With Daddy

Just two cute pictures of Madelyn with Daddy.


For several months Madelyn slept inside of this tiny tent on top of her bed.

So adorable!

4-year-olds Sleepover

During Spring Break, Grandma and Grandpa Winkel arranged outings and sleepovers for each "set" of grandkids based on age groups. So Audrey, Jack, and Madelyn got to visit Safari Sam's with Grandpa and then spend the night together.

Audrey and Madelyn stringing beads.

ATV ride with Grandpa.

Hot tub party with Grandpa. 

Is this any way to treat the guy who does all these fun things for you kids?

Grandma had fun with the kids too!

Minute to Win it

One night during our Family Reunion we played a series of "Minute to Win it" games. I'd never watched this TV show, but heard about the idea from another cousin's family reunion. It was a lot of fun as the adults and kids of all ages attempted random, silly challenges while everyone laughed together.

"Chocolate Unicorn" was one of my favorites.

Of course some got to enjoy the donuts that didn't roll off onto the fuzzy carpet.

Picking up paper sacks of descending size using only your teeth--this one was a hilarious challenge for the full-grown participants!

High-five, Audrey!

Emptying the tissue boxes was supposed to be a single-hand challenge, but we let the children use two.

And then we really had some fun with those tissues!

Daddy gets a high-five too!

Madelyn's hanging out on the bean bag chair waiting to head home after a really fun weekend at the beach!

Newport Aquarium

After a sunny morning hot tub party, we headed back to the aquarium (having been "kicked out" the day prior due to the non-tsunami).

Touching starfish and the like.

There was an expansive exhibit featuring marine-themes art made entirely from trash claimed to have been washed ashore. It was really cool. We're inside the jellyfish's tentacles made of plastic water bottles.

See? Jellyfish.

A rainbow garbage archway and styrofoam coral reef in the background.

We walked through the underwater tunnel just as this diver unveiled a surprise sign. The girl watching with her new fiancée (presumably) was very surprised and it was adorable.

Shark swimming over us.

Madelyn played outside on the sea creature statues.

Later that afternoon Madelyn got her turn at Wii Lego Rock Band. She has been around the game at the cousins' house before, thus some of her favorite songs: "We Will Rock You" by Queen and "So What" by P!nk. It's really nice when she starts belting out those lyrics. 

Castle Vacation and Tsunami Survival

It was our first-ever Winkel Family "Reunion" Vacation. The thing is, we all live locally, so we weren't "reuniting" in the typical sense. But it was really fun to spend dedicated time together as a family, especially playing together as adults after the kids went to sleep.

Our beach rental house was really fun, perfect for our large family, and looks like a castle. What more could you want? 

The first night Madelyn got to have a hot tub party and a bath with Jack.

My parents heard on the news just before bed that there had been a terrible tsunami in Japan and a severe tsunami warning had been issued for the Oregon Coast as the as a result. Tidal waves were expected to hit the Western United States around 7am the next morning.

I knew the sirens that woke me at 5:30am were tsunami warnings. So I went down to my parents' room and sure enough, they were awake watching TV, every channel of which was focused on the impending doom.

We spent the next couple of hours deliberating and deciding whether to stay put or evacuate. Pros and cons, risks and benefits were weighed. I was firmly on the "stay here" side of the fence as I determined online that although we were only 4 blocks from the ocean, our house was at 110 feet elevation so even if the maximum prediction of 6-foot waves actually occurred, it simply wouldn't reach us. And we'd have an awesome view. And if we left...where would we go? To a community center somewhere in town (probably lower elevation)  full of bored, hungry people? So we stayed. And nothing happened. So we went to the Newport Aquarium. 

We saw these hideous giant crabs, among a few others things, before an announcement over the speaker kindly asked everyone to return to the front desk immediately. We learned that the Aquarium had been asked (by the city, I think) to close down. They probably didn't want it to look bad that they closed school etc. for the non-event but kids could go to the aquarium. Or maybe there were liability issues. Anyway, we left and went out for pizza. 

Then later that afternoon, when the ocean was still as calm as ever, we broke through the yellow "do not cross" tape and played at the beach. 

We did a lot of lounging and playing, which was wonderful. I read an awesome book called Room. 

All twelve grandkids playing and watching Wii. 

Mother-Daughter

Just a picture of us.