4th of July and Seaside Oregon

Our raspberries have been doing well this summer and we are loving them

For the 4th of July we went to our friends' for their annual party. They had guessing jars (Lyza and Kim both won one of them)

There was good food

Mason got to ride a unicorn

So did Henry

Lyza checking out Fort Westin

Ropes course

Getting ready for the fireworks show

We got to play some 4 square volleyball

There was also a live band

Mason had some awesome dance moves

Kim won this craft kit

Enjoying the concert

There was a really good fireworks show

The next morning we left early for our trip to Oregon. We stopped along the way at this nice park

The kids couldn't resist getting in the water and found some clams

We had our lunch

We made another stop along the way at the Bonneville Dam

There was a cool old fire truck there

The dam had fish ladders that allow fish to travel upstream through/around the dam

We saw this big bird fishing in the ladders

We also saw this crazy bird eying the fish

There were windows in the visitors' center where you can watch the fish swim against the current

There were movies that the kids didn't find very entertaining

Another view of the fish ladders

After the dam we went to a nearby fish hatchery where I met my doppelganger

We checked out the fish

There were big ponds with trout in them

And big sturgeon

The kids enjoyed feeding the fish

What a lovely bunch

Mr. Duck

The surrounding area was really beautiful

There was a window where we could look into one of the ponds

After some more driving we arrived at out hotel. I love how excited the kids were about our room ;)

It didn't take us long to walk down to the beach

It was so much colder than the weather we had just come from but it was fun exploring the beach after a long drive

Mason was so excited to find crab remnants

Here is the view from our balcony

And a gull underneath our window

The next day we drove 20 minutes to Ecola State Park and saw some amazing views

Good pose Mason

He is so cute people will carry him whenever he asks

We went to another place in the park and found a trailhead for a little hike at Indian Beach

The hike was beautiful

We hiked up and got some beautiful views of the beach and ocean

I really liked these rock formations

We could just barely see a lighthouse in the distance

We could see people fishing in the ocean (we never saw them catch anything throughout the day)

This was an interesting creepy crawly on the trail

The hike was beautiful

After the hike we went down to Indian Beach for most of the day

Mason found more signs of life

This stream fed into the ocean and was fun for the kids to dig in

And there was lots of digging

This rock was was covered with some sort of growth (moss?)

The beach was so big

The kids spent lots of time in these rocks looking for life

Here is a view from the rocks

A view toward the rocks

There were lots of sea anemones (marine predatory animals)

There were also clams, mussels, and barnacles

Here is a video of our time at Indian Beach

The drive to and from Indian Beach was incredible

After Indian Beach we drove to Cannon Beach because we heard it had better tide pools

The big rock there is Haystack Rock and there are smaller rocks to the side of it called the needles

There were lots of tide pools near the rock but the tide wasn't low enough to see the good stuff (just barnacles, mussels, and anemones) 

The formations were beautiful though

We also found these jelly-like discs

After Cannon Beach Kim, Nixon, and Mason went to another beach close to the hotel and found some hermit crabs

For dinner that evening we got fish and chips

We played in the swimming pool that nigh and had lots of fun

Here is a video of playing in the pool that night (and the next)

After swimming there was some winding down watching TV before bed

The next day we went to the aquarium in Seaside

These touch tanks were the star of the show

The octopus was also really cool to watch when it moved

We decided to leave this squid behind

Mason used some of his birthday money from his grandparents to buy a treasure chest with some toys and treasure to put inside

After that we went to the beach outside our hotel room to play in the ocean (and read)

Nixon, Mason, and I all got in the ocean right away

We then played with kites and it was perfect because of how windy it was

Henry got cold and tired eventually

Here is a kite flying video

After kites Kim decided to join us for a swim

Here is a video of us playing in the ocean

After the ocean we went swimming in the pool to warm up

We then went and checked out the Seaside beach near the city center

It looked beautiful, especially with the sunbeams breaking through the clouds

While we were at Cannon beach the day before we learned about the tides and lookin up when the tides were and how good they are. We learned that the best tide of our trip would be the day we needed to drive home at 6:24ish in the morning. We decided to get up early (before 6) and drive out to some tide pools to take advantage of the low tide).

With our terrible hotel internet I found a nearby beach (Arcadia Beach) that was supposed to have some good tide pools).

When the alarm went off at 5:30 Kim and I thought we were making a bad decision waking up four sleeping children to drag them to a cold ocean beach.

This is what we found

We found lots of the same: barnacles, mussels, anemones...

But we also found sea stars

We also found some large crabs

Doesn't his face just say it all?

Mason was also brave and held the big crabs

Notice this crab has an orange spongy part near the bum? This is a pregnant female (we didn't know this until we came home and researched it)

We also found these sand crabs (aka mole crabs) that burrow in the sand

Kim also held some crabs

Arcadia Beach was a success, although it didn't have any hermit crabs that we were able to find

We felt like we made the right decision waking the kids up from a peaceful sleep

We enjoyed our early morning at Arcadia Beach

Lyza even held a big empty crab shell

And so did Henry

We could have ended the trip there and all would have been well...

But we decided to hike out of there and hit up another beach

So long Arcadia

Here is a video of the fun we had there

We went back to the beach where we found hermit crabs before and found lots more and had a blast 

We found lots of really big crabs and all of us (excluding Henry) held them

This gull didn't share with us

We also saw sea stars

Little crabs

Lots more big crabs

Can you tell Lyza was having a blast?

Kim felt an outpouring of love...

Henry didn't hold one but we got him to touch one

The little hermit crabs were lots of fun

Nixon found this shell with a smiley face on it

This crab was cool

Here is a video of the fun we had there

After that it was our last breakfast in the hotel before heading home

For the drive back we decided to try a different route so we could have different stops along the way. We chose to stop at Tumwater Falls and check out some waterfalls

There were big trees to play on

And some waterfalls

Nixon got to channel his inner monkey

Kim and the kids were ahead of me while I took some long exposure photos of the water

There was a cool bridge

And a cool dude

The water was pretty

Shortly after that we stopped at Chick fil a

And then it all went downhill...bumper to bumper traffic through Olympia, followed by the same through Tacoma, and then some more later in Spokane

We eventually made it home but it was a long exhausting drive

Take care