Where I've Been

Are you ready for a major picture overload? Jim's parents were here for the weekend and we crammed a ton into our days! The weather was beautiful so we took full advantage of it and got lots and lots of fresh air. The original plan (silly me, still planning) was for us to head to the wildlife refuge on Saturday. Well... the bridge to the main part of the refuge was closed for repair so we drove over to the other side that has a plank house but that was about it. So, we piled back in the van and took a little drive then headed to the east side of the county for lunch and had planned to check out a park along the river where Lewis and Clark hung out for about a week on their return trip. We figured that Jim's dad would enjoy that and the kids could ride their new bikes that they picked out on Friday. The park was all torn up from sprinkler install going on so we just left. However, I did have one more place up my sleeve and that one turned out to be really great!

Who stole my babies and replaced them with big kids?
The expression on their faces cracks me up, they're both biting their lower lip.

After we got home we took a walk around the fields and the kids played with bubbles, totally enjoyed themselves and the beautiful weather. Luckily we wore them out so we were able to get them down early since Sunday was gearing up to be a full day. I decided NOT to plan this time and we just agreed to head to the coast. I did look up a few things to do and had a little checklist in mind but didn't get my heart set on anything in particular. Yes, I'm learning!

First stop was one of the marinas in Astoria where we found this "little" guy just soaking up the sun.

Oh yah... and all his noisy, smelly friends!

...and this boat that made me smile.

Then we promptly missed the turn to the Astoria Column but since I hadn't planned anything in my heart, I was totally ok with us just continuing on and we headed into Warrenton for lunch at DQ. When we got out of the van we were greeted by the familiar sound of a hummingbird and both Jim and I smiled at each other. It's nice, even in the most brief of moments we are reminded and things like that now bring we a sense of peace instead of such raw longing.

We hadn't told the kids what we were doing since we didn't really know but after we sat down to eat Rylan said "I wanna go to the beach!" So I said "ok!" which was promptly met with a "really!?!" Nobody else knew where we were headed but we got to Fort Stevens State Park with no trouble at all! The kids had a blast running along the trails, seeing the Columbia river and exploring the old bunkers at the site that was completed just one day before General Lee surrendered at Appomattox ending the Civil War. The fort was active until they abandoned it in June of 1947. Lots of history there. This is just a small sampling of the pictures that we took. When I loaded them onto my computer, I discovered that I had taken over 400!

They couldn't take their eyes off the water!

One of the bunker areas. Can you spot Jim?

Karleigh cooling off in the shade against a cement wall.

After we explored the military area and museum, we headed off to the beach... working our way up to the bigger and more exciting beaches. Rylan actually fell asleep in his car seat on our way to the other side of the park but instead of waking him up, Jim's mom stayed with him while he grabbed a quick nap. The other four of us walked the small boardwalk to a wildlife viewing area but just found a very quiet lagoon type beach and Karleigh dug in! We then went over to the other side and she played some more.

Rylan woke up from his power nap just as we were coming back to the van so I took him to the top of the little dunes and showed him where we had been but he decided that he was totally ok with going to a different, bigger beach.

The kids loved this beach! They were able to take their shoes off and run and run and run!

This beach also has the remains of an old shipwreck on it. The Peter Iredale ran ashore in 1906. It was fun watching them run and play around a century old shipwreck.

Not ready to give up the beach yet, we headed south to Seaside and promptly kept going. Super busy on the beach and the promenade. We ended up in Cannon Beach which is always nice.

More time for running and playing on the beach!

A moment of still for two more pics...

After the sunset, we headed back home. Tired, sandy, windblown, sunburned and happy!

We drove home back the way we came so we even got a second chance at seeing the Astoria Column and in a way that most people don't often get to enjoy it!

And without even climbing to the top, we were able to enjoy this great view!

Today was beautiful as well and I finished reading the book and really thinking about some more things while soaking up some sun. It was great to read even more things that I had really taken notice of but hadn't considered them to be common. More on that at a later point!