the Rest of August

Ward campout at Ensign Ranch (about an hour away). The kids loved the slip n slide and climbing wall, but weren’t quite as impressed with the more-difficult-than-expected float trip down the river in tubes.

    

Ryan learned to ride a bike!! He saw the ‘pedal bike’ out in the garage one day and wanted to give it a try, so he hopped on and just took off! He was so excited. We went to the water park a few days later but the boys spent most of the time riding their bikes around the park.

 

above: the boys playing at the park with their friend James, Eliza got to be just tall enough to look out the window at her brothers playing outside, and more bike riding at the park

And at the end of the month – we were pretty excited to have Camille, Bryce & Avery move from Utah to just 10 minutes away from us, even though we knew we would be leaving. We tried to spend as much time with them as possible!

Annual Coast Trip {August 15-20} Part II Mon-Wed

 

Monday

Monday morning, we went on a fun hike through a redwood forest – we were quite the hiking crew! It was beautiful hiking through those woods. After lunch, we went back to the beach and planned to have dinner down there, but quickly changed plans when a massive thunder & lightning storm was approaching. We still got a nice view of the sunset from the deck.

 

Tuesday

We started off Tuesday with a little tennis king-of-the-hill, then made our way down to the beach. The sun FINALLY came out and stayed out for our last few hours on the beach, and we made the most of it. I even got in the water and was brave enough to venture out where ‘the boys’ were jumping over waves – until I got pummeled (thrown to the ground and tossed around underwater) by two giant ones and decided I was done. It was a great end to a fun vacation!

 

these cute little guys made their own ‘campfire’ when we were roasting our hot dogs for dinner

Annual Coast Trip {August 15-20} Part I Sat-Sun

6 days. 5 nights in a bed instead of a tent. 1 hike. 14 trips to Fred Meyer. 15 delicious meals. 1 near-private beach. 12 adults. 13.5 kids/babies. 1 fantastic coast vacation.

Annual family coast trip, in pictures:

Saturday:

Eliza sleeping in the little tent, Ryan playing horseshoes (he moved the pegs until they were about 3 feet apart), and Bennett & James playing in the sand.

 

Kallie, Bennett, and Davis making shower-time difficult

Eliza loved playing in the sand! She didn’t last long before she tried to eat it

 

(thanks for the pics Jess & Stacey!)

Sunday:

Church, followed by

Adults entertaining the kids in our family pictures on the beach, followed by kites (the bribes grandma used to get the kids to smile :)