This Week at the Brennans’

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We had fun with a Daddy at the beach!

Here’s what happened this past week:

Gordon flew in was able to come visit for a week! Considering the kids haven’t seen him for 2 1/2 months, I think this was a very good thing for all of us 🙂 The first few days, we were able to hang out just as a family and have some fun.

One of the first things on Gordon’s to-do list was to sleep on the trampoline with the boys. They definitely got eaten alive by mosquitos but seemed to be well worth it (according to them, not me…haha!) We were also able to go to church in person here for the first time in five months. It was so nice even though we were all in masks with a very small congregation, well spaced apart. Not quite church like we once knew it, but still nice to be able to go and worship. Last I checked, they aren’t allowing church services in New York yet, so we felt really lucky that we got to go here in Gordon’s home town.

After a few days staying local, we got a vacation rental at the coast and headed out to be just our family. While we only stayed three days, it was much needed. Since all of our vacations were cancelled this year, we have been wondering when and where we’d be able to go on vacation and even though we decided on “just the coast”, it was just what we needed. A simple, easy, relaxing vacation. We’ve been there plenty of times and are familiar with the area. (Favorite restaurants, favorite beaches and things to do).

The wind really got us this year and definitely took Porter by surprise (his first time to any beach!) but of course it was windy! It’s the Oregon coast. He seemed to have a love-hate relationship with the sand. Haha! Also, being there into nap time really made for a cranky cranky baby. Sweet Porter loves and thrives off of his schedule and when we don’t follow it, it shows. He slept in my arms for about 20 minutes and was cranky the rest of the day. Oh well. We tried!

Gordon took the older three on a little excursion while I was dealing with a sleepy and cranky Porter. At the end of the beach in Oceanside, there is a cool rocky tunnel that connects one beach to another. So off they went and had a grand old time. Dad is the fun parent.

Our vacation rental was a dream. A huge home on lots of property with a game room, basketball hoop, swing set, pond, fire pit, hot tub and more! It was fabulous. A few of you have asked for the address of the property, but I’ll do you one better and give you the link to the vacation rental home. It was a great spot for our family and would highly recommend.

As tradition goes, we had to stop at the Tillamook cheese factory on our way our of town and get some ice cream. I looked it up a few weeks prior and was so glad I did! We had to make reservations in advance for the tour. So, I made them and we showed up and all was well! It was like we had the whole place to ourselves. New York has taught me to hate crowds, so I was thrilled to see no one inside and…best part…no lines for ice cream either! I think Tillamook should do this all the time. It was so much more enjoyable.

Before Gordon went back to New York, we were able to sneak in a fun date night at a local restaurant with lovely outdoor seating. We haven’t had ANY time to go on dates since March because of the pandemic and, oh yeah, we currently live in different states. So, it was a really nice evening to just focus on each other and dream about our futures for ourselves and our kids. Do you do that? I LOVE thinking about the different what if’s in our future because it gives me something positive to work towards. Call it silly, but it’s what has propelled us forward these last few years in New York.

Speaking of New York, Gordon flew back to JFK and we WERE supposed to go back with him, but decided at the last minute to stay a little longer in Oregon. There is no reason for us to head back to NYC *quite yet*. None of our friends are back, many of them have left for good and current events are making us reevaluate our living situation. Since my husband is in law enforcement, he sees first hand just how much crime there is in the city. It used to be held at bay, but with the pandemic and other events, that crime is coming closer and closer to home (literally) and it’s making us reevaluate our priorities. Will keep you posted what we decide. Haha! Gotta love last minute decisions.

But until then, we will be blissfully enjoying our country living here in small town USA. We did decide to homeschool our kids this year which is a decision I thought I’d NEVER make, but handling three kids in three different schools with three different in-person school schedules plus the online learning was something I didn’t want to deal with. So, we’re just not dealing with it and trying our best to homeschool. Fingers crossed! Eek!  I’ll be eating my feelings and nervous laughing until September.

Here’s what is coming up this next week:

Not a whole lot?! I’m ordering all the homeschool materials and hoping its all going to be ok. It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything is fine.

I’m hopefully going to head to Portland in the near future and get my kids some back to school clothes even though we’re technically not going to school anymore. So, that’s fun. Haha. My kids still grow and there are some great outlets nearby so you bet I’m heading there for all the deals I can find.

And, blog related: I’m going to be working on some back to school recipes. I have gotten all sorts of requests from school lunches to easy dinners to meal prepping to low carb. I can’t do it all, so I’m going to do my best to do what we do and hope you all do something similar.