Sunday, September 8, 2013

The Rest of Our Time on the Oregon Coast

The next day, June 25th, was Ellen's birthday!  We had great plans for the day!
 
The low tide that morning was a super low tide which meant tide pools!  I had read that the far southern end of the beach at Cape Lookout had some pretty good tide pools, so we headed in that direction.
 



 
 
We found some!


 
Most of the starfish were this purplish brownish color so they were pretty well camouflaged.


But some were bright orange!  All of the little orange spots on the cliff wall in this picture are starfish.  There are lots and lots more that were purple.





This time we were a little more prepared to get wet.




Well, the rest of the day didn't quite go as planned.  We went on a hike to go to the top of Cape Lookout. 





We started out pretty good, but ended up very cold and wet and well, not very happy.  When we finally got back to camp the wind had picked up again and our tent was not looking so great.  And most people had left the campground.  We decided we had better leave to.  The sooner the better.  So while Naomi and Noah entertained Spencer in the van, the rest of us packed up as quickly as we possibly could while the wind tried to blow everything away.  It was a little crazy!!!  We finally got all packed up, checked out, and headed away from the coast.  We didn't know quite where we were going, and were all a little sad.  Especially Ellen. 

We remembered a restaurant on the other side of Tillamook that had caught our eye.  We went there and had a great dinner and let Ellen open her presents.  After that we drove a little farther up the highway and found a forest road, took it, and found a place to camp.  Then, once again, we got crazy busy and unpacked and got all set up in our new campsite.  Whew!  It was a long day!




The new campsite was a lot better because there was no wind!  But there was still some rain and some mud.  Not so great, but a little easier to deal with.
 
 

Since it was still so rainy, we decided to go to the Tillamook Air Museum











The next day was actually kind of sunny!  We couldn't believe it!  We were all out of clean and dry clothing though so we had to do something about that first.  We drove into Tillamook.  James and the 5 bigger kids dropped Spencer and I and our laundry off at the laundromat, then they all went to the Tillamook Cheese and Ice Cream Factory.    



Then we headed back to the beach!



 
Stephen and his Boogie Board


Even though it was sunny, the water was still COLD so the kids would come out and cover up with the warm sand for a while to get warm again before heading back out.

Annie made a Mermaid Tale over her legs.

 
There were lots of ferns around our campsite.  The day we packed up to leave the coast and head to Uncle Mark and Aunt Julie's house turned out to be pretty warm. 

8 September 2013

Stephen just read "The Eye of the Storm" by John Groberg.  It's the Other Side of Heaven story.  He really enjoyed it and has his mind on Tonga now.  

Spencer went to nursery for the first time yesterday!  He went without any problems!  I was holding him as we walked in.  There were already a few kids in there playing with toys and as soon as he saw the toys he wanted to get down and go.  He turned around and looked at me once, but it was a look like, "Can I really just play with all these toys?"  He was not sad at all.  I saw the Primary President right before Relief Society and she told me he was doing great.  I taught RS yesterday so when Spencer needed a clean diaper they brought him to James.  James said that when he took him back to nursery, he just walked right in and started jabbering to the other kids.  Yay!