The blog has been a bit quiet 'cause we've been really busy. I spent last week preparing for and completing early entry testing at work, and at the same time we were preparing for the arrival of our Wisconsin family for our big beach vacation!
My brother's family and my parents all flew into Oregon on Saturday and then met at my house to stretch their legs and eat a little lunch before heading to the coast for our week at the beach! When we arrived on Saturday night, all we had the time and energy to do was look around the house a bit, unpack the cars, and get dinner on the table. It had been a long day for those that had traveled from Wisconsin!
On Sunday morning, we woke up to this view....
We have a great big wall of windows upstairs and a patio downstairs where we can look out onto the ocean....all. week. long. LOVE!!!
We decided to stick close to the house on Sunday.
There was game playing and coloring....
whale watching.....
waiting to play on the beach....
getting toes (and much more!) wet in the ocean....
and warming up in the "hot pool"
We also had our annual "cousins birthday party" - everyone got a present and we had some cake after dinner.
(Jacey-1, Mara-4, Aubrie-9, Graham-4, and Eleanor-almost 2)
On Monday we decided to head out to the aquarium....
After dinner we started a fire and had some s'mores before bedtime...
...and then watched the sun set into the ocean
We're having a great time - it's really wonderful to be together, and even more exciting that we're all together right here with the ocean out our backdoor :)

