A trip to the coast - Spring Break part 2

Part 2 of our spring break trip was a trip to the coast to Rockaway Beach. We got a beautiful home right on the coast. It was perfect for our family!

The house had lots of extra room. There was a lot of Foosball, board games, and puzzle building throughout the week. We also had a movie night and watched ET. It was almost as much fun for Jared and Dani to watch the kids watch the movie as it was to watch the movie itself! 

We took a number of walks on the beach throughout the week. Down the beach, out a few hundred yards into the ocean, sit Twin Rocks. The kids liked collecting unique looking rocks as we made our way down the beach.

     

One day, we decided to take a trip to Tillamook. On the way, we stopped by the Tillamook Smoker factory outlet for some big beef jerky and pepperoni sticks. Afterwards, we went to Tillamook to get some lunch (grilled cheese, of course), cheese, and ice cream. Yum! We also took a trip by the Blue Heron Cheese Company. They have a big petting zoo, and a woman who was feeding some of the sheep and goats gave our kids a few slices of bread, and they got to feed the animals.

  

A number of times, we went outside to start building a sand castle or flying kites. It seemed that every time we decided to go out and dig in the sand, the rain started to fall. One time, Jared decided it was going to pass, and Jared, Claire, Kate, and Torin all stayed out to put the finishing touches on the castle. The rain started picking up, and by the time they came in, it was pouring! Everyone dried off, changed, put their wet clothes in the dryer and looked outside and it was sunny again, of course!

 

Torin loved playing on the beach, carrying buckets of sand and rocks and gathering rocks. Even though a number of times it was raining outside, Torin wanted to stay outside the entire time!

 

We had a few forays into the hot tub. The first time, Dani and 3 of the kids went out first and after a few minutes in the hot tub, it started to hail! Dani and the kids thought that was pretty funny.

  

Later, when Jared joined, he challenged everyone to a polar bear swim. Kate and Claire were the takers, though because of a mild cough, Kate was kept back in the warmth of the hot tub. Claire and Jared ran all the way out to the water, jumped in, and ran back as fast as possible!

We had one night with a campfire. The fire pit was teetering on the edge of the beach. It looked like, over the past winter, nearly 20 feet of beachfront had washed away due to some large storms, so the hot tub had to be moved towards the house and the fire pit was super close to the edge. We had tinfoil dinners and s'mores and enjoyed the warmth of the fire as the sun went down.

Because our house was being painted and we didn't want to get home too early, we decided to take a different route home, stopping by the Cape Mears light house and the Octopus Tree

  

After Cape Mears, we went to Canon City. We went into Ecola State Park. It was a slow, windy drive up to the viewpoint, and by the time we got there, there was a steady rain and wind of probably 30-40 miles per hour! Jared and Claire took a run out to a shelter, while being pelted with rain!

 

We spent a little while in Canon City, walking through toy stores and into candy shops. After we made it home, the painting was all done! It looks so much better!