Lincoln City

Yesterday we dragged our tired family down to Lincoln City, Oregon. Baby Liam decided that he didn't think that sleeping was such a great idea, so poor Josh and Hayley had a pretty rough night of it. We stopped in at Elephant's Deli in Portland for lunch on the way through. When we got back onto the freeway we kind of wished that we hadn't. Traffic was horrible. We ended up taking a different route, which I'm not sure was any better. Needless to say what was supposed to be a 2 hour drive took us almost 5. We were sure happy when we pulled up to our beach home.

We spent the rest of our Friday evening doing what we usually do on Friday nights - eating pizza and watching a movie. It's always nice to do your regular things somewhere else though and the kids enjoyed the surround sound. Poor Spenser found himself in bed as soon as we got there though. He had a pretty good fever and so was quarantined from the rest of us.

This morning we headed down to the playground for a while before making our way over to the beach. The weather wasn't exactly the type of beach weather that you might want, but hey this is the Oregon coast. We didn't really expect any different.

The kids had a lot of fun playing on the playground

Thomas pulling up the load

Such sweethearts

Olivia

Zach enjoyed swinging

Mum, Josh, and Liam

Liam finally made it out and about.

He has had a difficult adjustment.

Auntie Hayley giving a needed push

There was a nice grassy area over near the playground. Spenser had taken a soccer ball down there with him so we decided to have a quick game. It got pretty competitive (especially with the Hayley cheats in our family). I was glad to have Hayley on my team since she's never afraid to play dirty if it means winning. She even gave Thomas a good shove along the way.

Zach wasn't too keen on us playing so this is

how he tried to stop play!

Once everyone started crying about how Hayley was a cheat and how they couldn't score a goal we decided that leaving for the beach was our best chance for family unity.

Olivia scooping out a good sandcastle building spot

Contemplating

Grandpa was there to help with some building

It was pretty windy for some

I know that you're wondering where you

can get hair like that too!

Sisters and baby

Zach loved shoveling in the dirt of course

Grandma also gave a helping hand

Playing in the sea

It was a beautiful sandy beach

Here they are trying to dodge the waves

That face tells me it was cold!

That face tells me that the waves got her!

Showing off the castle

Josh managed to devise some kind of game that involved sticks and running up the beach. I think that the kids put in their sticks and then grabbed them before the waves could. Whatever they were up too it kept them entertained.

With his sticks

Running away

That afternoon we left Spenser with the kids for a while and we headed down to the outlets and then to the grocery store. After dinner there of course had to be some time in the hot tub.

Hot tubing is a family favorite!

That evening we had lots of tired people lying around

The only thing to do at the end of the day when you're staying at the beach is to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa with some chocolate biscuits (cookies).