July: part 2--Oregon Coast with the Pattons!

For the first time in a long time, we camped for a week along the Oregon Coast.  Chrissy and fam came with us.  It was one of the best trips to the coast we've ever had--but I think that had everything to do with not having a baby or a toddler along for the ride!  Sad, but true.

We did all the usual stops and ended the trip with a jaunt down to the Giant Redwood forest---SO AWESOME!! 

Favorite day: Roads End day.  We had a super low tides that made for spectacular tide pools

and we searched for treasures for hours

Other highlights of the trip included: kites

Pearle Beads--for hours!--check out Jenna's hysterical funny face--we couldn't capture that again if we tried.

Beach fun--more than we've been able to do on past trips because the weather was PERFECT almost every day!

I had hoped to recreate our last family picture that turned out so perfectly.  I am not sure why some families are so photogenic and some are....well...not.  We belong to the nots.  You can see from the shot above that Chrissy and her family belong to the ARE'S.  I blame Brent for a 50% of that and Gavin for 35% and me and the girls round out the last 15%.  Here are a few of our attempts: 



Brent likes this toothless smile..me, not so much.  And what's with the AWKWARD hand holding? 

Pose #2 seems like it should work--but--not so much.

  and it went down hill from there...

Here is attempt to pose #3... Thank you Brent.  But in all fairness, I now I understand why Brent always says this dress is not very flattering on me--especially when you walk INTO the wind!  So bad.

Our small jaunt down to the Redwood Forest turned into a 12 hour journey.  I think Brent and Charles were in hell.  We did have a few good stops along the way at Heceta Head Lighthouse, Cape Perpetua and Shore Acres. 

The highlight of the day was a nature walk down the Hobbit Trail.  Chrissy had made treasure bags for each kid that had paint swatches inside.  Each kid had to find things along the trail that matched the colors of the paint swatches.  So fun!

 Oregon has the best treasures--like banana slugs!

 And amazing mushrooms.

The drive was not the funnest, but nothing beats the MAJESTY of the Giant Redwoods.  Pictures do not do it justice.  Your driving along on a normal dirt road with small pine trees and then BOOOM!

It feels magical.  Spiritual.  Amazing.

I made Chrissy take about a million family pictures of us--hoping one would work.  You gotta do whatcha can when you are as un-photogenic as our family! :)  Sorry, Chrissy.

The perfect end to a great trip.