Our first trip to Cannon Beach

These are the pictures from our Oregon Coast vacation. I have not added very many of them, but there are still quite a few.  We had a wonderful, wonderful time.

This Cheese Steak place in Portland was AWESOME!  We found it on the way to Costco.  They made their own fries and everything was so delicious I could hardly stand it!

The excitement of the travel!

On our way to Tillamook, we stopped a lot and enjoyed the beautiful views!

I had good hair in Oregon.

It is a little bit unnerving to be somewhere and see signs warning you about tsunamis, and what route to take if there is one.

Exploring and skimming rocks by the train tracks.

And of course, I noticed the quilt at the cheese factory!  It was awesome!

Robert and Barrett at Rockaway beach.  Such a great picture.

Elizabeth, Parker and Stephanie at Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Parker with his ice cream.  As we were going out to eat our ice cream, I heard a man say "That is the biggest ice cream cone I have ever seen in my life!!".  He was talking about Parker's 3 scoop waffle cone!

A cool lighthouse that we got to visit!  The walk down was fine, but the hike back to the car was a total workout!  The Oregon coast was cool, though, so it wasn't a double dose of hot!

The Octopus Tree.  Very, very cool!  This picture does not do it justice at all!

Robert at the beach after eating at Mo's.  The beach was so beautiful!

Robert and Parker with their new toy!  Parker got really good at skimboarding!

Our friends cute cottage!  This is where we stayed during our visit to Cannon Beach.

Elizabeth, moments before she took a long jog down the beach by herself.  We couldn't find her for about 35 - 45 minutes.  The police were called, and the lifeguards were there helping us look for her.  Robert rode in the truck with them and found her.  It was scary and we were so thankful to find her!  There were a few happy tears shed, much to Elizabeth's surprise.  She really had not known she was gone so long and that she was even really "lost".  She had jogged past our little spot on the beach because she had been looking at the ground while she was running!

When we went to find the Seaside Chapel, we found the library and we thought it would be a great idea to see if we could use the computers to check up on our emails and facebooks.  The wonderful people there let us use the computers and we had an awesome hour of family computer time.  We were able to all do our own thing, and it was really fun because we were able to show each other stuff that was funny, and instant message each other. We did this twice during the week because we enjoyed it so much!  This library is pretty new, and it was just beautiful.  But our city's Public Library is the best, by far!

The kids really want to stay here next time. 
The idea of a kitchen pool is just so appealing.

Barrett learning how to skimboard.

He was pretty good!

Robert still has the moves.

Parker got himself a stunt kite from one of the kite shops in town.  The man he bought it from is called "Wizard" and he was a character.  Wizard told Parker exactly how to fly and care for his kite.  Everyone had a great time flying this fun thing!

Parker and "Wizard".

The campfire on the beach.  Mo's restaurant is behind us.

Barrett and Elizabeth watching the glass blowers make a vase.  It was very awesome to see, but taking two smaller kids into a glass store, was very stressful!!  Elizabeth and Barrett both love to touch EVERYTHING!

The one that I loved.  $375.00.  I am saving my money. Yeah.

The hydrangeas were spectacular!!  Robert forgot their name and called them "pomegranate flowers".  The kids thought that was hilarious!

"The Grande".  We rented this six pedal bike in Seaside!  There was something wrong with it and it was very difficult to pedal.  We were laughing and laughing and generally very loud!!  Parker had to push us a lot!  The quote of the experience is "It's Lucy 'Go Time'!!"  So funny!!

Parker with his kite, Elizabeth and Barrett playing in the sand.  Barrett loved the sand and was always touching it.  He had to be reminded almost every minute that he shouldn't throw it.

At The Picnic Basket on Hawthorn in Cannon Beach.  It is an awesome candy store! 

Robert was SO pleased with his parallel parking! 

At low tide, the water rolls back and the tide pools are exposed.  You can walk right up to the sea stars and the sea anemones and see all kinds of things that you can't normally see.  While we were at Cannon Beach, minus tide occurred, and we got to see a lot of beautiful creatures.

Even though Stephanie is using it in this picture, Barrett's most exciting moment of vacation was when Robert bought him the blue shovel.  He was surprised to find out that when you dig deep enough in the sand, you find water.  Here, the kids are digging a hole that they had to refill, so that no one accidentally fell to their death!  You can see Stephanie's feet in the water.  Barrett's favorite part of vacation was digging in the sand, and exploring the beach!  Stephanie also enjoyed these activities, very much!

Watching the beautiful sunset.  Sometimes the clouds were in the way to get the full effect, but we did see a few spectacular sunsets while we were there!

Beautiful!

Robert LOVED this!!

On the way home we stopped to visit the Great Grandparent's grave.  Oscar and Hazel Schafer. We also stopped to visit Robert's Grand Aunt Dorothy. She kept saying how much Parker looks just like a Schafer and that she had no idea who Stephanie looked like.  It was a short, fun visit!

In Tremonton, our van's fuel pump went out.  We were fortunate enough to find a great tow truck guy, and he towed us to his shop. They fixed our fuel pump the next day and we felt that they were extremely honest and upstanding in their pricing and integrity.  We highly recommend them if you need someone in the Tremonton area!  They are called Archibald and Sons.

Our trusty van did very, very well on the vacation and almost made it home!  I do love this van!

Our friends, Angela and Dennis, came to our rescue and brought us home from Tremonton while our van was being repaired!  Thanks Angela and Dennis!  It was such a great treat to visit with them on the way home!