July vacation

So sorry it has taken me a while to post about our vacation, but summer is such a busy time! The weather in the Pacific Northwest has finally turned and we are enjoying summer temperatures and the sun! It's been a long time coming, but we are spending as much time outside in it as we can before it decides to disappear again.

We took our annual 4th of July camping/riding trip a few weeks ago. 10 days at the Oregon coast doing one of the things we love most as a family. Riding our quads and hanging out with some of our besties. The weather was amazing for our whole trip, and except for some barking dogs camping right behind us our trip was pretty good. And the riding was amazing. Since I don't have a lot of time, I'll just post all the pictures of our vacation.

See the sandy trail in the middle of the photo? That's the trail to the beach. We actually saw people walking all the way to the beach from behind where this photo is taken. It's a good 2+ miles one way I'd say. We just ride our ATVs and get there in no time!

Some of our play area. You can see our tracks in the sand, plus other people playing at the bottom of the dune.

Here's most of our group for the week. Plus Nick's friend's Dad on my quad. He brought Riley down a couple days after we got here, and we just had to take him out on a ride with us!

Gabi loved jumping her quad. Look at that air she got! She wasn't so good on the hill climbs. Still needs some practice there, but she'll get it eventually.

Nick & our friend Larry trying to jump together. Great job guys!

Nick's friend Riley showing how NOT to land. Rear tires first bub! Luckily he stayed on his bike.

That's better!

Some silly person thought he could drive his 300M onto the sand to the beach. That's as far as he got. We found him sitting in his car waiting for a tow truck to pull him out. Not sure what he was thinking, but we had to snap some photos of it!

Nick & Riley wishing they could drive this and go pick up some girls. Never going to happen boys! Our friend's son & Fiance bought this just before the weekend and are so proud of their new toy. The only reason the boys got in there is because they happened to be gone at the time. And no, they didn't leave the keys behind!

The rightful owners of the Razer. It's a pretty cool toy. Goes anywhere our quads will, but sits 2 people. Fun fun fun!

So there are some highlights of our trip. It was a blast and we were so lucky to have great weather the entire trip. (minus 1 day) 10 days is a long time to be camping, but we just don't get a chance to get out and ride much anymore so we really enjoy the longer trips where we can relax and have some great family time. The kids are turning into such great riders and some of the skills they are learning should help them when they reach the driving age as well. As long as they don't try jumping my car we should be in good shape! LOL

Next post... The Wild Animal Park one of our favorite places on the Oregon Coast!

So it's been a while

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and that's because we've been really busy! Not only did we take a great vacation to San Diego for Spring Break, but we also started some house projects, and Nick broke his wrist in the middle of everything too. Just more craziness in the Geddis Household. So here are some photos of what we have been up to. I will try to get back to more regular postings as we have some big house projects on the near horizon!

The sunset from our Hotel window

The fam at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad. Beautiful Ranunculus flowers as far as the eye could see!

Crazy boy!

Our new teenager! Can't believe she's 13 already!

What a sweet couple!

Overlooking the San Diego Wild Animal Park - These are the lions.

Took the tram tour to see most of the animals in more natural habitats.

He's really yawning. But I love this picture!

Flamingos were everywhere it seemed!

The cheetah was purring the entire time he was out. Didn't get to pet him. Kinda like my arms the way they are, but we were really really close to him!

All of us at the Wild Animal Park.

This statue is awesome! Huge and way cool!

The Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. We toured most of it. Took us over 3 hours! But a very cool thing to see.

Here are Nick, Gabi & Bryan in the sleeping bunks on the midway, pretending to be sailors.

Sea World was cool!

Fed the dolphins at Sea World

Watched the Shamu Show. Way cool! Such amazing animals!

The Sea Lion show was also very funny & entertaining.

The San Diego zoo was way too amazing for words, but I'll sum it up with this: PANDAS!

They were so adorable! Loved finally being able to see pandas first hand.

There were other animals too - like baby giraffes!

