Beach Adventures

We are so lucky that Jim and Arlene have a house at the beach that we can go and visit. Here is a little picture tour with stories from our 7 days there last week.

Here are the kids on the deck of the house with Grandma and Grandad.

Fun with Auntie Kate

After one trip to the tide pools Hudson came back and reported to me that he held a crab. He said, "And it didn't even pinch me. That's because I told it not to. Crabs listen to me." Andrew mutters in the background, "Yeah, it also helps when the crab is deceased." Hudson is quite the Crab Whisperer.

I love the light in this picture. Typical Oregon beach, this sun was unusual. But what was nice is we didn't have much wind at all. So even though it wasn't warm enough, at least the beach was usable.

The Strandbergs came to spend part of the week with us. To escape the fog on the beach one morning we went for a hike. Here are the kids on the hike (minus unhappy Camden).

Camden did not enjoy how much he had to be held on the hike. Some poor people who expected a nice walk through the woods hearing birds, instead heard this:

This is the suspension bridge that we walked over, the falls are below and to the side. It was so beautiful. A little strange to be up that high and have the bridge swing. Strangely enough, because the sides were all fenced in, walking on the bridge was Camden's happiest and safest part of the whole hike.

These are the falls that you look down and see from the bridge, it is called "Drift Creek Falls." Great hike. You can go down from the bridge and play in the pool at the bottom. We didn't because of a lack of planning, it was 12:30, we had 6 hungry children and we had not packed a lunch, and we had to hike back out, and Camden was screaming, and we had a 40 minute drive back to the house, and next year we are going to do it again...better.

Here we are back down on the beach having a campfire.

Another day we went to Tillamook to the Cheese Factory and if you have ever been to Tillamook you know when you first open the car door you are met with a certain aroma...and it is not of cheese. As Ainsley and Hudson were freaking out about the smell at first Ainsley says, "It's not the smell of the cows I mind, it is the smell of their poop."

After the cheese factory we went to Eric's dad's cabin which is on some river outside of Tillamook. It was great because the weather was beautiful and the river was perfect for the kids to play in. As we were going on the very short little hike through the woods to get back to the river Ainsley made some comment about it being like camping. Then Alison had the best line of the whole week, "Yeah, and with our two mom's this is the closest thing to camping your going to get." That girl speaks the truth.

While at the river, Eric helped Hudson catch crawdads. This seemed to release the inner hunter in Hudson because the next day he asked if for his birthday party (everything is for his birthday party...coming right up in December)we could shoot a squirrel and eat it for his birthday dinner.

The tadpoles were plentiful in the river and were so much fun for the kids. The caught hundreds of them. If you hear of a shortage of frogs this year you will know what happened... PETA is probably going to hunt us down.

Isn't this cute of Cyndi and Ali? I have to put pictures of them up because Cyndi gave up on her blog :(

It was a great time. Thanks for looking at our pictures!