A beach in Oregon

We've been having some cooler weather around here, which I find refreshing after the heat in Washington and even here when we got back from our vacation.

However the mosquitoes are crazy bad this year!  I guess all the standing water from the slow melt this spring caused an itchy nightmare for us humans.

Anyway, whenever the outdoors here is a little painful, it makes me think of our little trip to Washington.  We had such a nice time being outside without the constant assault of mosquitoes.  

We ate a lot of our meals outdoors while the kids played either inside or out.

 

 We spent an awesome weekend with Dave's brother and his family in Tillamook, Oregon.

I just love these two guys ♥ 

This is the blissful view we got to look upon while eating.  It feels like peace itself to see it.

We got to attend the Tillamook June Dairy Parade, which was fun

The parade got started with a showing from the cheese factory.  We adore Tillamook Cheese and Ice Cream, so everyone was excited to see their display.

After the parade, we got some lunch and then they took us to the beach.  We haven't been to see the ocean for a couple of years and so we were all looking forward to it.  They took us to a beautifully secluded beach.  It was quite a walk to get there, but it was more than worth it.

 

So beautiful!

I adore this huge piece of driftwood.  Amazing.

It was a great landing space for all of our gear that was lovingly and masterfully packed by my sister-in-law.  I was completely inept at getting any good photos of her the whole weekend!  I will remedy that on our next trip.

Lydia slept the whole walk and most of the time at the beach (thank heavens I threw my wrap in the car...my arms couldn't have done it)

I was so excited for her to get to experience the water and sand, but she wouldn't get out of the wrap.  37lbs of pure sweetness was riding on me that day. 

 

The kids played like crazy in the water.  It was surprisingly warm for NW ocean water. 

 

The guys played some football

 

 

We had a really cool experience when a WWII era plane flew over us while we were out there.  The kids and Daddy's were waving at him.  

It was an F4F Wildcat.  This is the same type of airplane that was on the carrier the guys' grandfather worked on in WWII.  The USS Saratoga was one of the ships that happened to not be docked at Pearl Harbor that fateful day.

The next thing we know, we see this!

SO RAD!!

I'm nearly done with posts from our trip, but the reminiscing is too fun to give up just yet.  More to come.