The Beach Trip Adventure!

This past Saturday, we packed up our suburban and went on a grand Whittaker family adventure to the coast. 

After hearing great reviews about Hug Point in Oregon, we decided to try it out.  We arrived there during low tide and got to explore the tide pools!

The boys were super excited about that.

They weren't all that thrilled about crossing a small stream though.

We explored the beach a bit more. The point has a wagon trail around it. Science and History in one trip!

The view from the wagon trail.

Soon, it was time to settle down and play in the sand.

Isaac loved the kite flying.

He clapped every time he saw the kite overhead.

Of course, sand angels had to be made.

Elijah tried his hand at flying the kite and did pretty good at it.

Isaac ate the sand and was rather upset with me when I washed the sand off of his hands and face.

Beniah collected rocks.

Elijah collected water for his sand volcano.

Isaac finally had enough of the beach and fell asleep against me.

Time to head to the water to put our feet in!

Elijah wanted no part in the water (it was too scary!), but Beniah enjoyed it.

After one last visit to the waterfall, it was time to head back to the Suburban and get some lunch.

Whittaker Five at the beach (Isaac is hiding behind Tim's head)!

After lunch, Tim and I decided to take our exausted family home. We anticipated a quiet ride home with napping boys. We were wrong! At least the noise was due to giggles and not screams.

Summer Fun

As I sit here in relative silence (the boys are napping, the air conditioner is blowing), I realized that it has been well over a month since my last post. I'm seeing a pattern in my writing and no matter how much I try to write at least once a week, life/children/other projects get the better of me and my blog gathers dust (you know that the internet is a very dusty place, right?).  Currently, my project is to pack up our apartment for our move at the end of August. What? you didn't know we were thinking on moving? Yeah, that happened between the last post and this one. Let me catch you up on the other goings on in our family as I intently ignore the nail holes in the walls that need to get filled.

My parents came up for a weekend visit at the beginning of July...

 ..so we HAD to take them out to Lacamas lake for a hike.

 It was the first time we've gone out there too, but we loved it and plan to go out again sometime. Hmm...picnic ideas are now swirling in my head.

Since it was Fourth of July, we set off some fireworks with the boys. The snakes were SO cool!

The boys were eagerly anticipating the bigger fireworks.

 So Daddy set off the strip of pop rockets.

 First came excitement as the fuse burned up...

... then came the terror as the loud explosions started!

The terror wore off with a good nights rest, and silliness commenced.

It was also Elijah's half birthday (Yes, we celebrate half birthdays. Yes, I do think it is weird). He asked for a Jupiter cake.

 That looks like Jupiter, right?

 We also picked up some cherries and canned them.

 

 

After waiting a little over a week for the terror to die down, Tim and I took the boys back to Tim's parents house to set off the rest of the fireworks. Excitement abounded once again.

Beniah was brave enough to hold a sparkler this time.

 Isaac just wanted to sleep.

Tim set off one of the smaller fountains that we bought, thinking that it was tame enough for the boys.

 Nope.

 

 

 

Oh well! At least there is always the exciting snakes we can turn to.

We've had a busy summer already with plans for an even busier time in August. Let's see who I can rope into helping us move...