So sorry it's taken me so long to post these, I know I've been promising them to alot of you for a long time! So I'll just caption one by one, and you'll get the idea. =)
The first two pictures are taken with our ipod-touch, which actually takes awesome pictures.

I got pink eye the day after we left, (yuck) so our first stop was was to pick up vitamin C and black tea bags and Starbucks. Personally, I think the coffee's what cured me....


Sunset pictures are so pretty! I picked one of probably every 10 pictures, so we took LOTS. Ali took some and I took some, so photo credit to her!


We stayed in Lincoln City, Oregon., and on one of the beaches not far from us, we found some tide pools FULL of anemones.

And the ever present mussels. (think of them as the ants of the beach, they're every where.)



So I had these plans for a huuuuge sand castle. Like the kind groups of us use to build in Mexico.
I got the kids all hyped, and one morning we headed out to build our castle on the beach!
Buuut.... less then half way through, Brad and Ali lost interest, dubbing it "too big" and deciding they'd rather splash around in the ocean instead. Humph! Well fine... I'll finish it myself! =P

First words out of Ali's mouth when we get back? "Hey Dad, look out the window and see our sand castle!"
Our sand castle?? Oh well.
We stopped at another beach about an hour north of Lincoln City, and as we walked, I kept my eyes on the ground. It paid off! I found a WHOLE sand dollar! I've only ever found pieces of them before, and for a beach comber, this was a score.


We visited Cape Meares Lighthouse. The shortest lighthouse on the West Coast.
Unfortunately, we couldn't go up inside the light, because a couple years ago, two guys shot out almost all the glass windows, and destroyed the light bulb. It's still being repaired.


We stopped at the Blue Heron Wine and Cheese Farm. It wasn't much to look at, but we had fun visiting the "animals."

One of the most fun tours ever, was the Tillamook Cheese factory we visited in...you guessed it... Tillamook Oregon!
The assembly line.

The sunsets on the beach are so gorgeous. The breeze blows the salty mist onto your face and gently tosses your hair, while the sun turns the sea into a watery expanse of molten gold. (for my dramatic friend Hannah.)









"My soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow