Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Be Thou My Vision

Ancient Irish Hymn translated by Mary E. Byrne

 

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

 

Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;

I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;

Thou my great Father, I thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

 

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,

Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.

Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.

Raise Thou me heavenward, O power of my power.

 

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,

Thou mine inheritance, now and always:

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

 

High King of heaven, my victory won,

May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

 



Cannon Beach 2011 - Part 4 of 4

 This was our last day in Cannon Beach.  It's always sad to leave a fun vacation.  Lulu told us she misses our Cannon Beach home.  Here Mark and Levi are enjoying some breakfast at the table.

 Here is Lulu enjoying some cartoons.

 After we got all packed up and checked out we headed into town for one last time.  We enjoyed some shops and some more coffee.  We also enjoyed going into the many art galleries in town and looking at all the local art work.  We went into this one particular small gallery and we were in awe with the paintings.  All of the sudden this little old man came out from the back room and greeted us. He was the artist of all the paintings we were looking at.

 He had a little harp for the kids to play and he showed them his paining corner.

 I fell in love with this painting below.  The colors and the intricate details of this town are what I just love.  So, we bought it and now we are going to get it framed for our living room.  We also bought a painting for the kids room and one for our bathroom.  His artwork is really fun and unique. 

Click here to view the website of the Bill Steidel the artist above.

Cannon Beach 2011 - Part 3 of 4

This was our first morning in Cannon Beach.  We woke up and walked into town to the local bakery.  Coffee and pastries is a must while sitting on the benches out front, no matter how cold it is.

This is what Lulu picked out for her breakfast.  She saw it and even helped pay for it with her own money.  Papa and Grandma gave both Lulu and Levi some money and Lulu wanted to buy everything for everyone. 

After breakfast we went back to our cabin and got ready to go to the beach.  Here is Levi standing on the window sill watching the seagulls. 

We brought the wagon so we could walk a ways on the beach.  Today it wasn't as nice out but the beach is fun no matter the weather. 

This is Haystack Rock.  This is what Cannon Beach is known for.  It's exactly one mile walk from our cabin to Haystack, we didn't quite make it that far.  Maybe next year. 

Mommy and her ducklings.

Heading back to our room.  Here is Mark pulling the wagon up the stairs.  No, the kids weren't in it.

And here is Lulu just a few hours later in the SUN!  The rest of the day was sunny and even a bit warm.

Here's a little video of the kids on the beach.  You can hear the wind too.

Cannon Beach 2011 - Part 2 of 4

I want to show where we stayed.  The picture above is of the motel that we stayed at.  It's the yellowish building on the left.  Our room is on the far right with no one above us.

Here is the living room

The bedroom.

Lulu's bed in the same bedroom.  Levi slept in the pack-n-play.

Here is a look at the kitchen from our bedroom.

Here you can see the dining area and living room from the kitchen.

Here's a look at the entire place.  It was so nice to have a little cabin type place.  This exact cabin is the same one my family used to rent growing up.  I slept in the bed that Lulu slept in and Todd my brother would sleep out on the couch that's a hide-a-bed.  I even found in the guest book my mom's entries from years ago when we stayed there.  They have 3 full guest books and I was thrilled to find my mom's.  I of course added our entry into the latest guest book for this particular cabin.

Our view out the windows.

I love this picture of Mark.  He has been working so hard and this vacation was for him.  I was so glad to see him put his feet up and relax.  Mark never puts his feet up and that's why I love this picture.

Here is Lulu with her special treasures.  We went to a shell store and she filled a bag with special rocks and shells.  This is exactly what I used to do when I was little and came to Cannon Beach.  I was so excited for her to do this because I remember the excitement of looking at all the pretty shells and organizing them. 

Here is Lulu sitting out on our deck.  She had so much fun.

Here she is running on the grass right our front of our cabin.

We did a lot of this over the weekend.  We brought our binoculars and enjoyed looking at the beach and our ocean view.  Right out front, probably about 5 miles away (I'm guessing) was a light house that was fun to look at too.