Museums, Family Paint Night, Shopping and More Beach Time! - August 2018 Family Vacation: Part 4

Towards the end of our vacation, we got up early to beat the crowds at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Ice cream for breakfast, oh yeah!

We headed out to see the Tillamook Air Museum where blimps were stationed during WWII. It was quite an interesting museum.

Rina was checking out the inside of a typical backyard bomb shelter used during WWII.

She also got to sit in the pilot seat of some old planes. It was nice that they had some hands-on stuff for kids to do. 

We used the left over steamer clams to make clam chowder. Delicious! It's the only seafood my sis will eat.

My stepmom brought supplies for us to each paint a beach scene. 

She convinced me to give it a try. I'm glad I did because it was actually a lot of fun and I did better than I thought I would. Art is not my gifting. My twin sis hogged those genes!

I'm going to hang our family's paintings in the toy hauler somewhere. I just love them!

Our family headed into Garibaldi for some fresh fish and chips right of a food truck. Best I've ever had!

 We stopped in at the Garibaldi Museum. It had been years since we'd been there. Such a great little museum.

Josiah was very interested in the typical food sailors would eat. Josiah has always loved making his own hardtack for Boy Scout hikes and such.

The weather finally broke and we enjoyed some sun on the beach. Good thing, because that afternoon, it started pouring down rain.

Jessica and Rina enjoyed playing on the beach together for hours. I love their special relationship.

We joined my sister's family on a jaunt to Rockaway Beach. The kids got a kick out of the International Police Museum in the middle of the small beach town.

Policewomen's  uniforms from around the world. 

It was cute to see the middles being littles. My nephew Jacob and our daughter Hailey each took a turn on the police motorcycle ride. Fun to see them play.

We walked around Rockaway to look at several shops. One of our favorites was the blacksmith shop. The girls took some time between rain showers to play a game of chess.

One final picture of Rina and Grandma thoroughly enjoying their Tillamook ice cream cones. The next day, we all packed up and went home. Even though it was a little soggy at times, we had a great time and it was a wonderful break from the 110 degrees F temps we were getting in Eastern Oregon. We really enjoyed have the large toy hauler as it became the hang out for Stacie's family when it was raining or chilly. Plus my mom and stepdad were able to stay in it with us part of the week. What a blessing to have it! How special that we were able to have both sets of parents camp with us. We had a few issues with the truck coming home but we made it back in one piece, and for that we were grateful. This was a family vacation that we will remember for a long time to come! 

God Bless,

Jackie

Perfect, Soft and Chewy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been trying to make the perfect, healthy whole wheat chocolate chip cookie for years. I find that they often fall apart and can dry out, especially by the next day. I finally figured it out thanks to the new bonMat I received at a bonCook party. The silicone mat actually crystallizes the sugar so that it doesn't fall apart. Amazing!

You would never know that these cookies are healthier than your average chocolate chip cookie. They are made with whole wheat pastry flour, purely butter for the fat and an unrefined sugar called "sucanat". Do not use regular whole wheat flour! I typically use organic dark chocolate or white chocolate chips and, being part squirrel, I always add nuts. After creaming the butter and sucanat together, I just turn on my Kitchen Aid onto the "Stir" setting and start dumping. Wet ingredients first, then dry. The cookies in these pictures are actually white chocolate macadamia nut. Same recipe!

Healthy, Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter (softened but not melted)

2 cups sucanat (or brown sugar)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips (any kind you like)

1 cup nuts or seeds (any kind)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream softened (not melted) butter and sucanat together until somewhat light and fluffy. Set Kitchen Aid to "Stir" and add remaining ingredients in the order they are listed. Put about 2 Tbl of dough in rows on a silicone baking mat such as the bonMat that I used. I have two, so this goes really fast. I was able to get 3 cookie sheets filled with this recipe. Cook in middle rack of oven for 8 minutes or until just tops are just slightly done. Remove from oven and let sit on mat 5 minutes, then move cookies to cooling rack. 

Yields approx 60 small cookies.

My dear friend, Melinda, mailed me several bonCook pieces after our house fire to help replace what I had lost. If your interest has been piqued about this amazing product, check out her website at melindahassinger.boncook.com. I absolutely love this bakeware!

Enjoy!

God Bless,

Jackie