Coast Bound!

The kids were both very insistent that they felt it was "tradition" to do something special and out of the ordinary on their first full day of summer vacation. Sheesh, between that and asking for a present because I got them one last summer, I seriously dig myself some holes with this whole "tradition" thing...

For whatever reason, they got the "coast" in their mind, most notably sliding down the dunes.  Okay, we could do that.  The ocean is only about a 75 minute drive.  So, off we went.   We ended up at the South Jetty area where you will find dozens of turn-offs for ATV's to drive on.  Since we don't have one of those, we tried to find a safer location to hang out.

Sliding down the dunes turned into kind of a "bust" - so the kids headed for the shoreline.

Then, they began drawing in the sand....I cut off some of this word, it's SUMMER.

I thought this was so cute.  I love it that the upcoming arrival of Whitley is on all of our minds - even Brayden without any conversation prior.  Clearly, he knows how "it all works" to make Whitley happen =)

And, a final smiley face masterpiece by Brayden.

Group shot of us....it made John kind of sad to get this in text form as he wished he could be with us!  We so appreciate his sacrifice as a working dad to make our fun happen!!!

Next, digging holes.  Even Syd wanted to help.  (Important to point out, that I might need to remember later - my kids got along fabulously today...they are capable!!!)

Then, finding dead things in the sand.  Had to stop Sydney when she found a dead bird to roll in....yuck!

Which led to encouraging her back into the ocean to lay down.  Unfortunately, she's not wise enough about ocean water to keep from lapping a little bit of it up.  We eventually called our beach time short to get her some fresh water from the car.

The "beach" in Oregon is more often called the "coast" as it really isn't "beachy" like you think of in California, Florida or Maui.  It's usually very cold temps, and even when it's not, the wind blows so much you need to protect yourself from that anyway.  The water is freezing.  It's a great place to fly kites, admire God's creation, and absorb the power and serenity of the waves - but not to lay out!

It was a lot of fun - thanks kids for starting our first day of summer vacation right!!