Oregon Coast

I am failing miserably with the blog this summer. I'm not even going to attempt to record the day-to-day activities around here, but I can't overlook the fun vacation we just took. We got back a week ago from a week long trip with my parents to Cannon Beach/Arch Cape on the Oregon Coast. It was so much fun. I took like a million pics and posted slightly less than that so don't feel obligated to make it through this post!

The Oregon coast is really far away...like 14ish hours by car. We divided the trip there into two days. Our first stop was Baker City, Oregon. Luke and Seth rode with my parents the whole way and according to them were great. Ian was a trooper. I've driven to both Boise and Hells Canyon before for river trips, but I must say that is such an ugly drive. No offense but I would not want to make Mountain Home my home. The place we stayed in Baker City was actually pretty nice. We swam that night and again the next morning. In fact, here we are so bright and early we had to wait while they finished cleaning the pool before we could get in.



After eating the biggest breakfast ever we headed off for day 2 of driving. We had the mini van and the back of my parents truck packed.



Day 2 of driving offered a bit more scenery. Ian developed quite a case of the runs which made for lots of stops for a while. I changed his diaper twice in like 180 degree weather in a little armpit called Arlington, OR (no offense anyone), but we eventually made it. The boys got in with us the last hour or so of driving and it was a big fest of whining, fighting, crying, and urgent calls for the bathroom, but we eventually arrived.



This is the view from the window of our modern beach house in Arch Cape. It was such a cute old house (but nicely redone) and right on the beach...awesome. Right outside was a deck and a hot tub and then you head down to the beach.

The weather in Oregon is cool which I loved. We had some nice, sunny days too but the foggy overcast ones were great.

That is castle rock in the distance. Shortly after this picture Luke and Seth were caught by a sneaker wave which Luke outran and Seth did not. It took him down to his knees and then washed up over his head. He came up sputtering and soaking wet and that was his introduction to the ocean. We'd been gone 10 minutes and he was already back at the house naked getting hosed off. In fact, he was constantly stripping down to his nothings on this trip. It took some coaxing to get him close to the ocean again.

We discovered there were two ways to get down to the beach. You could go a few houses down to the stairs or you could use the rope at our place to descend our own very steep path. Luke especially loved doing this. It was like rappelling.

When the tide was out there was tons of hard sand for riding bikes on. Jer and Luke went on several long bike rides to see starfish and other critters that were out when the tide is low. Jer also took his road bike out for some rides along the coast road. I had fun running on the beach in the cool weather so there was something for everyone.

Seth did lots of beach exploring by foot but his training wheels made biking a no go. He had to settle for looking at Luke's pictures of the bike expeditions.

My parents stayed home for an afternoon of relaxation while we took the kids to Oswald West State Park for some hiking. It was a nice easy trail through the forest that ended up on a big surfing beach.

The boys thought this bridge was pretty awesome.

After lunch and ice cream cones in Manzanita they all sacked out on the way back.

The hot tub was a huge hit, and we all enjoyed it. Luke treated it like a pool, and we had to keep making him get out and cool off when it looked like his head might explode.

My parents were great as usual, and we all loved spending time with them. We explored our beach thoroughly in both directions. This was a day we walked to the north to Hug's Point where there are lots of big rocks and caves exposed at low tide. We saw two dead seals on the beach on different days. Luke asked if we were ever going to see any living sea animals.

Checking out the anemones.

This picture doesn't do it justice but Cannon Beach is a really pretty little town with the most amazing flowers everywhere. It kind of reminds me of beachy Park City (the old downtown area).

An evening on the beach with the stomp rocket and kites.

Waiting for the fire to be ready for cooking hot dogs and making smores.

A trip to the windiest beach on earth in Cannon Beach. The kids, Jer, and grandpa had great fun burying each other.

The view from our deck on a nice sunny day. We all spent a lot of time out there reading and relaxing while the kids played in the yard and hot tub.

On our last day Jer and I got up early and went to Ecola State Park for a long trail run. It was great. It was the only day it rained and it was cool and slippery. In fact I found myself slipping off the trail and heading down a steep ravine at one point. It was Jer's chance to leave me hanging, but he gave me a hand up. Near the top it got ridiculously muddy, and we were in the middle of this thick forest with all the trees shrouded in fog. It was a little creepy (reminded me of something out of Twilight) but pretty neat. On the way home Jer and I stopped and bought bagles which were way too expensive and turned out to have mold on them. Needless to say we went in and got a refund and then found this bakery with amazing bread and cookies. If you go for a long run you can eat bread and cookies for breakfast, right? We all went back to the park later in the day to picnic and explore.

A few attempts at group shots with Haystack Rock in the background.

Ian never looks or smiles for pictures but really he is the happiest baby ever. We put his crib in the closet (it was big) in our room, and he slept like a champ the entire trip. The boys had two sets of bunks in their room so they both top bunked it for a week. We all had such a great time together and were sad to see it end so soon. Jer and I loaded the kids up at 3:30 am and hit the road the last day. We drove the whole thing in one shot, and they were actually really good. We stopped at McDonald's twice in one day which should be a crime but there weren't a lot of options. Seth got carsick and threw up in the restroom. But other than that we made it! It was a little hard to return to the routine of work for Jer and piles of laundry for me, but we're back in the swing of things now. First big road trip with three kids: check.