Its been a busy and exciting couple of weeks around casa Johnson. Ben and Ryann were here for a week and we went to the children's museum. It wasn't all fun and games though...grandma made them write a report on the things they had learned. Tammy and Rick, my brother Dick's kids came to visit on Monday of this week. I just took them to the airport today and they should be arriving back in L.A. about now. We had a great time...at least I know I did. I hope they did. They are charged with reporting back to the California contingent of family and getting others up here to visit.

I should explain the stories behind the pictures above. The box we (Tam, Rick and I) found on the beach in Newport. It was floating in the waves and I pointed it out to Rick. He didn't seem interested in going in after it so I did. (I didn't get very wet....it was fine) We fished it out of the surf. The words you see on it were covered with white tape. I thought at first it was some sort of jewelry box but it had a piece of glass inside that had clearly been installed in the opening at some point. I fiddled around with it and some grey ashy stuff came out of it. It was about then we all realized it was somebody's ASHES! Someone had 'given the ashes back to nature' but things didn't go as planned and they washed up on shore. I washed as much of George (as I affectionately called the deceased) off my shoes and hands and we started to walk up the beach. We saw a ranger stop to pick up the box and we flagged him down. I asked him if it was what we thought it was and he assured us it was. He said he's found all sorts of urns and boxes on that particular beach. All the rest of the day I just kept saying to Tam and Rick..."we found a dead guy!". In the picture you can see a little of the ash-stained sand. Yuck.

The next pic is Tam and Rick at one of the roadside stops I made them go to. We have a cool coastline in Oregon and I wanted to show them as much as possible.

The next is Ben and Ryann playing chess on a huge chessboard at the Children's museum.

That's Juliet Rose (Jubie) and Sophia at their dance class. I just threw that one in because it was cute.

The last picture is an octopus we found near Yaquina Head lighthouse. It was HUGE - the picture doesn't do it justice. It was easily larger than a big cat. Tam and Rick and I were at the tide pools looking for sea life, but we never expected to see anything like that. The rangers we told about it as we were leaving said they had never seen one there. We were excited.

I made Tammy and Rick fly kites before we left the beach. I told them it was fun darn it, and they were gonna have fun if it (I) killed 'em. They agreed it was rather fun at the end. I'm not sure if it really was or not - they may have just told me that to shut me up.

All-in-all its been a fun couple of weeks and I hope more of my family will get the message and come visit. I also hope Tammy and Rick come back soon. I miss them already.