Our Annual September Beach Weekend

Three years in a row now we’ve been blessed to spend a weekend in Rockaway Beach, using our neighbor’s beach house for free (well, I water for them while they’re gone in the summer—which this summer I definitely earned our stay because it was the three hottest weeks of our summer!). Now that’s my kind of travel!

We’ve decided that September might be the best month to visit the Oregon Coast. I did the usual Oregon Coast packing job: lots of board games, inside toys, and winter clothing. And for the second year in a row, we used none of it! All weekend we raved and raved about how amazing the weather was, and how we had never seen a weather like this on the Oregon Coast, but looking over last years’ trip posting, I guess we said the same thing last year. But seriously, we enjoyed two whole days of NO WIND, all sun, and pleasant times at the beach. Praise the Lord!

Seth and Sam all ready to go (with favorite animals Poppel and Charlie) After eating dinner in Cannon Beach, we caught the sunset Ben’s a sucker for good sunsets and had to stop to get another picture (photo credit given to Ben) Morning #1 project: dig a huge hole and build a big mountain Sam Seth Big hole Big mountain “Brothers gotta hug!” (Seth, Sam) It warmed up enough to play in the water—which the boy LOVED Seth, Mama, Sam (gotta love those shades!) Wait for it, wait for it… And RUN!!! Day #2: explore the jetty, build a sandcastle, and find someone to take a family picture I was in charge of the decorations (check out that sand dollar door and cool bridge) Favorite picture of the weekend; maybe one of my favorite of all time! Love the motion in this picture: two little boys having a blast at the beach LOVE! On the drive back home we stopped at one last beach, Arcadia Beach (by Cannon Beach). We loved it and hope to spend more time exploring it on our next beach outing. Since it was our last stop, I was desperate to get a family picture. Not only do I hate asking someone to take a picture of us, I also hesitate even more now because my camera isn’t exactly user friendly (since it’s DSLR, it’s a bit more complicated than a point and shoot). So, when I saw an older couple walking towards us, and the gentlemen was toting a huge DSLR camera, I immediately thought, “Jackpot!” and got up the guts to ask him to take our picture. Well, it turned out to be a “million dollar picture” in that the guy was a professional photographer but also a bit crazy, and talked our ear off for close to half an hour. Oh man, Ben is never gonna let me live down these family pictures (which, by the way, aren’t that spectacular. The guy told me all about using a flash even when it’s day for a different effect. I’m not a big fan of the effect, because it makes the sky dark even though it’s daylight. As I said before, the guy was crazy. But I’m thankful for several family pictures!)

  Seth in red shorts, Sam in blue