The Coast - Oregon and the Redwoods

Our family has been truly fortunate this year.  My parents booked an amazing beach house in Oregon for a week and invited all us kids and our kids to tag along.  It will likely be the highlight of my year.  We logged right around 2,500 miles on the old monkey wagon, but saw some of the most amazing scenery in all the US of A.  We drove to Boise the first day, and then on to Lincoln City, Oregon the next.  We were concerned how the Nash would do, but he was amazing.  As long as he had Abram to look at, a full belly and some toys he was good to go.  He may have cried for 20 minutes in the car the whole time.  So great that kid.  Nolan, Tate and Abram also were troopers.  They played games, watched movies, took naps and took in the scenery.  We had an amazing time together.  Here are the pics:

 At the park, Mr. Nash loved the swing even with the obnoxious music playing in the background.  Nothing like a Sunday swing to some ultra heavy metal on cruddy speakers.  We were all 'feeling' it.

 I had to include a pic of Rach and her preggo belly.  A couple more weeks to go!  Can't wait to meet that little guy!

 Finally at the beach.  Nolly strolling.

 A and T heading down the beach and listening to the waves.  Why did we ever come home??

 Nash and the dad taking it in.

 Noly, "Look, ROOTS!".  So great that kid.

 The little guys hike.

 Can you see the people (Jess and Ava) in the greenery?

 Everything was covered in moss.

 These amazing flowers grow wild there, but would look great in our flower beds.

 The Crew.

 Abram of the ferns.

 One of many bridges along the trail.

 Finally after two miles we get some vistas!

 Best buds.

 Hangin' in the grass.  Waiting for the rest of the bunch to catch up.  It was a perfect hike.  Not hot or cold, just right.  We only got rained on 1 day of the 5 we were there.

 The Chambers.

 Our Fam.  When you're up on that ridge looking down on the beach, that's the only place you want to be.  Beach, beach, beach.

 The Tillamook Cheese Factory was a short drive away.  It reminds Teeny and I of our trip there with Kristy and Miles.  I don't know how much free cheese we mooched from that place, but it was enough for a heavy snack (I think we stopped there three times one day).  The kids loved watching the factory lines and how the cheese was cut and packaged.  Then we got to sample it!  The ice cream there wasn't bad either.

 Checkin' out the specs on the rotary girder.

 My favorite part.  The squeeky cheese is the best.  Soooo salty.

 Miss Mae and her cone.

 Larky and her treat.  Cutest little girls.

 After Tillamook we drove down the coast to Cape Kiwanda and spent a few hours in the water and on the sand.  I even got in and went for a dip.  It was salty and cold, but so great to be in.  We tried the body boards and built some castles.  Then we went beach combing and dune climbing.  It was a great place.  We could even drive the cars down onto the beach.

 Building bodies.

 Abram found this crab.  Not sure if it was alive....kinda doubt it.

 Star fish in the tide pools.  We saw anemones, clams and starfish, but no urchins.

 Browsing the pools.

 Anemones!

 Becky and Neil checking out the scene.

 What a crab looks like.

 The wall of kids.  There were more, they just weren't there.

 Noly and Fisher trodding along.  They were good little buddies on the trip.

 Fire on the beach.  Smores and smoke.

 At the aquarium in Newport.  The kids loved touching things, who am I kidding, so did the adults.

 One of the coolest displays there.....Jellies!

 Big eyed boy with the jelly fish.

 N and T dinking around.

 Fishin'

 I think that is a yellow crested puffin, if I'm not mistaken.  Cole and Abe hangin' out.

 Watching the sea lions.

 We learned the difference between sea lions and seals.  A sea lion has a longer neck.

 The guys by the crab traps.  This place smelled super fishy.

 Some of the fams hanging out waiting for lunch by the bay.  Here's the JessLindy Clan.

 DougyRach clan.

 Our clan staring out at the sea lions and boats.

 We were super excited to go crabbing, especially the kiddos.  We told them about how crazy it was pulling crabs out of the traps and trying to figure out which ones you could keep and they ate it up.  Finally we got some time to go.  We rented some traps designed to be thrown from the beach out into the deep channel and headed out to find a good spot.  It was a perfect afternoon albeit a little windy, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  They started digging in the sand as soon as we got there.  Then came the crabs.  It was so much fun watching them.

