We took a quick trip to Brookings last weekend. We rented a condo and the views were amazing! This is the view straight off of the balcony. The owners said guests have spotted whales and sea lions from the condo...we tried with the binoculars they had in the condo but didn't see anything.
I tried to stay on "manual" mode on my camera for the trip and started playing around with it while the boys and Geoff got into the board games and played "Sorry" early the first morning.
Then they moved on to "Risk".
It was mostly Geoff playing by himself (the boys are a little too young) but they had fun with the mini game pieces.
Off to the beach! We took the trail right outside the condo...through the jungle...
...and ended up on this beach-they should call it driftwood beach! I have never seen so much driftwood collected in one place! Around the corner was a cave but the tide was in and we couldn't make it into the cave on this trip.
We lucked out and had great weather. Brookings supposedly has the best weather at the coast....less chance of rain and it tends to be a little warmer there than other areas. But the water was still COLD. The boys played in it a lot nonetheless. Geoff stuck a stick in the water and they had so much fun running out seeing who could touch the stick before the waves could get them.
We had fun looking for driftwood pieces. Geoff kept holding up driftwood shouting "Look, I found a propeller" or "Look I found a T-rex tooth!" And a walking stick, and Jack holding his snake.
I stayed in manual mode on my camera and was happy with these pictures out on the coast. It didn't work out so well for me in every picture from our trip but I thought most of these turned out nice.
Avery feeling sand on her feet for the first time. Geoff's hair looks really grey here...but it is just the SPF 60 sunscreen he was wearing....
Hello feet.
Our friends Melody and Joe joined us for the last two days of the trip. Our family squeezed into one room of the condo and it was amazing that we slept! Avery slept in her car seat at night and for naps. She had been tugging on her right ear and dropping her head to her shoulder for a few days prior and I figured she had an ear infection. Everytime I laid her in her crib she would get upset and pop up to a seat..she didn't seem comfortable laying down. But we could put her in her car seat and she would not make a peep. Just look at us then fall asleep. We went to the pediatrician before we left for this trip and they said her ear looked OK and that she was probably teething. Sure enough, the first morning of our trip tooth #2 appeared!
One morning she woke up at 5 a.m. and I hurried out of the room so we wouldn't wake anyone up. I got to see the sunrise...but I couldn't get the sliding door open to the balcony so I had to take these pics through the window. Ahh well...still pretty.
I also thought I was going to see a whale that early because there were two boats on the water and it looked like there were a bunch of people looking at the same spot. Nada.
We ventured out to walk some trails in the Oregon Redwoods one day. We thought we would go on a few different shorter trails but couldn't believe we only managed one 1/2 mile trail. Here are Melody and Joe tree-hugging. And just so you know, they are tall people. Melody is 5'10".
The boys in perspective to the tree!
Some of my "Manual" mode challenges with my camera. Notice how the trees are sharp and we aren't? Oops.
The 1/2 mile trail took so long because the boys did a lot of detours and uhhum...short-cuts.
We may have only managed one trail, but we took our time and enjoyed it.
One of our detours was to this river where everyone practiced skipping rocks. I removed myself from rock-skipping altogether when I almost beamed J in the head with my first throw.
Isn't it beautiful?
My best attempt at a pic of A by a big tree.
We made it to another beach that afternoon, ate some yummy Thai food, and stayed up too late playing Risk and drinking wine. I didn't get any pictures the next day but it was 80+ degrees out so we went to a park where you could tube on the river. Everyone enjoyed cooling off in the water. We finished the trip with another trip to our condo beach and cave. I stayed in the condo with A while she napped so I missed out on the cave~maybe next time.
