Holidays part 3: New Years at the beach

Last summer when we were at Flathead Lake, MT, with George and Terry, they talked about how they let people use their house at Netarts on the Oregon Coast as a vacation house when they are not home, and they invited us to do that sometime. When our kids started talking about getting together and renting a rental house at the beach sometime, we told them about the family option. Summer turned to fall, then winter, and finally it was arranged that we would all meet there over New Years' while they were away traveling to see their own family in California and the Domincan Republic. Lou and I decided we wanted in on this too, so we appreciated Kit being here to hold down the fort while Lou and Ben were both absent.

We met at my parents' house on the way for an afternoon so the kids could see Great Grammie and Great Papa Kenny and vice versa. The hallway proved to be a nice "playroom."Nicholas needed a snack and so here he is waiting for the popcorn to finish. I just thought hugging the bowl and staring into the microwave was cute.

Then we headed to the coast, arriving at about 8 PM, just in time to get the beds set up and kids to sleep. The first order of business the next morning was to finish opening any Christmas gifts that had not yet been opened.Then it was time to play with some of them. Nicholas shared his travel train set with Thea. Thea got this fun tent and tube that was also enjoyed by all:

'Papa Boo' probably got his cold from this little play session, but he said if that is where it came from, it was probably worth it. A good time was had by all, as you can see and hear! Lou got some quiet reading time out on the balcony once in a while, too.
There is usually some good weather in January at the Oregon Coast, and it was apparently very nice over there on Christmas Day, but this week (Jan. 18-22) was probably that time, not New Years weekend! It may have been warm enough but you couldn't tell it from all the rain and wind. We were thankful for the gas fireplace at the house... nice and cozy. Netarts is close to Tillamook, where the cheese factory is. Since we were there on New Years Day, the factory part wasn't running, but the store was open. Here are a couple of farmers we saw there with a nice looking cow:

Nicholas was particularly intrigued with this cow and sat down for a better look --

It was a fun thing to do on a windy, rainy day at the beach, but Danelle still wanted to "go to the beach." We think she has seen pictures or movies of the beach on TV or something, and she insisted, (and I agree, you just HAVE TO walk on the beach when you're there!) so we did. It was an extreme tide weekend -- a very high tide that morning as we were driving to Tillamook, with winds blowing the waves up and onto the rocks alongside the roadways, and later that day, a very low minus tide (after dark, unfortunately, or it would have been a great time to "find stuff" from the storming). The tide was going out when we were at the beach, but an occasional wave still came pretty far up on the sand so we had to keep our eye on it. We bundled them all up and went down there, and after some initial trepidation, the kids had a great time running in the water, through the foam from the rough surf, and just seeing the wide open spaces of the Oregon beaches. I have never seen that much beach foam!

Thanks George and Terry! [see you next summer :o)]