fun at the coast

I took Ben to Newport on Tuesday morning to meet up with some friends who were camping there. Ben was SO excited to be staying in a hotel (and here I thought he'd be disappointed at not staying at the campground). We got there Tuesday morning, and he and the kids had fun riding around on their scooters for a bit before we got ready and headed to the beach. The kids spent the time digging for treasure and building castles with moats, then we headed back to the campsite for lunch. Ben and I went to check in to the hotel during naptime (all five of my friend's kids ages 11 months to 9 years old take naps after lunch). We threw our stuff into the room, got changed, and headed to the pool. After having to force Ben into the water (it was TOO cold!), he ended up going back and forth between the hot tub and pool without any problems. Once I hit the hot water, I'm done with the freezing pool! He had so much fun swimming around (with both water wings and a ring). I finally was bored after an hour, and said we needed to go back to the room. He watched tv while I tried to get in a short nap. We headed back to the campsite at 4:30, and at 5 headed back to the beach so I could take pictures for my friend and her family that were visiting so they could have a beach session with me (three different family pictures and a group shot). Afterwards, everyone had fun playing on the super steep dunes....running, jumping, rolling, somersaulting, cartwheeling. When we were thoroughly exhausted, we hiked back to the campsite for dinner and s'mores. We headed back to the hotel at 9:30, and I let Ben watch about an hour of tv. There weren't any cartoons on, but he was content watching iCarly (rolls eyes) and eating Oreos. The next day, we met up at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Ben enjoyed the jellyfish displays and the shark tube. We said goodbye to our friends, then headed off on our own for lunch and another quick jaunt to the beach before heading home.

This Saturday we'll be headed on an adventure to Portland. Jeremy and I will be taking Ben on the light rail (MAX) to Portland's Saturday Market, then we'll just hop on and off the max, looking around the city. This is the last year that Ben can ride free with us...better get to it! He's so excited to ride the train. He's pretty much excited to ride on anything that doesn't require seatbelts (he was amazed when I told him people can stand while the train is moving).

Then on Sunday we'll be having our friends (the ones from the coast visit) over for lunch and to see our new place before they head back to Medford.

And on both days we'll be seeing Alex...on the way home from Portland on Saturday and then we'll have him come visit us on Sunday.

Here are some pictures from this weekend...start at the bottom if you want to see them in order.















This is my favorite shot...you must click it to make it bigger!