Oregon Coast 2013!

 Every couple years, Kevin's family rents a house on the Oregon Coast and we spend a week at the ocean. Its always wonderful and we look forward to it all year. Its the one time we get everyone together and all the cousins get to see each other. This year we had 13 kids between all the great grand-children, all age 8 and under. So it was a little chaotic to say the least! After loading the truck and then retying it down two or three times, we were finally on our way, in our giant caravan of cars.

Above is Ella, Edyn, and Adalyn, all born within 5 months of each other in 2012.  This was the first time they were all three together.

 Kevin's grandma's 13 great grand-children. Its pretty much impossible to get a picture of all them holding still.

 The second day we were there was by far the warmest and when we spent the most time on the beach. Regardless, the kids didn't care too much about the cold and still played in the sand and water even when it was freezing.

 The kids loved "attacking" the waves and having the waves chase them and would run back and forth and as the tide would come in. That water was freezing cold!

 Vicki and Stephanie and I at "D" river in Lincoln City. Its the worlds smallest river but it has a warm stream of water that goes out to the ocean and is great for the kids to play in.

Isak and his cousin Josh loved spending time together and despite being two years different in age always play so well together whenever they see each other.

 I loved being at the beach and getting to relax with my kids. Even though it was crazy at times, I really enjoyed taking Isak out to the beach by himself and chasing the waves with him and searching the tide pools early in the morning with my kids.  Good memories.

 Kevin's grandma picked four names to do glass blowing and Kevin was one of the lucky ones! He made a gorgeous glass ball float for our house. I need to post a picture.

 One of the kids favorite activities was burying each other in the sand. They thought this was the best activity ever and I've never seen them lay so still..

 Oh Lucy. Lucy likes to wear her own style. Even her headbands that really work better as ninja bands. I love that kid.

 We took a pretty fun 3 mile hike on Sunday while we were there that led us down a suspension bridge to a waterfall. We also did some geo caching while we were there and the kids got to each pick something out of the box, leave something, and sign their names in the log book.

 It was pretty warm and a longer hike so I just took Isak with me and left Lucy and Edyn with Kevin.

 Isak loved jumping through all the rocks and soaking his feet. He did pretty well on the way there but needed some encouragement to finish on the way back.  It was a long hike for little 6 year old legs, I was pretty proud of the kid for sticking with it.

 One morning I woke up and got mixed up on the times and thought it was an hour later than it was. Seeing how far out the tide was, I hurried and grabbed the kids and hauled them down to the beach to look at tide pools.

 We found a lot of cool shells, barnacles, anemones, and some other little sea creatures that my kids loved looking at. It wasn't until we got back to the house that I realized how early it was. And then I promptly talked Kevin into letting me go back to sleep.

 Lucy in yet another of her awesome outfits. She found that cat purse and hat at a souvenir shop. Who needs shells to remember the beach when you can have sequins?

 One of our favorite things to do, sit in the 5 person hot tub with 7-8 kids at any given time. It was great because it over looked the ocean which made up for the jets not working and the pee that was probably in it from the over excited children.

 Family Picture that is almost at the beach.

We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium while we were there as well which our kids always love. This year they had added a whole new kids hands on section and  bunch of exhibits for them to go through.

 Lucy was so excited about all the fish and sea creatures she could hardly contain herself or figure out where to go next. She was all over the place.

 We loved all the colorful fish and these awesome jelly fish.

 Edyn loved being able to touch all the star fish and sea anemones.

 Our classic picture in the shark jaw. I think we have at least 4 of these now, I should make a collage!

 Kevin's grandma had t-shirts made for each of the great grand-kids with their first initial on it. The kids loved them and it made it easy to identify them all at the aquarium

 We LOVED the beach and all the craziness and getting to see our family. It was great being able to play games and catch up with everyone.  I feel so lucky that Kevin's family is able to do this every few years, it makes it easy for our kids to see and get to know their cousins. Thanks grandma for a very memorable and fantastic week!