Seaside Oregon

We took a trip to Seaside, Oregon for my Dad's 70th birthday (he turned 70 in May). All of my sisters and their families came too. We each rented our own cottage for 5 days right next to the beach. We had the most amazing time! Well most of us did......my twin nieces Perry and Reese who are the same age as Colt both got the flu and were sick the entire time. Reese spent the entire time in the hospital because she was so dehydrated and did not get released until the day we came home. So I don't have one picture with Ann, Sam or the girls but I did get one of Karlee:). The weather was fairly decent, it was chilly (55 degrees) and did rain a little on us but we also had some really nice days too. It was so great to just be together and hang out with no real agenda. My older nieces did an amazing job of helping with Colt and Jax so it felt like even more of a vacation for Dave and I. Colt and Jax played so hard everyday that they slept amazing at night sleeping in until 7 one day (which is unheard of around here). Dave and I had a 2 bedroom cottage so Colt and Jax were in one room and we had our own room which also made it nice. We had our own kitchen, bathroom, living room too. Each family took turns cooking a meal and on Thursday night Dave and I made steak tacos and the weather was nice enough for us to eat them outside on the grass right next to our cottage. Dave and I went on a 16 mile bike ride Thursday morning and followed it up with a run (we are training for our triathlon coming up in July). The next two mornings Amy, Andy, Marni and I ran on the beach for 5 glorious miles, it was beautiful and an awesome way to start our day! I love getting together with my entire family, I wish we could do it more but am so thankful for the time we do get to spend together.

The cousins (minus Reese and Perry).

 Playing at the beach.

 Silly kids!

 Mads, Colt and I.

Mads and Colt playing in the sand.

Running from a wave. Colt had so much fun doing this but ended up crashing hard one time and got his shorts all wet. He ran around in his underwear the rest of the night.

He always has a stick (but calls it his sword) in his hand wherever we go!

I looked up and he was peeing. This kid pees ANYWHERE!

 There was a heated pool at the place and it was very heated. It had to be in order for me to want to go in it. We spent alot of time at the pool, Colt could have lived there I think. He would float around with his water wings on for hours if we would let him. We had to drag him out of the pool crying almost every time and his lips would be blue but yet he wanted to keep swimming. We would go back to our place and get in a hot shower and he would stand in there for another 45 minutes. The kid is a fish.

Everyday Colt would wake up and ask us when he could go swimming. He starts swimming lessons next week at Y and I have a feeling the instructor will have no trouble getting him in the water!

The town of Seaside was about a mile from our place and there was a nice little boardwalk that we could walk along to get there. We went into town a couple times but on Friday we all went and did the bumper cars, Tilt-a-Whirl, Aquarium and of course their Papa got them all ice cream. The kids loved the Aquarium and bumper cars. I tried to take pictures in these places but it was so dark and my flash was not working (I finally figured it out on the ride home) so all my pictures did not turn out. This was a very fun afternoon though and there were a lot of laughs and smiles coming from everyone. We stopped for fresh salt water taffy on the way home....yummers!

What a great way to start our summer vacation. I am looking forward to having some down time now before we leave for Chelan in July. It will be nice to just relax at home and spend time with the boys. I am teaching an online class this summer which requires about 3-4 hours of work a day (some days more) which means I had to work on this vacation. During the boys naps I would curl up on the couch with my computer and put some hours in. It was kind of a pain but at least this means I get to spend more time with my boys next school year since I will only be teaching in a classroom for 2 hours a day and spending the rest of the time with them!