Oregon Coast!

Nathan’s Grandma rents a big beach house right on the Oregon coast every other year (although this was our second year in a row... lucky us!) and the whole family gets together for a week of fun. We had a blast this year! I made the mistake of telling Conner about the beach two weeks before we actually went and he talked nonstop about the “big waters” … aka the ocean, the “big sandbox”… aka the beach, and the “fun tub”… aka the hot tub. Every morning and after every nap he would ask “we go beach today?” Every time either Nathan or I would leave the house without Conner he would cry and say “Conner go beach too!” The two weeks finally passed and we loaded our car up... did I mention we need a bigger car... and took off! It was a 12 hour drive to the coast so we decided to break our trip up and stay half way in a hotel. We took Jayden swimming for the first time and he looked very studly in his swimming trunks…

Whenever we go anywhere in town Jayden usually ends up screaming because he hates his car seat so we were really worried about the drive but both kids were little angels and did so good! We did lots of fun stuff so be warned… there are loads of pictures! As usual the beach house had a deck with a spectacular view of the beach! We spent a lot of time down at the beach… chasing waves, building sand castles, and enjoying the view! Last year Conner was fearless... on numerous occasions we had to grab him so he wouldn't be swept out to sea. This year he was a little more cautious of the water. Maybe it was because Nathan watched too many shows with him during "Shark Week"... which happened to be the week before we left... and told him that there were sharks in the water at the beach...

The kids loved the hot tub and requested to swim daily.

One of the bedrooms had a tub almost as big as the hot tub! We started putting kids in to see how many would fit… we didn’t even have enough to fill it! We also hit the outlet malls and shopped until we dropped… or until we no longer could carry all of our bags… We all got matching sweatshirts and had a photo shoot! Of course we did our customary “smore roast” down on the beach.
We went to the aquarium again this year and Conner thought that it was great! Last year he mostly enjoyed running around like crazy... this year he still enjoyed running around... I don't know when that will change... but he at least would stop to look in each tank for longer than two seconds. At each tank he kept asking “where the sharks?”
As the only baby in the house, Jayden got lots of attention. The kids kept asking to hold him, loved making him laugh, and enjoyed “petting” his head.

After the week was over… it went way too fast!… we all headed to Washington for another five days. (Once again the kids were perfect little angels during the drive…well 90% of the time anyways!) Nathan had training in Spokane so we were able to stay at his parents’ house because they only live a couple of hours away. I'm all blogged out but next up: an update about our adventures in Othello!