Trying the Mokolua Margarita

Who doesn't need a reason to drink pineapple lilikoi margaritas? I know we don't. But, to be sure we had to have a little taste test. While we were at the beach house and working on the last (YAY!) of the wedding projects, we tested these babies out!

We used lilikoi puree instead of juice.
Since it was more concentrated we used half the amount.

Drew was on drink patrol while Nicki and I were neck high in wedding projects. Having him make us this super yummy cocktail was a nice break from the wedding project stress. It also gave us the opportunity to know if we wanted to get the ingredients for them for the possibility of having an after the after party.

Beach Weekend of Wedding Projects

This past weekend, Drew, Amanda, Nicki, Mykie and I all went out to Manzanita to go to the beach house for a few days. Our goal was to complete as many wedding projects as possible. And wedding projects we did complete. We got almost all of them done with only a couple left being for the at home reception. I'll have plenty of time to finish up the last couple small projects, as soon as we are back from our wedding.

As well as all of the wedding projects we completed, we enjoyed a great weekend of making food in, trying out pineapple margaritas, watching non-stop wedding movies and walking on the beach every day. It was a nice break from home and greatly needed. If only the weather had been as sunny all of the days we were there as it was the last day. Hopefully, it will when we go back after everything wedding related is over and we can just have a whole weekend off to relax.

Walking Chichi on the beach. 

Take Me to Your Leader

On our way back from the beach house in Manzanita, we stopped for lunch at Blue Heron French Cheese Company for lunch. After lots of samples and a delicious lunch, Drew decided to take ChiChi for a little walk around the property.


On the far side of the farm, there is a large field with a ton of cows. ChiChi bounced right over without a care in the word, happy to get some time to stretch her legs after being in the car for a bit. She could have cared less about the cows, but once they saw her, it was like they couldn't get enough.


All of the cow's eyes were on ChiChi. If she walked one way, they would walk that way.  If she turned around and started walking the other way, they would all do the same.  If she sat down to take a break, they would all just sit and stair at her. Drew and I had never seen cows act like this before and were cracking up! We wonder what they must have been thinking about ChiChi.

Once the cows saw ChiChi, they couldn't take their eyes off of her.

Notice how the cows watch her move.

Follow that creature!

Have you ever had any unusual animal encounters like this one?

All photos are personal property and cannot be used without our permission.

Wheels and Waves 2011

We went out to the Wheels and Waves car show in Seaside for the third year in a row.  This year our friends, Jon, Traci, Joe and Dana all joined us. As well as, ChiChi, the Wonder Dog! We checked out all of the classic vehicles while declaring which ones were our favorites, hit the vintage candy shop, enjoyed happy hour, rode some vintage rides, played a few games at the arcade, walked along the promenade and watched the sunset. The best part though was discovering a cotton candy machine that spun the floss fresh and came out warm. Everyone loved the fresh cotton candy, but it was Traci who was the most thrilled with it.  So thrilled in fact, I looked up cotton candy machines on Maui for her to visit when we go for our wedding trip.

My favorite car of the day!

How cute are those little paws?

Traci was surprised the cotton candy was so fresh and still warm.

Oh, Dana!

Joe loved the bumper cars.

Dana bumps Jon, who in return bumps Drew!

I was all about the Tilt-A-Whirl!

The sunset that night was beautiful!

Knock! Knock! MF'ers! Yes, the big metal cock made an appearance at the end of our weekend.

Fourth Anniversary at the Beach House

Since we've been working on Knotty Cakes Ranch so much this summer, we haven't had much time for out of town fun. We have been going out to the beach house every year around our anniversary so we made sure to take a break from all of our hard work and get a way for a weekend, just the two of us. This year was another wonderful weekend at the beach house celebrating four years together.

The beach was beautiful for a walk, but a little windy!

I'm really stuck on Drew!

Mustache soap.

Beaver soap. 

*All photos from our personal collection.*

Lots of Updates Coming Soon!

Oh, we have been busy! Tiki Kon 2011, Knotty Cakes Ranch continues to be painted, the lanai continues to be landscaped, Trader Vic's Portland, Adele, The Go Gos, visited the beach house and so much more. We have tons of pictures to post and will hopefully have time to do some of it this week. Cheers to that!

3 years!

We celebrate two anniversaries. The day we met- March 17th and the day we decided to give being a couple a try- July 7th. It's been three years now, so I guess this being a couple thing is working for us. Like the previous two years, we celebrated our third anniversary of being together at the beach house. We had a very nice, much needed, relaxing week. To top it all off, the weather was perfect!

Drew trying to get some driftwood for a project we are working on at the house. Maybe this piece is too big.

Saturday night we went out to San Dune for some small town fun and live music.

We got in a little dancing at San Dune.

Interesting sand formation we found out on our walk on Sunday morning.

Sunday we walked out to the rocky end of the beach.

I found a fishing float on the beach, but Drew got it free from the rocks. You will have to wait for the unveiling of our home tiki bar to see the float.

Goonies 25th Anniversay Weekend

Can you believe it's been 25 years since Goonies came out? I've always loved that movie and loved even more that the end was filmed at Goat Rock, a beach along a stretch of Northern California coast where I lived as a child. When I moved to Oregon, I learned that the beginning of the movie was filmed here in Astoria and also grew to love that.

Drew, Amanda, one of Amanda's friends, and I all went down to Astoria a few weekends back to celebrate the Goonies 25th Anniversary. There was so much going on for it and there were lots of people there, but the sun was shining bright and we all had a fun time. We even got to see Joe Pantoliano and we're sitting right outside of where Corey Feldmen was without knowing it until we were leaving. Explains why there were so many police officers around.

Goonies fans came from far and wide!

Down by the Goon Docks.

Opening day of the Oregon Film Museum. Also the same jail house where one of the Fratelli brothers broke out.

Maybe we got in a little trouble while we were there...

The museum where Mikey's dad worked.

Some guy had made his Jeep over to look like the one in Goonies complete with bullet holes in the back.

This was pretty funny. It connected Corey Feldmen to all different Oregon movies.

On lock down!

Baby Ruth!

It was good to see the people who own Mikey's house now have a real sign. The piece of poster board they had before was always falling down.

Mikey's house.

Everyone was trying to make a buck off of the Goonies.

We went down to see the sea lions before the movie started. Lots of people were calling them seals, which always bugs me. Kind of like when people don't know the difference between leopard print and cheetah print.

It was fun getting to see Goonies with so many other fans.