Pacific City with the best friends a family could ask for

On our last week in Oregon, we were lucky to spend an entire day hanging out with the Carpenters, Kim's best friend since age 4 and great family friends to all of us.  Ahren and Mike rented a house directly on the beach and boy were the views amazing.  We had a great lunch and also enjoyed some homemade blackberry/peach pie and coffee on the beach.  The other amazing thing was that the weather was darned near perfect.  Sun on the Oregon coast is a rarity, so we absolutely enjoyed ourselves.  We also checked out the tide pools, hiked a heck of a sand hill (way to go Lily) and did some hoola hooping on the beach.  So lucky to enjoy the time with such great friends.

Cole, Macy and Lily running for the freezing cold water

Kim, Lily, Cole and Macy climbing the sand hill at Pacific City

While the weather was nice, the water was still a freezing 40 some degrees (ugh)

Cole, Macy and Lily looking in the tide pools

 Macy, Lily, Ahren and "cool" Cole

Mike and Chris

Best friends for 38 years (unbelievable)

Hoola hooping practice (Lily and Ahren)

Weekend in San Antonio

Since cousin Courtney moved to San Antonio, Lily was very disappointed to miss her over the summer.  So we decided a girls trip to San Antonio was in order.  We got to check out Courtney's new school UTSA and got to help her put her apartment together.  We also got to enjoy lots of tourist activities.  The Riverwalk was just as cool as everyone says.  And the food (Mexican, BBQ, etc) was excellent.  It was a fabulous weekend.

Tillamook Cheese Factory

For anyone who has had the pleasure of having Tillamook cheese or ice cream, you will appreciate why a visit to their factory in Tillamook Oregon is such a fun adventure. 

Silver Creek Falls

Hiking Silver Creek Falls is a must do in Oregon, especially since we are so close.  We were joined by Grandma Donna who hiked with us and then we all had a picnic lunch with Grandma Norma and Grandpa Cliff.  They even bought a game of crazy 8's and there was a lot of card playing going on all afternoon.  I think the grandparents have realized how much Lily loves playing all kinds of games.  It was definitely a day of fun had by all.  And the views weren't bad either.

Crabbing the OR Coast

After hitting the Aquarium in Newport, we headed on to Waldport, OR to join Chris and our family to do some crabbing.  It was an incredibly successful day on the water with 75+ crabs.  And we were reminded how much larger the Dungeness crab are than the tiny blue crabs we have in Maryland.  And boy were they good.  The other bonus was that the weather was actually nice enough to have to use sun screen.  Amazing.

We finally made it to the Oregon Aquarium

A week or so prior to I had promised Lily a trip to the Oregon Aquarium, but we kept getting side tracked whale watching and never made it to the Aquarium.  So this was our make up trip and lucky for us we were joined by Aunt Venita. 

 

Enchanted Forest

Unfortunately I'm still catching up on all our fun, photos and activities from Oregon.  Looking back, it certainly was an amazing vacation. 

This particular day we picked up Lily's friend/family relative and headed to Enchanted Forest.  The girls had a great time.  Then we joined grandparents and family for lunch, more blackberry picking, more pie making and more jam making.  This time it was blackberry and peach.  Oh my, was it amazing.