Seaside

Sorry it's been awhile since I've blogged. Life is busy. Sometimes I wonder if I should continue blogging and then some nice readers will leave me sweet a comment or send me an e-mail and I decide not to stop. I gathered most of the pictures from our trip to Seaside awhile ago but didn't have the time to write the post. Since it was nearly ready to go I thought I'd post them and I hope you enjoy them even though they are "old news".

The scenery on our drive to Seaside, Oregon was beautiful!

This is the way cows should live! (Look close they're there!)

We stopped for a scenic view shot along the road. This picture shows how different my two oldest children are. One is cautious and the other.....not so much. I don't like heights either.

Not sure if you can tell how far down it is.

Ainsley ate a Happy Meal. Kind of a milestone. And pretend played that her bear wanted to eat too!

This is why it is so important to recycle and reduce our use of paper products!!! 

The Astoria Bridge.

Sometimes I have dreams I am driving a car up on a freeway ramp that goes way up into the sky and it feels like I'm going to fall backward. This felt just like that as the ramp disappeared up into the fog. Scary! 

After we checked into the hotel we headed to Funland. 

Air hockey was so fun! We all played. Even Ainsley.

The big screen Fruit Ninja was so much fun!!! Even for Ainsley.

Ainsley totally understood how to feed the tickets in and I think that was the most fun she had.

She picked out what she wanted to redeem her tickets for.

And even tried the banana Tootsie Pop. 

Our dancing singing girl.

The kids were desperate to get onto the beach even for a few minutes.

See that? This is the end of the Lewis and Clark trail.

The next day it drizzled and rained.

So we went to the aquarium. One of the oldest on the west coast.  You could tell. I felt bad for the "animals".

The face on the skate fascinated me. And creeped me out a little too.

We got up close with an octopus.

A vertebrae of a blue whale. Wow!

SPOILER ALERT!!!

If I'd known THIS.....

.....was THIS. I might not have ordered halibut for dinner the night before.  That is one ugly fish!

Ainsley ate fish too and liked it.

We fed the seals....fish heads. Serious memory making. 

When Ainsley would throw the fish it would land on the screen, or the floor. Then she threw again.

She was fascinated to see the seals up close (despite the poor visibility). They clapped for fish.

Silly fun.

I have a picture of Evie on this same carousel when she was 3. 

It's crazy how fast time passes.

My sweet sweet girl!

I totally wanted to stop and try ALL these sodas. 

Steve took Evie and Adrian swimming in the storm. After they left Ainsley insisted she wanted to go too. She looked so sad, so finally I suited her up and took her down. It was so wet and windy that she didn't want to go in. We bought snacks from the vending machine and called it a night.

Our room. 

It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. Great for families!

The balcony view.

We hadn't really figured out how we were going to get our handicapped child onto a sandy beach.  Her wheelchair would have just sunk and got stuck. Luckily we found a place that rented this wagon but then it rained and we had to store it in our car for a day. There was sun the next day so we got to use it and it worked pretty well. The owner at Wheel Fun Rentals let us keep it so we could actually use it, without an extra charge. It was so nice of him!

Adrian wanted to fly a kite.

Ainsley played in the sand.

Steve and Adrian played Frisbee.

Then I got to take Ainsley to the bathroom. So here is when I cursed this beach vacation idea. Lucky for Steve he can't use the women's restroom. 

Adrian still loves to dig holes.

 And get in them apparently.

Evie and I went on a search for sand dollars. 

 These days she doesn't stop singing and dancing.

 After a full day at the beach in Seaside we headed for a quick trip to Cannon Beach.

We were checked out and didn't have the wagon anymore and didn't want to go to the trouble to get a handicap pass to drive our car out onto the beach (which you can do) so sadly Ainsley didn't get to see Haystack Rock, but she didn't really care. Steve, Evie and Ainsley looked from the car but it's really not the same as seeing it up close.

 We were headed back home. It wasn't quite long enough. 

On our trip we saw a hundred of these signs and it made me a little nervous. Thankfully we didn't need them.

Later in the week I took Evie and Adrian to Golden Gardens beach  in Seattle with Penny. She'd stayed home with my sister Sheryl who house sat. So even Penny got to the beach during Spring Break. 

They have a dog park too. She had a blast! 

We combed the beach for seashells and searched for heart shaped rocks and found these 3 glass hearts hidden in the rocks.  I wonder how long they've been in there, washed over by the waves. What is the story behind how and why they are there? I'd love to know. We left them for someone else to find. 

I was glad to spend time with the kids on Spring Break. Summer is on it's way!