homeofthebudds

Father's Day Camping at Nehalem Bay

(This is one of those more pictures than words posts. FYI)

This dog was insane. I thought it as a greyhound, but it's owner said it was a Whippet.

Wally the Whippet.

He runs 35 mph.

This little guy wasn't quite as fast.

Sand angels were a huge hit.

(Hush. I know this picture is painful to look at with that amazing angle I shot at. But just hush.)

Running out...

...and running in.

Repeat 57 times.

My view.

Check out that sky.

Love the sky.

Somehow whenever we make that peanut, raisin and M&M trail mix the M&M's are what's on everyone's plate. And all for different reasons.

Brennan seems to only take those from the container.

Isaiah saves them for last.

And Ellen sees their plates full of M&M's and decides she should probably have more.

This boy looooves drawing with Sharpies.

And this boy loves drawing with anything, Sharpies included.

Happy Father's Day my Love. I'm so glad we're on this journey together. You're the best father for our kiddos. I love you.

A gazillion and one pictures of a certain someone's first smore's experience

Ahhhhh, bliss...

In which a camping trip is just not a camping trip without hotdogs and smore's

In which we went for a hike while camping

These are some of those sights that just feed your soul, you know?

Another one of the kids favorite things to do is find a river and throw rocks and sticks into it. Now that's good fun.

Notice my serious holdontomykidwhilesnappingapicture skills.

It doesn't look like it, but the water was moving seriously fast.

Oswald West revisited

Mom was here visiting this past weekend and we all agreed a trip to the coast was in order.

Actually, first there was a walk through the woods.

But after a bit, the trees break apart and you can see the wide open ocean.

I've mentioned it before, and I'm sure I'll mention it again - Oswald West State Park is a sweet place to spend the day.

We never did find the cave or tidal pools we were looking for, but there was still plenty of sand and sticks.

And plenty of waves to run from,

And through.

One of these days we'll bring proper ocean sorts of clothes - like a bathing suit - but for this day, wearing wet clothes was no problem at all.

Brennan was most content exploring the shore

Where we found bugs, (even if they were blurry out of focus bugs)

And tiny little miniature feathers.

He was very aware of the water and the waves constantly approaching him though - you could hear him hollering out "Hi water!!!" over and over throughout the morning. And once again, as soon as he was brave enough to take his eyes off it for a few seconds a wave came and got him. Not as bad as in times past, luckily.

Everyone had a fabulous time,

and we managed to avoid anyone getting sunburnt,

and by the time we'd walked back through the forest to our van almost all the sand had fallen off our feet

and there were naps all around on the ride home. Doesn't get much better than that.

Fun things we saw while camping/RVing

Asphalt colored grasshoppers.

pick-up games of baseball

belly laughs after beating the 1st basemen to the base.

gargantuan grapes

cone-heads

a little miniature forest

a little boy getting big enough to take his own thoughtful walk

lunch

a model

and next generations tree huggers.

The Sand Man cometh!

Even more of Oswald West (there's always more)

We found some fun patterns on the shore.

Oswald West State Park

In another effort to beat the heat, and inspired by this picture posted by Chris, we headed off to the coast.

We were inspired by the Meschke's to choose Oswald West State Park 

It's a pretty sweet place. There's a little creek that runs out onto the beach.

And guess what? It was actually cool! Cold even at some points.

But that did not stop the kids from jumping right into the creek.

See that grin on my face? I don't think it left the entire time we were there.

The kids built several "creations". This is a house. Built by the "Ofcourses".

Here's another.

And another. I think this might be the backyard.

Brennan kept himself busy too.

Apparently this is a sweet surf spot too. See that white board in the lower left? There was a constant stream of surfers coming in and going out. Maybe the kids will learn to surf in Oregon after all!

It's been hot

It's been hot in these parts. Super super over 100 degrees hot.

We've been out every day trying different ways to cool off. One day we went to a local pool. Good idea, except it cost money ($11 for all of us) and the pool was a warm 82 degrees. I was really hoping for freezing water personally.

Another day we went walking around Tryon Creek, cause it's always significantly cooler there than at our house. Plus we were inspired by Emily who was walking some trails with her kids when we called to ask if she wanted to go to the pool.

We opted to walk their short art filled walk. The first exhibit we came upon was called "Intruder" - it was depicting English Ivy as a huge, scary, well...intruder.

Brennan was not intimidated. "Hi person!!!" he said over and over.

When we went to Bridal Veil Falls, Dave showed Isaiah the spores under the fern leaves. Isaiah was mighty impressed. Every time we passed a fern, he showed me those spores.

See 'em?

They ran on,

and discovered a gate in the middle of the trees.

There was lots of knocking, door answering and welcoming in.

Next up, a big 'grass patch'.

Brennan didn't want to leave.

Then Ellen found a ...beaver? to give a hug to and we were good to go.