The view from the Cape Perpetua West Shelter. Someone took the photo for us and missed the coastline, but doesn't that family look great? :)
I enjoyed watching the girls "explore" once we got to my parent's house. It had been so long since we had been there that Courtney didn't remember it at all and McKayla really didn't either. They kept opening doors and saying "Where does that go?" Mark, Shari, Madilyn, and Chloe visited on Easter while we were there. My girls really love seeing their cousins. That is one thing they have really missed out on in their life is living close to cousins. So, they always treasure the visits they get to have.
The cabin was great! We had a huge wind and rainstorm the first day. At one point we all even backed away from the windows because a HUGE gust of wind and rain hit, coming right off of the ocean. Then, almost as fast as it came, the sky was clear, the wind was gone, and the rain ended. I just love Oregon! One of the days we were out geocaching when we got caught in a major hailstorm. Poor Jenna started crying because she was riding in the backpack and her face was just getting pounded. We pulled her out and covered her up. But the rest of us kept saying "ow, ouch!" all the way back to the car! McKayla was a trooper and let me snap her photo!
The most unique part of our trip was finding all the floats along the beach. We started by finding some huge ones, and then when Chris was down with the girls they found a small glass float! So, that became our focus the rest of the week--get down to the beach and find the glass floats before anyone else does! We did some asking at the Cape Perpetua visitor's center and they said that there had been some earthquake activity off the coast that loosened some debris on the ocean floor. That combined with the offshore winds brought the floats in. One day we saw tons of them out in the ocean, but the winds weren't blowing the right way so they never came in.
One of the days we headed up to the Marine Science Center. The kids got to see the octopus get fed and change color as a result. They thought that was really cool. Even Jenna totally understood what was going on and kept telling us, "Eat crab, mouth, see?"
The kids had a week off, so we headed up to Oregon for a long overdue visit to Grandma's house and the beach house. Chris says it was the best family vacation we've had in a really long time. It really was great. The long drive was actually ENJOYABLE! The kids were good, Jenna was amazing, and we didn't feel exhausted when we were finished. Even with the huge delay getting over the Siskyou's, the road was closed for a few hours, and the flat tire we discovered the morning after we got to Oregon, the travel was just FUN! Sounds weird, but it really was.
Well, I do have to admit that we broke the trip into two days. One day Chris worked in the morning in Oakland. So, the kids got the luxery of swimming in the hotel pool a few times. They just love to swim and Jenna discovered that she still loves to jump in!
I enjoyed watching the girls "explore" once we got to my parent's house. It had been so long since we had been there that Courtney didn't remember it at all and McKayla really didn't either. They kept opening doors and saying "Where does that go?" Mark, Shari, Madilyn, and Chloe visited on Easter while we were there. My girls really love seeing their cousins. That is one thing they have really missed out on in their life is living close to cousins. So, they always treasure the visits they get to have.
The cabin was great! We had a huge wind and rainstorm the first day. At one point we all even backed away from the windows because a HUGE gust of wind and rain hit, coming right off of the ocean. Then, almost as fast as it came, the sky was clear, the wind was gone, and the rain ended. I just love Oregon! One of the days we were out geocaching when we got caught in a major hailstorm. Poor Jenna started crying because she was riding in the backpack and her face was just getting pounded. We pulled her out and covered her up. But the rest of us kept saying "ow, ouch!" all the way back to the car! McKayla was a trooper and let me snap her photo!
Here's a photo of Jenna along our favorite trail near the cabin showing off the geocache we found.
The most unique part of our trip was finding all the floats along the beach. We started by finding some huge ones, and then when Chris was down with the girls they found a small glass float! So, that became our focus the rest of the week--get down to the beach and find the glass floats before anyone else does! We did some asking at the Cape Perpetua visitor's center and they said that there had been some earthquake activity off the coast that loosened some debris on the ocean floor. That combined with the offshore winds brought the floats in. One day we saw tons of them out in the ocean, but the winds weren't blowing the right way so they never came in.
Here is a photo of our "booty!"
One of the days we headed up to the Marine Science Center. The kids got to see the octopus get fed and change color as a result. They thought that was really cool. Even Jenna totally understood what was going on and kept telling us, "Eat crab, mouth, see?"
We managed to get a warm day and the girls enjoyed a refreshing dip for their toes. Jenna decided to just take off her pants all together. It's great to be a toddler!
All in all, a wonderful wonderful wonderful trip! The girls are begging to go back again soon!
