  My back is still sore from offering this level of assistance.

A nice look at Bayocean today.  If we were standing here 100 years ago, we would have seen a bustling town and dance hall here.

Luis examines an old board...probably just washed in from the sea but we liked to think it was a remnant of the old town.

The famous jetty's that did in the town.

We walked up the beach side of the peninsula and back on the Tillamook bay side of the peninsula.

Once we got back to the condo, we mapped out the distance of our little stroll.  Our 3+ hour hike covered 7.5 miles!!  Mason and Siena did AWESOME!!  They certainly got tired but so did Luis and I and on the back stretch especially, they were little troopers.  We were so proud, not to mention that we felt a little bad at having made our kids walk that distance.

After burning off all those calories, we made a beeline to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for a late lunch and ice cream.  My little farmers had enough energy left to pose for a picture.

Despite having lunch at 4, we were hungry enough to have a Roadhouse 101 dinner at 7.  Luis entertains Siena with the cool shell Siena and I found at Bayocean.

You can tell how big of partiers we are in that we were all in bed asleep by 10:30.  No late night New Years partying for us this year.

We slowed down our pace for New Years day.  We hung around the condo, watching football, playing and reading most of the morning.  Mason and I did a little walk on the beach around the condo.  He did his rock and log climbing.

Mason loves rock climbing, an activity that I recall enjoying a lot as a kid too.

He also liked exploring under the Mo's dock in the low tide.

We also stopped by some of the little shops in Taft on our way back.

We drove down to Newport for dinner New Year's day and found a great seafood restaurant on the far end of the old bay front.  The name of the restaurant was generic sounding but the food certainly wasn't.  Even the kids gobbled up their crabby patty and fish and chips.

We drove back today in time to watch the Ducks get the win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.  As Luis noted at the end of the game, the last time Oregon won in the Rose Bowl there was still at town of Bayocean!

Happy 2012 to all!

Christmas Vacation

On the first day of Christmas, we went to Clackamas Town Center to see Santa.  After standing in line for 20 minutes and not moving one inch, the kids and I bailed.  Not without a visit to Orange Julius though.

On the second day of Christmas, I drove to Hillsboro to collect Luis' paycheck and then to a memorial service.

On the third day of Christmas, we went again too see Santa.  This time we went to Pioneer Place downtown rather than crazy busy suburban Clackamas Town Center.

The view from line wasn't bad though.

And the kids were happy and patient.  Plus, the wait was way less than that on Monday.

On the fourth day of Christmas, I went crazy cleaning the house.  For some reason this affliction hits me after I've been off of work for a few days.  Now I have the year long task of trying to maintain this level of organization.  Plus, the kids and I made this gingerbread house!

On the fifth day of Christmas, Siena's friend Alyssa came over for a fun playdate!

On the sixth day of Christmas, it was Christmas eve.  We told the kids they could each open a present after lunch.  Of course, they were ready for lunch at 8 am.  Finally, lunch came and was time to open a present.

Supervisory duty.

We gave Mason an electrical circuit set for which there are several hundred projects such as lights, music, and a fan that flies up into the air.  It is pretty fun.

I made cookies.  Caramel, chocolate, and pecan cookies.

We celebrated Christmas eve with the Cruz family.  Here is Jose and my sister in law Sara.  Sara made flan.

Luis displays the cheese.  We have no idea what this cheese is called but it's very good.  Luis' family eats it with guava paste.

Junior and Kendra demonstrate the cheese and guava paste.

Festive Gloria and Jose.

Awww.

Another Puerto Rican Christmas classic - the blood sausage.  Yes, this is stuffed intestine.  I have no issue with eating stuffed intestine, but it's a little too spicy for my liking.

Up close.

Luis embraced the music.

So did the kids.

And then I was attacked.  They may look small, but they're spirited.

Mandi and Joel.

Somehow Gloria and Luis, the 2 non-drinkers of the bunch, were convinced to do a shot.

Pffffff.....

Must...get...flavor...out...of...mouth...

Family shot.

All the kids were very excited to open presents.

Matching Lego helicopters!

And matching doodle pets.  These are cool in that the girls can color their animals and then wash them clean again.

Uncle Joel offers Mason some advice on his new toy.

Then tries to steal Mason's Lego Star Wars.

Uh, yeah.

The boys with glasses.

Hair check.

Group shot - friends and family.

On the seventh day of Christmas, it was Christmas day.  The kids were up bright and early to see what Santa brought.  It was exactly what they asked for - Wii games! Star Wars for Mason and Party game for Siena.

Plus some Silly Putty in their stockings.

Santa Kris was also kind to her Boricua husband.

After opening presents, we headed to my parents for Christmas morning brunch with the Torland family.

The kids table.  No, Berren isn't foaming at the mouth unless a carrot covered with too much dressing counts.

The grandkids with the grandparents.  Luckily both grandparents were feeling good today and came over to help us celebrate.  From left - Grandpa Art, Shelley, Shelley's significant other Adam, Travis, Tyson (in back), Amanda (in pink in front of Tyson), Grandma Bessie, me, Heidi, Dan, Chelsey, Matt, baby Calvin, and Luis next to Bessie.

Luis and I with the g-parents.

See, the older generation wasn't nearly a well behaved for their picture as us grandkids were.

The grandparents.  94 and still kicking.  Okay, almost 94 for Bessie.

Tyson may have eaten too much.

Berren didn't.  He was way on board with his candy cane.

And Siena liked her new skirt so well she wore it today.

Mason took this picture of mom and dad.

My favorite gift of the year - a book Mary Lou had made for us of our trip last summer.

After the big group departed, the kids opened their presents from Yaya and Papa Ron.  Pajamas for each.

And big coloring books from Aunt Annette & Uncle Walt.  No, Siena isn't on steroids.  We told Mason to keep his eyes open and she listened...

Luis' new shirt.

A new towel for Mason and a new blanket for Siena.

Siena LOVES her new doll from Yaya.  She's named Rosaliss.  She slept next to Siena last night and has already had her hair washed this morning.

Dad's official "Torland's Garage" sign.

I'm not sure who this Lego storage bin is more of a gift for - Mason or me. :-)

Mom loves her new earrings that dad picked out.

Did I mention that Siena loves her dollie?

Happy girl.

I hope everyone had as merry a Christmas as we did!