Oregon Adventures VIa

 Week of July 12th in pictures:

This week began by dropping off Ezra at his first "sleep-over camp".  Heavily researched beforehand, Drift Creek Camp exceeded our approval standards and didn't fail to deliver.  It is almost two hours from our house and near enough the ocean, it warranted a stop at the beach first.  Oh, and we took Ben's '67 Plymouth Fury, just for fun! 

 The last time we tried visiting the beach it was so cold so, we did not expect sunny weather in the 70s and 6mph winds (aka perfect!).

 Being fully dressed doesn't seem to stop our kids from completely immersing themselves around any body of water.

 We played at "D River" in Lincoln City, which has a lovely creek-like stream that pours into the ocean that is perfect for little ones who are unnerved by the ocean's waves.

 What IS this?   It seemed to be alive.
The Wiglets were not permitted to disturb it.

Sea Star!

The treasures.

While we were at the beach we found out Ben's sister, Elizabeth, had her second baby.  We have thought of little else since!

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The next three days, I went to a Classical Conversations practicum and the girls went to Play Camp and Geo-Drawing Camp.  Classical Conversations is a national home educator academic group based on the classical model of learning.  We have done the program for three years in Ohio and will be able to continue it in Albany, Oregon.  Hooray for a tiny bit of continuity!

At the end of the three days the kids performed the songs/memory work they learned over their camp.  Phoebe sang a great song about invertebrates that she still sings every day.

Juni got to brush up on her world geography during the camp and we all got to hang out with some of the people that we will be seeing on a weekly basis this Fall.

After asking the girls what they learned at camp one day, I shared with the girls a little of what I learned too, "I learned about the three stages of learning according to the Classical model."  Phoebe quickly asked, "Did you get on the stage, Mommy?" I think for a minute, "Hmmm...sometimes people call a period of time in their life a 'stage', weird, huh?" Phoebe: "Oh, ok."

Thursday, we finally got to visit Bush's Pasture park, which is a park in the heart of Salem and many have told us about it.  It was unique and fun...just like all the other great parks in Salem!

All week, I ached for Ezra, it was our first time apart really ever.  A whole week.  It was good for us though. 

This week is to be continued...it had WAY too many pictures for one post!