 Here is A checking the water temps.

 The Fisher.  Quite the dude.

 Doug was kind enough to dig a hole under the blanket so preggers could lay down flat.  She said it felt like a miracle being able to lay down like that.

 Crab-On!  One of the first, but too scrawny.

 Jess liked to have the crabs race back into the ocean.  Picking them up can be tricky though.  We had one that just dug into the sand like we couldn't see him.  Funny crab.

 Nate's monster.  This one is big enough to keep (and eat!!).  We're glad Nate still has his fingers though.  No one told him how to grab these things and he just manned up.

 So we had a scare while crabbing.  Lindy almost lost the keys to their rental car.  We scoured the beach and Becky ended up finding them.  Way to save the day!

 One of my better tosses to to the sea.  My first couple maybe went 20 feet.

 Lunch and Dinner.

 We took a hike the next day to a waterfall close by.  It was a beautiful day and hike.

 Noly and Fish under a log, big log.

 Hiking in Oregon is a little different than Utah.  Tons of trees, lots of shade and about 60 degrees in June.  Perfect.

 This bridge spanned the waterfall.

 The Falls.  Apparently they have changed in the last few years and are not as spectacular as they once were.  We still like them!

 Kid pics.  Love Abram and Cole up their.  So manly.

 Family Pic.

 FinnDeigo, Dr. Jesse, Larky, and LindyLou

The dudes on the way back.  The trees there were tall and thick like weeds. 

 This is a statue of Lincoln on his horse.  I got the horse and the kids, sorry Abe.

 Doug looks to take on a group of hoodlums.

 There was a super long stairway to the beach from the house.  It was awesome though.  We went up and down countless times.

 The last morning at the beach just happened to be another perfect one.  We had to hang out for another hour or two and soak it all in.  Teeny and Nash are so dang cute!

 Abe lugging water for his castle.

 Run away!

 A wave catches up with Mr. T

 Noly booking it.

 Waiting bums.

 Running bums.

 Abe's weed.

 The view of the beach.  It went for a couple miles.  Teeny and I got to run on it almost every morning.  What a great way to start your day!

 They could do this all day long.

 One more on the beach!

 Nash and Teeny.  So flipping perfect!

 Nash wasn't crazy about the cold beach water, but we got him to smile a little.

 Maggie, what an awesome cousin!  She had the kids on her dime doing something fun the whole time.  She was great with the Nash too.  Thank you, thank you!!

 Mr. T, the Fish, and Noly digging up the beach.

So, after packing up from Lincoln City, most of the fam headed home.  Our family decided to head back through the Redwood Forest, so we still had a few days to play.  The drive from Lincoln to Crescent City was amazing!  We went over 8 bridges, and saw most of the southern coast.  It was a great day of traveling, and our mpg's were great too thanks to a nice tailwind.

 One of those bridges.  The towns along the coast are so cozy and inviting.  Retirement???

 At Crecent City the wind was howling!  This is a lighthouse you can walk to when the tide is low.  We missed it by a couple hours.

 Teeny and the boys.  There are also some seals lounging on the dock in the background.

 We hate to admit it, but this was breakfast on a couple occasions.  McD's dollar muffins.  Quick, easy and cheap.  They also had Deit Dr. there.  Come on Utah!!

 Big Paul at the Trees of Mystery.  He would talk and answer questions too.  We had to stop and get at pic with the boys.

 That'd be us and Blue, anatomically correct.

 The drive through the Redwoods was incredible.  Pictures just can't to it justice.  The trees can grow up to 300 feet tall making them the largest living organism on the earth!  We walked through the Lady Johnson Grove where the Park first originated and thought the kids might not get into it, but we were dead wrong.  They loved it.  They had to check out every tree and walk through the burned ones.  It really was worth the haul.

 These were some smaller trees we saw.

 Nash had a nice walk too.

 This tree, like a lot of others, was burned in the middle, but still alive at the top!  Those trees are super resilient.

 Hug This!

 No top in sight.

 Nash got tired of the backpack and just wanted to pull my hair and ears.  And pull he did.

 Teeny and the boys between a couple of monsters.  We had the best trip ever.

I think this guys face tells the story of how we all felt about our trip.  The boys were amazing, Nash too.  We got to see and do some amazing things with them that we will never forget, hopefully not them either.