And baby Orangutans. Oh wait. That was mom posing as one!

I have so many more great photos and video of our trip, but I think that's a pretty good over view for you guys. Don't want to bore you too much with our vacation photos.

All in all it was an amazing trip. The weather was great, the food was amazing and the company was pretty great too. So many great memories from that trip. Can't wait to go back! Maybe when Nick doesn't have a broken arm so maybe the kids can learn to surf. Cause what trip to San Diego doesn't include a little ocean time?

Next post will be an update of the house and the newest project we are working on!

Gabi's second ever sewing project

So Gabi has a new interest in wearing skirts and I thought it would be a great idea to not only encourage the girly desire to wear something other than jeans and t-shirts, but try to interest her in sewing again. Her first project was making some sleep pants which she wears all the time and loves, but didn't really want to make anything else.

So we made a trip to the mothership of all fabric stores... Fabric Depot. They actually advertise that they have over 1-1/2 ACRES of fabric. Truly the Mecca of fabric stores. If she couldn't find fabric she liked there then it just didn't exist! So we found the pattern we wanted to try:

Nice and easy, with lots of different options. So she picked this view:

We found the PERFECT fabric, took it home washed it and cut it out. After another trip to the store to get more fabric we finally had the entire project cut out. See Gabi has VERY long legs and I forgot to check the finished length before purchasing the fabric. Did I mention it's been a LONG TIME since I've sewn clothes? Like since she was a baby I'd say.... at least 10 years. (YIKES!) So we had to lengthen the skirt 3 inches to make it decent and not some hoochy momma length. Anyway, Saturday was our sewing day and we got busy putting it all together so she can wear it on her birthday on Tuesday.

Notice the CUTE polka dot fabric! Suits her to a tee! All her favorite colors and she loves polka dots!

Here she is carefully sewing the hems on the ruffle layers. I had to do a few parts of it cause she was a little too nervous to do it. Especially the zipper. And she was afraid of the serger so I did those seams. But the finished product is adorable! She did think all that pressing of the hems on the 3 layers was BORING but when I told her at least she didn't have to sew them BY HAND she didn't think it was so bad afterall. She really loves the actual sewing part, but does understand the importance of proper pressing to make the prefect final product.

She is so proud of herself and I am proud of her too. She was so excited to finish it and can't wait to do her next project. I think we'll make another skirt, and she's already telling me she wants to take over making my projects for my Aunt's store. I think we have a budding little seamstress on our hands, and I couldn't be happier!

Valentine's Day 2010

We went camping and riding for Valentine's/President's Day weekend. Had a great time and the weather actually cooperated with us for once! It only rained at night after we were in bed. The above picture is what it looked like on Monday. Just perfect weather! We had a great time hanging out with our quading family. Celebrated Erika's 18th birthday, had a great Valentine's dinner, and lots of great riding. Nick did have a bit of an accident and we got to visit the Florence emergency room for the first time in all the years we have be going there. Luckily it wasn't that bad, and he's healing very nicely now.

The kids quads. Nick's is the black one, and Gabi's new quad is the white one.

Gabi attempting to climb a hill on her bike. She made it up too!

Nick playing around on his bike.

Gabi loves her new bike. It was an early birthday present for her.

Larry was having issues with his bike, but there were lots of little helpers around if he needed the help! Nick and our friends Chad (on the right) & Craig (on the left) are supervising Larry as he deals with his chain issue.

Bryan riding my quad as he tried to fix it. It was a bit temperamental over the weekend and Bryan spent a whole day trying to fix it. He finally got it all worked out. Runs great now!

Here is Nick's injury. He was trying to pop a wheelie and didn't quite make it. Hit his head on the bars and ended up biting his tongue among other mouth injuries. He actually bruised his mouth too on both sides of his lips. Poor guy wouldn't talk for 3 days! He's healing fine now and should be back to normal in a few days.

All in all it was a great trip and as usual we can't wait for the next one!