Off to the Oregon Coast

We got home from Virginia and, I think, about 12 days later we left for a trip up to the Oregon Coast. Kurt's cousins from Washington so nicely invited us to join them for their family vacation. So off we went again!

Now, I am getting old and just had a baby (okay, so maybe the baby is now over a year old but I'm looking for any excuse I can find here people) so I don't remember details like I used to. Anyways, one day we drove to a light house and, of course, I don't remember the name of it BUT it was pretty cool. This guy (leaning on the wall) was very informative and shared a lot of knowledge with us. They did offer tours to go up in the lighthouse but only 5 people could go at a time and it went every 30 minutes. When you have a party of 40, that doesn't work so good so we listened to him and he answered all of our questions.

Also at the lighthouse parking lot was a little hike that lead to the Octopus tree. I think you can see how it got it's name.

The hotel was right on the beach. It was so awesome! The kids could run down there and play in the sand and we could see them from our room. We spent a lot of time on the beach.

Kurt and Matt went and bought big, grown up shovels so the men, um - I mean, the kids - could play in the sand. The dads, along with the kids, had a lot of fun digging holes!

My baby boy at the bottom of one hole!

Here we are just relaxin' on the beach. It was so wonderful to sit and talk with family.

The tunnel

Notice the dads have the shovels =)

There was an indoor pool that we went in a few times. Let me just say that when you get 40 people in a cement room, noises ECHO like no tomorrow. It was so noisy in there! But the kids had fun so that's what's important. Oh, and Kurt did his kids line up on the side of the pool and domino-fall into the water. Have it on video, but like I said before, videos no worky =(

Another day we went to the Tillamook Cheese factory. Yum!

How many could we cram into the car?

Cheese samples

The factory

Here you can actually see the factory

And of course we had to try the Tillamook Ice Cream! Double yum!

I honestly have to say that since this trip I have become a Tillamook snob. I will only buy Tillamook Cheese now. It holds a very special place in my heart!

Speaking of my heart - I had a love note in the sand!

The last night there we did a fire on the beach and roasted smore's. I ran up to our room so I could get a picture of our group.

And here is a zoomed in shot

Kurt dug out a "bench" for the kids to sit on while they roasted their marshmallows. 

The morning we left we took a group shot. Now, I knew we were a big group but I had no idea how big until I saw this shot. I love this picture! What a great group we were!

 Thank you so much to everyone who helped plan, shop, prepare, organize, and cook . . . it was WONDERFUL, AMAZING, and SUPER SPECIAL!

We can't wait to be able to see everyone again!

Virginia - Part 3

Ok, so honestly, this post was suppose to be a quick little "catch up" with only a few pics of each event we have done this summer. It was a compromise between the 2 sides of my brain - one side is the OCD part that says posts need to be in chronological order with ALL the pics and the other side is the realistic side that says that if I do that, this blog will end up just like my scrapbooks - neglected and waaaaaay behind. So they made a compromise and were going to do a quick little update.

Well, while going through the pictures trying to decide which ones would make the cut, the OCD part of my brain said "they are all so great! You can't leave anything out!" and so here we go: Each event will get it's own separate post.

Here is the conclusion of our Virginia trip:

We went to get pizza for lunch one day:

 I believe we finished off 6 whole pizzas. The lady brought us a "to go" box but we didn't need it. Every piece was gone and we were all stuffed.

One of the activities that the Truman's brought was crafts. The kids had a great time being so creative! I have some very beautiful magnets on my refrigerator that will forever remind us of our fantastic trip!

We had a great time at the pool. The water was heavenly! And by heavenly, I mean I could walk right in it was so warm. I am a big cold water wimp and for me to get in a pool it has to be just right. This was just right and wonderful!

Kurt also had the kids stand in a line on the edge of the pool facing him and then one at a time they fell sideways into the pool like dominoes. It was so fun! If I could get videos to load I would include it but I haven't had any luck with that lately so you will just have to picture it in your mind.

There was a diving board that was super fun too. One time Evan got to the edge of it and jumped and totally did a front flip. He got out of the water and said "I didn't know that was going to happen." Ha ha ha! We didn't either little buddy. After that, he was front flip obsessed and constantly worked on it. I have that on video too but oh well.

One day we went to a blueberry farm where you got to pick you own blueberries.

We tried to go early before the heat attacked but it was still rather warm.

And just in case you were wondering how many pounds of blueberries 21 people could pick, it was 22 POUNDS! We had more blueberries that we knew what to do with so we made blueberry muffins, the girls made a blueberry cake-thing and we had blueberries with every meal. They were soooooo goooood! We always had a bowl of them on the table and I ate them constantly like they were candy.

Spencer had to leave early for a boy scout activity so before he left we got a picture of all the kids on the stairs. Mine are in there somewhere =)

Kurt impressed his woman with his mad stilt walking skills.

Evan tried on the little stilts. Aunt Jenny also showed off her stilt skills!

Evan also became obsessed with the pogo stick. At first he could hardly get on it but by the end of the day he could do a few jumps. The next day he could do 10 and from there he took off. Kurt told him if he did 100 jumps without stopping, he would buy him one when we got home. We were proud owners of a pogo stick the day the plane landed in Cali.

Before the trip, Jenny had asked us to email her a family picture for a surprise she was doing. On Sunday we got our surprise. She had had family pictures made into puzzles. So we all sat down and worked on our family puzzles.

They turned out so cute!

  What a great surprise! We have ours laying on the old family desk in our room.

Sunday was also Jared's bday! Happy Birthday Jared!

We sang, he opened presents, we partied.

And then sadly, we had to leave. Our flight was first thing Monday morning and so we had to make the 2 hour drive to DC Sunday evening. We had a blast and wish the time didn't go so fast! Why do vacations just fly by? It's not fair!

Thank you so much Truman and White families. We had a great time and can't wait to see you all again. Hopefully sooner than 2 years again!