The Caring Cabin

( I love this picture because it shows how great his new hair is...)

Well... We are home from the coast.  It was beautiful there.  The weather was cold, and on Sunday very rainy, but we were able to get some good outside time in and really enjoyed ourselves.  The little boys did not want to come home.  The house was a literal dream home.. Something Ty Pennington and crew must have consulted on.  It was big and had windows everywhere and a huge fire place with a fully stocked kitchen.  A great computer for Mikalie and video games for the boys.  The garage was converted to a playroom with pool, air-hockey, karaoke, a curtian for dress-up and puppet shows, outside toys of every kind and so much inside stuff we couldn't get to it all.  It was truly amazing  for both kids and adults.  There was even a playground outside...  

We arrived Friday evening just after dark.  The directions were good, but "Betty" my GPS was a bit confused by the small town of Pacific City... so we basically got lost..  The directions said we were one place, Betty said something else... The boys in the back seat began to get a little nervous about having to sleep in the truck.. but a short time later, we figured it out.  My one regret for the weekend, was that we didn't work it out to arrive at 10:00 am, which was the time we could have check in...

The CCA (Children's Cancer Assoc.) had a quilt for Jesse, two stones with his name carved into them and a disposable camera waiting on the table for us when we arrived. The stones were really cool, one we placed along the path to the lake along with other stones from previous guests, the other was for us to bring home.  It was really nice for us to talk with Jesse about what the stones meant and to be able to leave a part of us behind.

Saturday we hung out at the beach.  It was a bit cool and windy, but still so much fun.  The kids climbed a VERY steep sand dune, flew a kite, dug in the sand and even waded in the surf a little bit.  We had lunch and watched the waves.  This was Gage's first time at the beach.  He loved it!  He had sand EVERYWHERE when we left...  even his eye's, ears and mouth...  Then we headed back to the house and played and played and played.. The kids had the best day and were very tired at bed time...

On Sunday it was very rainy, so we packed up the kids and headed an hour south to Newport where they have a great aquarium.  We had a really good time there.  The kids touched string rays and star fish and really enjoyed the otter feeding.  We had lunch at Mo's....  A great little seafood dive on the coast.

The rest of Sunday we sat around the fire, put a puzzle together and listened to the rain come down.  The kids were even mellow by this time... That never happens in our family.  It was a very peaceful time.

Monday, the rains stopped and sun even peaked out for a bit...  We placed Jesse's rock and the kids went for a boat ride on the lake.  It was a lot of fun for the little boys and Mikalie too.  She tried her hand at a Kayak and did a great job.  Saying good bye was hard because we had such a great time at the Caring Cabin.  On the way home we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory...  sort of cheesy thing to do, but they had great ice cream and super gift shop... 

Having Cancer really sucks... but I am continually amazed at the extent some people will go to help children who are sick.  This cabin was made possible by people who donated tens of thousands of dollars just so families like ours would have a place to go to escape the sadness for a few days.  We loved it as a mini-vacation, but I'm sure other families use it as a place to make one last terrific memory when the end is near for their kids... I"m glad that is not us, but grateful it is available to those who need it..