Beach Vacation ~ Lincoln City, OR

August 13-17, 2008

Our annual trek to Lincoln City, OR was once again great fun! This time we rented our own little place near John's family (Auntie Lori, Uncle Sean, Justin & Luke, Grandma Schock, Auntie April, and soon-to-be Uncle Jeff). It was nice to have our own space and we didn't have to worry about the kids waking everyone else up at o'dark thirty each morning. We enjoyed lots of games, sand and water play, a *gasp* date night, walks, cave and tide pool exploring and shopping (well momma just enjoyed that last one!). Papa rerouted a little runoff river with driftwood to make a big pool for the kids to play in. Nathaniel thought the waves were so much fun until he realized how cold the water was. Grace didn't think the water was cold at all. It seems so easy to connect with God at the beach - His beauty and creation are amazing!

Climb! Slide! Bounce!

So a couple of weeks ago I was driving to the grocery store... when out of the corner of my eye I see this big box on the sidewalk next to someone's house. It had a big "FREE" sign on it. I was a little apprehensive, but decided to check it out anyway. I pulled over and inside the box was a huge inflatable jumpy slide! The house it was near is in a decent neighborhood, so after momentarily pondering whether I should take it or not, I lugged it to the car. We got it home and it works great! It is like new - the original instructions, patch kit and all the parts were in the box. The kids are estatic!! Papa had a little too fun on it one day and ripped part of it, but after several hours of sewing it up on my machine (I've now met my life long goal of sewing outside), it was fixed.

Free Fun in Tacoma!

Earlier this month we decided to try one of Tacoma's spraygrounds - we had a blast! Cousin Heather was with us too. We went to the one at South Park http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=886 near the Tacoma Mall. We also ended up getting a bonus free lunch! They hand out yummy lunches there each weekday at noon.

Grace the blossoming photographer??

Grace enjoyed taking pictures of her most treasured items with the camera one day...