Beach Retreat

This was my heavenly view for my afternoon of reading in Manzanita, OR on Friday. It was a beautiful sunny day sandwiched between two rainy days. But I loved every minute of my retreat.

My first night was spent with Savannah. We arrived late, settled in, made brownies and relaxed in the hot tub. We slept in late and spent the morning in town before she headed home. This left me with 24 hours of complete solitude and no car! I walked the beach, got a massage, had tea in town and did so much reading I had to go back into town the next morning and find a new book because I finished the one I brought. Friday afternoon Mario showed up and we went on a bike ride, visited the farmers market and had dinner in town. The next  morning we made breakfast with our amazing peppered bacon and potatoes bought at the farmer's market, (as well as our own home grown eggs). We made a stop in Seaside, then stopped in Astoria to visit some of my favorite clients/now friends. I brought their kids jaw breakers, which they promptly made into a white, chalky candy mess all over me! In spite of the rain it was a lovely day.

It was just the medicine I needed after a few stressful weeks and the last 6 months on call! I've got one more week off call. We are heading to a family wedding in Utah this weekend and I'm going to try real hard to squeeze in a trip to my favorite Korean spa next week. I also have a reservation for a kayak trip around Willamette Falls on Monday night. I hope the weather holds out until then!

Family Time

Our family spent last week in Lincoln City. We invited the whole gang to come join us whenever they could. We now have 13 children, spouses and grandchildren and 12 of them joined us at some point! We never had everyone together at once, but it was so wonderful to hang out with our family and enjoy that time together. (We missed you Tyler!)

Cleo

Running in the water

 I had so much fun with Cleo on the beach. It was just the two of us while the big girls went shopping and we spent almost two hours building (and destroying) sand castles and chasing waves. Cleo was very afraid of the waves at first. She kept asking if there were sharks in the water. But as she conquered each level of wave she got more brave and went to the next level. Soon she was up to her knees and soaking wet, giggling as we ran and let the waves chase us to safety.

Trying to fly our kites

Koen smashing Mario's sand castle

beginning to bury Koen

 Our last day in Lincoln City and we all headed out to the beach. It wasn't a very sunny or warm day, but that didn't stop Chandler and Koen from braving the ocean waters. We buried Koen in the sand, which made for a great excuse to get back in the water to wash the sand off. We tried to fly a kite with a small amount of success, as there just wasn't enough wind to keep it going without some work and concentration.

Mario and Kelli

Savannah and Emilia

Chial and Nikki

One night we went bowling in the old, smelly 8 lane bowling alley of Lincoln City. It was so much fun! Especially since I got FIRST PLACE in the second game and third place in the first game....and I was playing with some pretty serious competitors! Yay me!!

Kelli, Amos, Jordan, Parker, G

G is the little spot out in the water to the left. We could not keep him out of the water!

 Saturday morning the tide was a negative tide (I think that's what it's called), when the tide is even lower than normal low tide. We had a great walk on the beach with the boys and the dogs and were rewarded with spectacular tide pools. G loves the water and would not stay out of it. Amos was the complete opposite. If I would take him to the water he would turn around and run as the waves came in. Hilarious!