The Last Hoorah

We tired the kids out.  This was 8 am in the morning, and they were still down.

Once we got the kids up, we ate our breakfast and packed up.  But before we could go, we went for another walk on the beach.  This had been the perfect trip.  But I had one more thing I wanted to do.  I wanted to take jumping pictures.  There weren't many people at the beach yet, and no one we knew.  We could be as crazy as we wished.  I know Ryan thought I was crazy.  But it ended up being pretty fun and the pictures are hysterical.

 I finally convinced Ryan to join me.  It's my favorite of all the pictures we took of us jumping.  I look like I am going to totally get body slammed by Ryan.  (He takes chest bumping way too seriously?)

Then it was time to go home.  Annie and Maddie had soccer practice at 5:30 and Emma's latest orthodontic appliance broke and needed some repairing.

But the trip was so fun, and we have a lot of good memories to keep us until our next visit.

Sandy Beaches

Vacation: day 2 started and ended at the beach.  After breakfast we walked down to the beach with a shovel, a blanket, some snacks and water, and books for mom and dad. 

  The kids chased waves and dug holes in the sand while Ryan and I enjoyed our books.

 The weather was unbelievable.  It was so warm and sunny and not at all windy.

 Then we had fun jumping off the sand dunes.  We took some videos, and one of these days I should load them here.

 We went back to our room for lunch, and then drove to Seaside to poke around shops and look around.  Maddie won a stick of candy at a candy shop.

We spent a few minutes at a free mirror fun house.

 The kids rode the carousel.

Instead of ice cream, we had gelato.  It was so yummy!

 Emma and Annie had mint chocolate chip, and Daddy and Maddie had rocky road.  Elizabeth had bubblegum flavored, and I had a sinfully rich and delicious Dutch chocolate.

 Of course we had to check out the Seaside beach too.  It was pretty windy there.

 Before we left Seaside, we went back to Safeway for more tv dinners to take "home."  We did pick up a couple of plastic forks from the deli so everyone could eat at the same time.

 Then we were off to Cannon Beach again.

 Back to the tide pools.

 A worker? volunteer? for the tide pool conservation came out to tell everyone that the tide was going to come in again in about 20 minutes and to be careful because the water can come in fast.  Elizabeth was out of there so fast.  She took it very seriously and did not wish to be caught on the rocks.  It was a little funny.

We kept having people offer to take a picture of our family.  It was really sweet.

Then we got started on the long promised sand castle as a family.  Over the course of the day we found two extra shovels left on the beach, which we put to good use.

I thought our "castle" looked like a tug boat.  Really it was a 4 sided pyramid with two towers and a strangely shaped moat.  (I was not in charge of this.)

 We were all covered in sand.

Before bed, we made all of the kids rinse off in the shower.  I know we brought a whole lot of the beach back with us.  The kids were exhausted and were all asleep by the time I was out of the shower.  But it was such a fun day.

Vacation, Day 1

Saturday night we finally made plans for our getaway.  We've been throwing around ideas of places to go for a month and hadn't settled on anything.  Partly because Grandma Skip was visiting Uncle Rudy and family instead of being home in California, and two other families we had thought about visiting were gone or busy.  Was it a sign that we are unlikable and destined to stay home?  Nah.  Let's go to the beach.  So we booked a place to stay in Cannon Beach, Oregon and we left Tuesday morning.  We made a stop in the Portland area to say hi to Uncle Rudy, cousin Heather, and Grandma Skip.  It wasn't a long visit, as Grandma was heading to the airport to go home, and Uncle Rudy is home recovering from a successful brain surgery.  

Our first stop on the coast was Ecola state park.  Look!  We found the ocean!

 One beach was unavailable (lame!) and the other path lead to a cliff and view of the ocean.  Well, we did not just pay $5 to look at the ocean.

 We climbed down the cliff.  Ok, it wasn't exactly a cliff, but it was sure tricky getting all the girls down.

 This place was deserted when we came down.  By the time we left, others had joined us down on this rocky beach.

When we were done, we had to climb back up.  This picture doesn't do justice to the climb we faced. It was steep and slippery and muddy and madness.

By this time, we could check into our room at McBee's cottages.  We were a block away from the beach, so we parked our car and walked down.

 Emma found this whole tiny sand dollar.

 We walked over to Haystack Rock to check out the tide pools.

 By this time it was really late and we were all hungry.  In a stroke of sheer genius, we drove to Safeway in Seaside to see what we could scrounge for dinner.  Our cheapness won out, and we bought a bunch of $1 or $1.50 tv dinners to microwave in our room.  So then we had to drive all the way back, and cook all of these meals and before we knew it, it was 7:45 and we were finally eating dinner.  The kids thought tv dinners were a treat.  (Gag me.)  Our room was a room for 4 people so the kitchenette had 4 forks, knives, and spoons.  We had to eat in shifts so everyone could use a fork.

Then we got out the sleeping bags for the kids, and got ready for bed.