Yachats For My Birthday

For my birthday this year Daniel decided to take me dancing. It was a fantastic idea since I love to dance. The big problem is, there isn't really anywhere for mature adults to dance anymore, especially if you don't want to be the only sober people in the room. Then, Daniel read an article in our local paper about a no-alcohol, family-friendly Big Band Dance in Yachats. (Yah-hots) The best part was, it was only 3 days before my birthday. Bingo!Yachats is 50 miles south of Lincoln City. We'd never been there, in fact, we'd never been south of Newport, which is only 25 miles from here. Daniel wanted to take time to explore the sights between Newport and Yachats, and we don't like driving in the dark, so Daniel booked a hotel room for the night. We stayed at a place called "The Shamrock Lodgettes". It was very cute. It had a log bed and a wood burning stove. They provided wood and everything. We had a view of the bay and the ocean. We sat in the hot tub and then got ready for dinner and the dance. We had dinner that night at a place called "Drift Inn". We had steak and risotto and Italian sodas. There was an older gentleman who was VERY talented playing acoustic guitar. Daniel went up to him, gave him a tip, and requested he play a song for me. The next song was Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle. It was GORGEOUS! (I was so happy!)After dinner we went to the dance. Daniel and I were two of the youngest people in the room. We danced all of the slow dances and most of the fast ones. The Yachats Big Band plays a dance the first week of each month. We were so lucky to be able to go this month. See what I mean about being the youngest people there? On the way home the next day we stopped at "Elephant Rock" just north of Waldport. It's named "Elephant Rock" because when you view it from a certain angle it looks like a rock. When we got back to Newport we stopped at the bay to take pictures of the boats. It was a misty cool day. There were seals on the rocks making a lot of noise. They were barking at each other over fish, or the best rock, who knows. (I got some video of that, I'll post it as soon as I can get it converted to the right format.) We also got a visit from a blue heron. He walked right past us on his way to lunch. Actually, he was having lunch on the way. The next thing I noticed was that the sand was spitting at me. No kidding. Little streams of water kept squirting up seemingly out of nowhere. I was about to ask Daniel if I was seeing things, when I realized what was going on. The tide was going out, and the clams had sunk into the mud. They squirt out water to get an air hole so they can breathe.

Ahhh, dinner, a dance, a romantic night at an ocean front hotel room, boats, noisy seals, blue heron and clams. It was the best birthday ever!

Taft

Daniel and I recently went down to the "Taft" area of town. It's the southern most tip of Lincoln City just before Siletz Bay. We've been down there a couple of times for dinner at the famous "Mo's" restaurant, but we had never explored the shoreline. So, on a recent beautiful day, we went down there to watch the sunset. Here are some pictures:

There was drift wood everywhere. This bunch looked like modern art to me.

This one is a little hard to see. Across the opening of Siletz Bay from us were some sea lions enjoying the sunshine. Over on the left hand side is a sea lion pup. A few moments after I took this picture a boat went past the sunbathers and the little pup wiggled back behind his mother for protection. Have you ever seen a sea lion move on land? It was the cutest thing I've ever seen!

The sun started setting in spectacular fashion...

and it was an amazing end to an incredible day.

After the sun went down, Daniel and I decided to have dinner at the famous "Mo's".

I had fish and chips, I'm really starting to like sea food.

New Haircut

Good afternoon everyone! Here is the first of the updates. A couple of weeks ago, I had about 6 inches hacked off my hair. I also got some bangs cut. I call it my "rehab hair" because I cut it in order to make exercising, swimming and then primping easier. Once I lose weight and I don't have to exercise so much, I will grow the long locks back. (An update on the weight loss, I'm losing inches off my waist, hips and arms, but I'm gaining muscle. So even though I've only lost around 15 pounds, my clothes are fitting better.) This picture was taken in Yachats before the Big Band dance we went to for my birthday. I will blog about that in the next couple of days. Loves to all!

Update Soon!

Hey everybody!

A quick post today to let you know I am so sorry about not updating for so long. A lot of things have been getting in the way, (namely, Facebook) but I've got tons of pictures and video and stories to upload and they will all be coming up in the next few days. I know my blog isn't the hottest ticket out there, but thanks to all of you who do read it. Look for new posts on Monday. Tomorrow as you may or may not know is my birthday, I will be 31. I'm not ashamed.

Be Well!
Tonya

Chain of Giving (or Fools, If you're an Aretha fan)

I got this from my friend Robin B, who got it from Mrs. Moo, who got it from her friend's blog, a Greek Goddess, who got it from her friend's blog, who begat Zorobabel, who begat ...

Anyway, this is my first blog-land chain letter. Mrs. Moo says, "It's a chain of giving and I like this idea." so did Robin, so did I, so did Zorobabel, etc.

Here's how it works.

The first five people to respond to this post, saying they have joined the ranks by posting this "chain of giving idea" on their blog, get something made by me.

Fine Print:

1. It will be within 12 months.
2. It will be something made specifically for you - tho' perhaps not even tangible.

(I may have messed up the rules, in which case, any blog cursing will fall on my shoulders, not yours, should you break this chain that has been going since 1957).

The Prodigal Missionary

We just received our first letter from Elder Eric Pasenelli.










He has emailed us a couple times but this is the first pen to paper and the first pictures we have seen. He is on the Navajo reservation about 150 miles west of where I served, and the pictures reminded me of the time I served there.


He has grown in all ways observable, in maturity, spiritually, intellectually, height and yes, weight. (He says he is working on it.) I wanted to put these pictures online for all to see.




He took some good ones in Winslow that refer to a great song by The Eagles. Anyway, here he is for all to see, we sure love him and are proud of him and the choices he has made.

Explosion Box

I'm the Young Womens first councilor in my ward and recently we made "explosion boxes". They are boxes that fall apart when you take the lid off and reveal pages that act like a scrapbook. I needed to make one as an example for my young ladies, so I had to decide on a theme to build my box around. After several seconds of hard thinking, I settled on one of my favorite subjects as of late: my nephew Cannon.

After getting all my paper, scissors, glue and do-dads assembled, I went to my sister Mandy's blog and hijacked many pictures of the boy. (technology rocks) When it was all done, I was rather pleased with myself. Here is the finished project.

Here it is in box form.

With the lid off it looks like this:

This is the first level, over on the left it says "always a cutie!"

Half of the second level:

Second half of the second level:

Half of the bottom level:

Second half of the bottom level. In that green envelope is a picture of Cannon sitting on the San Fran 49ers blanket I gave him. You can open it up and take the picture out.

The boxes made by my young women were WAY CUTE! They were all so different but wonderful. It was a very successful mutual night. I have thought of giving this box to Cannon's mom, but I think I'm going to keep it!