Oregon Coast 2016

We went to the Oregon Coast again this summer. My grandma turned 70 and she loves the coast, so she wanted to celebrate there with her family. Any excuse we can get to go to the ocean!

Our car was in sad shape (don't even get me started on that subject.) so we ultimately decided we wouldn't be able to go. Responsibility. Then my parents were like, "Psh we like you guys SO much we can't stand the thought of going without you" and offered to rent us a car. Seriously how generous. When we went to pick up our *Nissan Versa* (Yikes, so small) the people upgraded us for FREE to an SUV. Sidenote: I adore SUVs so I was over the moon. We felt like high rollers and I seriously have no idea how we would've fit our stuff into a normal car.

Sigh...I love you Terrain.

We stayed a night in Portland so my brother could join us! 

Ammon and I took the girls to the Children's museum and got Voodoo Donuts. YUM.

We didn't go to Tillamook this time, just straight to the beach house. Everyone was anxious to get there.

We pulled into the driveway of the house we were staying in and didn't even bother going inside. We just took the girls and went straight to the ocean. The closer we got to the ocean, the more Brynlee started to panic. She was so concerned and she hated it at first. When Ammon or Raelan would go near the water she'd start to freak out, like she was worried they'd be swept away. It was such an unexpected reaction and I was nervous she'd hate it the whole time. But by the end of day 2 she was playing in the water with the rest of us.

Here I am, sitting on the deck of the beach house and this was our view. And oh my gosh, the sand was insane. The softest sand I've ever had the pleasure of playing in. (That I can remember) We were surrounded by these awesome dunes and my absolute favorite part of the location was climbing the dunes and then running down as fast as we could. It was like flying! And that sand was soft enough that it felt like jumping on clouds. I made pretty much the whole family run these hills.

We went to lots of cool beaches. We explored Devil's punch bowl which was pretty rad.

Ammon did lots of skimboarding. Apparently we were staying on a pretty great beach for it.

The girls absolutely loved playing in the sand. And luckily Brynlee didn't eat too much of it. A couple of the days were so sunny and warm and hardly even windy. It was magical and I've never experience the beach without wind. One day we dug a hole and the girls played in it for hours. I also got completely buried in sand for the first time that I can remember. It was awesome.

Some of the cousins with our wonderful Grandma Madge.

The view from our living room.

Traditional sand footprint pic!

The sunset our first night was fantastic.

I've always wanted to find a perfect sand dollar and I finally did. This mini one was the perfect find. I've never seen them so small!

One night Ammon and I got to go on a dinner date to celebrate his birthday. I got the most delicious Cesar salad ever and I've been craving it ever since.

We had fun times playing games with family, playing spikeball, running dunes, and eating cake by the ocean for my grandma's birthday. This was also the trip where I discovered my knack for an Asian accent. We had some serious laughs over that.

This trip was so memorable and I seriously miss those sand dunes. Sigh...

Can't wait to go back again!