How Ally does Dress-Up....

Layers, lots and lots of layers.

Silver Falls: Owies, Hiking, and Splashing

Today we headed up to Silver Falls to hike and splash around in the creek. We arrived at the falls at lunchtime and all enjoyed a yummy filling lunch that we had picked up at Safeway. We started cleaning up and made one last pit stop before we decided to hike down to the falls. On the way back to the car Ally caught the toe of my shoe and skinned her knee up pretty bad. Luckily, the over prepared mother that I am, I had a travel first aid kit and we got her cleaned up and bandaged. She did manage to finagle lots of special attention from Daddy and only had to walk on the way down to the falls. The rest of the time she sat happily on Daddy's shoulders.

We walked down and behind the falls

stopping for a little bit to enjoy a little snack.

We made it all the way down and admired the falls a little longer before heading back up, up, up, the path.

Dylan announced that his legs hurt and I told him that mine did a little too. Then Ally pipes up from Daddy's shoulders that her legs hurt too....we all got a laugh out of that one! We made it all the way back up and the kids decided that they wanted to wade around in the creek for a little bit, so we got them changed and headed over to relax by the water for a little bit.

After splashing around and cooling off a bit we relaxed and had another snack. Then the kids were ready to go play on the playground so Daddy headed over with them while I put our stuff back in the car. The kids played for quite awhile making some new friends and having a great time! Eventually the bees got the best of me and I went over to the car to get all our stuff organized. The kids and Daddy came over and we decided to walk across the bridge and around a little longer. While Ally and I went and got the van, Daddy and Dylan went down and looked at the waterfall one more time. It was a great day, minus the skinned knee.

Relaxing at the Beach

Today we headed over to Newport to South Beach State Park, our "usual beach." It was a bright sunny day, with the exception being right over the water. There was a HUGE fog cloud sitting right over the ocean. It was a bit windy but as the day went on the sun made the wind a little less of a nuisance. After eating lunch the kids played in the sand, tried to fly the kite, and relaxed.

After a little while we decided to walk down to the jetty and set off.

On the way to the jetty we were walking into the wind and so it was a little hard, but the kids were troopers and marched on,

although Ally did manage to finagle a ride from Daddy for the last stretch.

Once down there the kids decided to walk down the jetty with Daddy while I explored the rocks.

Imagine my surprise and joy as I peeked in between the rocks and was greeted with the sight of a half a dozen little crabs! They were so very cool! I took a million more pictures of them than any one person needs of crabs. The kids came back down and introduced them to the crabs, they were pretty excited about them like I was! On the way back down the beach we split up, the boys took the high road and we took the low road.

We met back up at our staked place on the dune and the kids played, played, and played some more. Then they met a new friend and spent some time running up and down the dune completely wearing each other out.

Now...the real question is: Will they sleep in tomorrow??

Down at the River

This afternoon we headed down to Bryant Park to check it out and also cool our feet in the river. The park is a pretty nice one, HUGE with lots of room to run and roam. The kids played on the play structure for awhile while Daddy scouted out the park for us.

When Daddy got back we decided to drive on down closer to the river and splash around in the water a little. The kids had fun wading out in the water and cooling off.

After cooling off for a bit they had fun throwing rocks into the river and hearing the splash. We ended the night with a yummy dinner and playing at the Pizza King. Loving the last week of vacation, lets see what the rest of the week holds!

Happy Birthday Grace!!!!

Tonight we celebrated Grace's 4th birthday. We are truly blessed to have such a beautiful wonderful niece to love and adore! Here's to another year of growth, love, and learning!