Dizzy Day

We have Diz this week and we decided to introduce him to some new things as we try to do with Bean when he is with us. Today I took him to ride a pony and look at the animals on the farm.

The best part of the day was not riding the pony which he found appealing but not great. He found a few peacock feathers. Diz decided this one in particular belonged to one of the peacocks who had lost it and wanted it back. He walked up and down the row of stables calling out "Peacock...peacock, come get your feather, you lost part of your tail!"

He loved the 8 week old Blue Healer puppy. Adorable pictures, but I am not allowed to show them on my blog as it shows his face too well, but again those in the know, know where to find them:-)

The chickens too were a big draw. I did not get any pictures of them:-P

The coast

Jeff and I headed for the coast with Finnegan this past weekend. It was 95 in Portland and 65 on the beach. It was unfortunately excessively windy too. Anyway, we got there around noon, and sat on the beach to read and relax. Within 5 minutes we were both shivering.

We decided to head on up and grab a kite and don jackets and go back to the beach. We ended up in Depot Bay and found a new beach. We tried to fly our kite, but the string tangled on the first try. We still kicked back with our books along a log that was secluded from the wind a bit and really enjoyed ourselves.

We had intended to stop at the casino and watch the stars at night and fall asleep under the moon. We were WAAAY to cold for that even with blankets, BUT we still had such an enjoyable day visiting the shops, finding new places to go, and Jeff talked SCUBA with a store owner exchanging stories. Great fun!

We then grabbed a bite to eat at our favorite restaurant in Lincoln City. Jeff had a steak that moist, tender, and prepared JUST the way he liked it. I had some vegetable thing. How exciting can they make vegetables right? Then we headed for yet another beach to watch the sun set over the ocean. Just prior to sunset I snapped this photo of Jeff behind this cool tree trunk.

Brains over braun

We had Bean for a week, and while much happened, I wasn't a part of it all because I was attending a birth, but some of it I was there to see. This incident happened the 11th of July. Bean was at Oaks Amusement Park with Grandpa for the day. I was working. Jeff decided he would give Bean a little rope and a little independence. He gave him a $10.00 bill to go and get himself a snow cone. He was still in Jeff's site, but not directly with Jeff. While he was waiting in line, 5 older kids and a teenager approached Bean. They told him to give them his money. Bean said 'no' and continued minding his own business. Then the boys, all older than Bean closed in. They asked how much was a snow cone. Bean answered and said then you have enough for two, why don't you buy two? Needless to say he declined. Then he went so far as to say it wasn't even his money.

Closing in more, they snatched the money away. Rather than just getting upset and crying as some children might do, Brandon thought it through and used slight of hand to get the money back. He said he acted like he was going to take it from the kid who grabbed it, and instead took it back from the boy who was the hand off.

When relaying the story to me, he said "initially I wanted to just do a roundhouse, and drop a couple of them and have 2/3 only to take on, but decided 5 to 1 wasn't good odds and it was probably going to cheese them off." So I asked why he didn't just give them the money. His reply was a simple "It wasn't theirs!" As for me in the same circumstances, I would have cried and been ashamed to tell where the remainder of the money went. I was pleased that he used brains over braun, but also pleased that his martial arts training gave him the confidence to take care of himself in the event that he needed to resort to violence to protect himself.