Our life in a nut shell

So we've been very busy.  We have been searching for a home for months now.  Back in April we went down for the first time.  I was nervous. I have lived in Idaho, Utah, and Alaska and never have I felt this nervous, and each of those were farther away.  Once we got into Westport, I had this sense of calmness, I had even had the feeling that I was home.  We spent that day walking the shops talking to people that lived down there, I was even offered a job.  Once we were done with the shops we went up to the viewing tower to look out over the fingers (small jetty like brakes).

 Half Moon Bay

 Our next adventure was down to the beach, its so pretty.  Luke had never been to the beach before.  Daddy took him down by the water.  He was quite amused at the fact that the water came in and went right back out.  He also like that he could lift his foot up and his print would go away.  He spent some time stomping around in the edge of the water while I walked around picking up shells, rocks, and sand dollars from the storm that had brought so much ashore. While Luke was out stomping around, i got this picture...

No this is not the original, this one has been cropped and I added an effect that makes it look older but it is my absolute favorite picture, mainly because I caught Luke with his leg in the air.

Sadly we ended up having to go home that day.  We honestly could have stayed and been perfectly happy.  Again in May we went up and walked through a couple homes.  Sadly the one we really liked is out of our budget and the older couple that owns it is really trying to sell it and was not willing to do a lease to own.  The other one was okay until you went upstairs.  It was an older house and it was obvious.  The three rooms were extremely tiny and there is no way we could fit our bed in any of them.  Our biggest concern wasn't the size but the fact that the floor was slanting down in certain areas.  We went back down stairs and started looking at these large beams, they were all sagging really badly and it would take a miracle (and a LOT of money) to fix this house.  Once again we headed home only this time we went down through Tokland area.  We were kind of bummed that we didn't get to go out but the weather was crummy.  We did stop at one point and I jumped out to grab a quick picture.  Sadly I can't find it.  

Early June we met up with Alex's sister down at the Rose Festival.  It gave us some time out of the house a Luke was just a bit attached (and worried) about his aunty going on all those rides that took her way up in the air.

Luke watching Aunty Crystal and Uncle Josh on the rides. 

As Josh and Crystal came down Luke said "Uh ohhhh" it was really cute!

One of the big tigers!

One of the geckos aunty & uncle won for him!

Caught Uncle Josh waving but looks like he's making a funny face. 

After no luck we decided we might have better luck if we went down there and spent a couple days rather than doing online searches or these one day trips where we were only there for a few hours.   We were supposed to leave June 6th but our plans got bumped back when the weather forecast changed.  We ended up going down on the morning of the 8th.  It was a bit drippy when we got down there but the weather seemed to clear up.  Alex went in and got us checked in at the camp ground.  They told us they weren't going to be too busy so if we found something we liked better we could probably move.  We drove around to our assigned campsite to and Alex got out to see if the ground was dry since many of the spots were still pretty wet.  Almost instantly the mosquitoes started swarming him. I wish I'd gotten a video because they were thick.  We went back up and looked at some that were closer to the restrooms and out of the densely wooded area.  It wasn't near as bad but they had followed the warmth of the jeep out.  We quickly set up one of our tents and zipped Luke up in it with his toys and books. At first he freaked out but we told him we didn't want the buggies to get him and he settled down a bit.  It took us a bit to figure out how we wanted to set up camp but we ended up encapsulating everything so that we didn't have to run from tent to tent.  It worked out quite well, we left it so we could open up an area that was tarped off while we were cooking to vent the tents but other than that we were pretty sealed in.

From the front...

From the side...

If we were at camp, we were in the tents.  No amount of bug spray would keep them away and they liked the citronella candles.  We only had one fire and only use the fire pit a time or two for cooking but not much more.  On Saturday we went down to most of the shops and picked up applications for me.  I spent the afternoon/evening filling them out and getting my resume and cover letter ready.  Okay so Alex did my cover letter.  Sunday was our family day and we went down to the beach.  We got a couple pictures. 

This was a picture we were trying to get for the business and it took all I had not to gag.  The whole area smelled like wet dog.  We finally got this one and not only is everyone looking, but Luke was actually smiling. 

Since the access to this beach was really bad and it stunk we decided to go back to the access we went to the first time we came down.  Apparently before we got there a huge storm had washed up even more rocks.  Most of the beach was covered in pea gravel sized rocks.  It had also left pools of water in the sand and I found lots of cool rocks that looked like granite.

 
Monday we went back down to the shops and turned in all the job applications and resumes.  I had four different people wanting to hire me or give me an interview right then and there.  Sadly its a little hard to get a job when you don't have a home quite yet.  We then spent the next few hours driving up and down nearly every street in Westport.  We found a few rentals and took down the numbers.  Later that night we tried calling one.  There was no answer so I left a message, (I also called the cell number two days later) and almost a month later, we have not heard back.  Little frustrating if you ask me. 

Anyways one of Luke's favorite activities was bouncing on mommy and daddy's air mattress. If we'd let him, he would have flopped around all night!

Oh did I mention he LOVES s'mores?  What kid wouldn't though?  Sugary marshmallows, chocolate and daddy even grabbed the cinnamon sugar gram crackers.

This was our only fire and it was cut short due to the mosquitoes.  We zipped ourselves back up into the tent and with in a short while we could hear rain.  It wasn't heavy but it was there.  That evening we all hunkered down into our tent to stay warm.  The next morning we once again zipped Luke into one of the tents with his books and toys while we packed up.  We got everything torn down, put into the trailer and then we grabbed him and took the last tent down.  We were once again fighting off mosquitoes...can anyone tell I really dislike these things?  It wouldn't have been so bad but they were leaving welts that were bigger around than the size of golf balls on Alex's arms and on my neck.  While sad to leave we were more than happy to get away from them.  It was kind of a quiet drive home, Luke slept for a bit which is always a big help on long drives. 

A month later we're still in search of a home.  We've looked at rentals, a property with a 5th wheel on it and more and we're still coming up empty handed.  Hopefully we will find something soon. 

Oh our other adventure as of the last week or so is potty training.  I have made Luke a few pairs of underwear and he's having less and less accidents.  I'm excited, maybe we'll get him out of diapers one of these days!