Whew!

Why is it when you get back from a vacation, which is supposed to be relaxing, are you so exhausted when you get home??? The first day/night we spent at Great Wolf Lodge in Washington-an indoor water park. That video on this link was the Howlin' Tornado, and I HATED IT!!!! With all the weight in that raft, we went at least 2/3 up the side and nearly fell out-I am NOT exaggerating! I was absolutely petrified and screamed so intensely that my jaw, eyes, throat and head ached for about 45 mins afterward. I cried for about 10 mins, and I LOVE thrill rides! The rest of the time, we had a lot of fun, but I personally would have had more fun if I weighed 100 lbs less! We spent most of our time in the wave pool, however keeping my body afloat on those inner tubes killed my shoulder for about 2 days! No pics to share on that part of the trip, because I was not going to bring my camera to a water park-it stayed safe our room! We spent the rest of the 2nd day there and went home for Thursday night.

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On Friday morning we headed towards Newport on the Oregon Coast. I love the beach! We spent 2 nights there and had another blast! The first night was a failed attempt for our bonfire to roast wienies and smores, it was TOO windy and started raining! The next day ended up being sunny and not so windy so we did our bonfire for lunch. I didn't get a lot of pictures there either, as I was too busy roasting myself. I did manage to get these shots...

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We spent most of the day on the beach. I got sunburned very badly, on the inside of my thighs, knees, and calves! Don't sit "indian style" all day in the sun! Also, if you are going bald, be sure to wear a hat! These are both lessons I learned this weekend! My face got burned pretty good, but it is always red anyway!! We left the beach around 7 and went to the Historic Bay Front on Yaquina Bay for dinner at Mo's a locally famous chowder house. It was yummy as usual. When we were done, we went to find the sea lions that hang out on the docks. It was dark by then, so there weren't any good shots of the sea lions, but I did get this shot of the Yaquina Bay bridge at sunset. If you look closely, you can see tigardlilly taking shots of the sea lions on the left...

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We went back the next day to see them and play (by play, I mean the kids) at the arcade. Here is a good one of a very bossy and grumpy sea lion! He just jumped up, got in an argument, won, and knocked another sun-bather off! It was really cool to see these guys up so close! They don't even seem to be bothered by the dozens of human spectators lining the upper dock to watch them and mock their cries.

We spent the rest of the day checking out a few shops, souvenir hunting and tracking down the best candy shop! We finally found one that was polite to us (the first one wouldn't let us go potty), and I got some yummy fudge!! We then drove the 2-3 hours home and got home at 11 pm last night!
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We had stopped at a couple stores for scrapbook shopping, of course, and found that the Craft Warehouse in Newport was going out of business and everything was 40% off!

Technique Tuesday Wayfarer alphabet stamps: $12.29 (orig 20.49)

Studio G stamps, series 16: $0.60 each, I bought 3 (orig 1.00)

Kaiser Craft Pearls: $2.40 each, I bought 3 (orig 3.99)

Prima Flowers: $4.20 each, I bought 2 (orig 6.99)

I also found an 8x8 pad of Cosmo Cricket Hello Sunshine for 5 bucks at the LSS in Lincoln City. Not bad for a trip to the beach. The only problem is, you can't play with your new stuff while on vacation!!

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I was welcomed home by this RAK from aggiegirl on AMR. How super cool is this? The AMR message board has an ongoing "pay it forward rak" where you chose one of the offered items and then offer 2 for someone else to pick from. It is kinda cool.

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Now on to more important things. This is the sketch we were given for the Scrapbook Challenges DT. Below is my take on the sketch. I gotta tell you, it was a fun page to make. I used Scenic Route for the background paper, and Cosmo Cricket Get Happy for the printed paper and die cuts. The rocket is hand cut from one of the Strip Teases of the 8x8 pad I used. The title is American Crafts Thickers. The card stock is from scraps and embossed on a cuttlebug. I did this the other day at tigardlilly's house while babysitting and used her supplies. That reminds me, I need to replace this stuff! lol

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I am glad to be home. I went to my computer this morning to find 98 blog posts to read, a message board that I feel so behind on now, lots of challenges to work on, and now I have to go job hunting! Oh why can't I just stay home and scrap all day?!?!

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