Wrapping Up

Our last few days in Oregon were just as fun and beautiful as the rest.

Including a trip into Depot Bay to watch the goings on in the bay.

It was pretty exciting stuff.

We came for the sea lions.

But stayed for the grotesquely fascinating fish harvesting.

So gross, right?

But, then again, it's a blue fish.  How weird is that?

The supply of fish was endless.  And for some reason, I took a lot of photos.  This is a job I will never aspire to.

We also made s'mores on the beach.  You really can't go wrong with that combination.

Unless your name is Trey.  Then you can take issue with anything--even with a marshmallow in each hand.

But playing with your cousins can fix it all again.

Phew!

This little girl loves to take long walks on the beach.

Even with a whole entourage accompanying.

Won't it be sad when these kids are grown up enough to always give normal smiles for photos?

Exploring more tide pools.

Giving a hand to a sea star that accidentally washed ashore.

So pretty!

I'm pretty sure these kids could never get enough of the beach.

Best part about getting buried in the sand--breaking free!

The result of playing REALLY hard--crazy sleep.

Saying good bye.

It was such a great trip.  Fabulous spending time with all of the family we never get to see enough.  And beautiful exploring the Oregon coast.

Thanks to my in-laws for arranging it all!

Crabby Patty

So, my father-in-law set arranged for us to go "crabbing" one morning with some friends of his.

The boys went first because we couldn't all fit in the boats at the same time, but blogger uploaded them weird, so you'll get to see the boys in the middle.

So excited!

So was I--note the excited stretched out neck I've got going on.

I should have taken a picture of the first cage we pulled up.  It had more like 20 crabs.  But, it was still exciting to pull it up and see even just two of those silly sidewalkers stuck in there.  That's raw chicken in the middle.

 Apparently, crabs love raw chicken.

The boys!  This photo is just so Trey.

That's our brother-in-law and nephew riding in the boat we would go out in later.

Hooray for crabs!

Don't let the happy face fool you--he got pinched by one of those bad boys later on.  It drew blood!  Which he rinsed off in the ocean.  Much to my horror.

This was the other kind of trap.

Just in case you wanted to become super informed about crabbing.  Because, as you can plainly tell from my detailed dialogue, I'm an expert.

Bryce went crabbing too, but he wasn't on Blake's boat, so this is our only photo.  And I think that was Uncle Casey's head who didn't make it into the picture.  Sorry, Uncle Casey!  Thanks for taking care of this Junior Crabber!

Back to our turn!

I loved our Expert Crabber (not a technical term.  I'm pretty sure.)  She was really nice, fun, and super chill.  She even let Kayli drive!

Inspecting the crabs.  See that green thing?  That's a crab measurer.

Just like fish, crabs have to be a certain size to be kept.  The little guys get thrown back.

That, my readers, is Pure Terror Stance.

But, she mustered all of her courage... and touched the crab.

Just chillin' with his bucket o' crabs.

And then you put all of the crabs in a giant bag and the kid who knows what he's doing throws them in a giant steamer.

Nighty Night, crabs!

And then they steam.  And then, I guess they clean them out.  We took hungry and tired children to lunch and then home for naps though, so we missed it.

I don't know how well you can see it, but the kids made a crab out of Kinnex.  Much to the delight of our dinner guests--our friends from the morning.

Here they are.  With all of the crab carnage.

It was seriously so fun catching them!  Too bad I don't like crab...

But, this is how happy Blake looks with a tummy full of crab.

I Get Carried Away

At the end of this post, I want you to think about how many different ways that title applies.  I'm seriously super proud of it.

Turns out that Lincoln City, Oregon is a pretty windy place.

Which is why Blake's dad wasted no time in getting some sweet kites for the kids.  Most of the time on the beach included some fun kite flying, as well.

Can you believe how beautiful?!

The one (and only) drawback to this beach was a severe shortage of seashells.  I'm not sure why, but not many were washed ashore.  The kids were very anxious to get a beautiful collection to take home.  So, Grandma took them way down the beach to find some.

And then Grandpa decided that the kids needed to see some real live tide pools.  This involved quite a bit of leg work.  Literally.

I'm so grateful that my kids have such loving and dedicated grandparents!

This little lady had been off schedule for almost two weeks by this point.  She was tired of being tired.

"What is that?!"

Can you see it now?  It's a purple sea star.

Here's an orange one.  They are not as soft as they look.

See that rock to the right?  Those are barnacles.  That's a lot o' barnacles.

Can you see how much fun the kids are having?

Remember the leg work I mentioned?  This tide pool was a bit of a walk down the beach.  A very very very windy beach.  (And a walk that for some reason made all of my children need to "use the facilities", with nary a facility in sight).  With sand that stung like little bullets.  That made this little princess kind of sad.

 But, this little baby crab I found made this little man pretty happy.

And that is the wind making it appear that he has a strange growth in his belly.

Blake really wanted a photo of those rocks in the back.  And he felt that it was absolutely necessary I be in it, too.

This was the kids' impromptu parking spot for their scooters.  They spent all of their "free time" scootering around.

Yeah.  We miss the beach.