Why not write?

Why haven’t I written much lately? A combination of slow times with nothing to write about and too-busy times with plenty to write about and no time to write it, I suppose. Probably a decreased interest right now, too, what with the holidays and everything.\par
\par
Oh well, I’m here now! We just got back from the Oregon Coast yesterday! We went to Seaside Thursday morning and came home Saturday afternoon. Michael had a couple extra vacation days and he’s been busy lately, so it was a good opportunity to have some relaxed family time. The weather was reasonably good on Thursday, but terribly stormy and rainy on Friday – which was really very nice! We stayed inside all afternoon reading, Christmas shopping (wireless internet) and napping. We\’c3\’82\’c2\~had an ocean-view and were quite content to sit inside and watch it storm and be warm and cozy. Saturday the weather was beautiful (as we were packing up!), but we were ready to go home. We can only handle so much inactivity, after all. I always think I’d like to go shop in all of the little shops, but it’s just like any other shopping to me – I go in, see cute things, think how nice it would be to buy xy&z, don’t (because it’s all expensive), and leave feeling poorer than I did coming in. So I didn’t do much of that on this trip! We ate out one meal a day, which was good practice for the kids (especially Judah), and not even too unpleasant for us, as we chose restaurants for their more casual atmosphere, etc, so that we wouldn’t be stressing ourselves out trying to keep them quiet in some adult atmosphere and while we “enjoyed” our dinner! And I still got some pan-fried oysters out of the deal!\par
\par
Here’s a picture from one of our walks on the beach.\par
\par
\’c3\’82\’c2\~\par
\par
\’c3\’82\’c2\~Judah seems to be a rather timid child, and the ocean scared him spitless – it took a great deal of effort\’c3\’82\’c2\~just to get him to walk on the sand holding Michael’s hand, rather than being carried (I think perhaps somebody – naming no names – let the ocean sneak up on him one too many times when he was younger and he’s now terrified of that sneaky ocean). He eventually got used to it, and he sincerely enjoys playing with pail and shovel.\par
\par
Ezra on the other hand didn’t want to have his hand held and kept forging on ahead – or behind, or toward the ocean, or toward the rocks, or whichever direction caught his fancy at the moment. He’s an independent little boy.\par
\par
Well, enough for now!