Back in June,
my parents,
all 3 of my brothers and their
respective families,
and my family,
all gathered in Lincoln City, Oregon
in a house right on the beach.
And it was AMAZING.
Such a fun time together.
Let us reminisce:
Everyone but Jake and Caree
came to Salem first on Saturday.
They saw our apartment
and went to church with us on Sunday.
Heather and I were really excited
to see each other.
Kyle was forced to come along.
Look at my adorable niece, Charlotte!
So Sunday was Father's Day.
It had been a pretty long time
since we'd all been together,
let alone all together on Father's Day.
So the boys and I performed a
very special one time only reunion
of the lip-syncing of "Grapefruit Diet"
by Weird Al.
We stuffed our pants and shirts
with pillows and gave it our all.
It was fun :)
We love our dad!!
And Kale just needs to be a part
of everything.
We don't mind.
Nana gave the grandkids new P.J.'s!
And of course we played cards.
Every night.
Until it was way passed our bedtimes.
I don't know what I'm saying here,
but it must have been amazing.
Naturally.
And then it was time for Ellory's birthday!!
She wasted no time getting
to some presents:
Kale and Ellory love each other a lot:
Kale picked out her present by himself.
He got her Doc McStuffins Duplo Legos.
Cousins!
And then my kids got
sucked in to the T.V.
Just hangin with my girls:
While Ellory napped,
everyone but me and Tyler and Ellory
went down to the beach.
The water was a little chilly....
Time for more presents!!
While we were waiting to open them,
Ellory spread them all around
the room.
Charlotte is a doll!
Read that Whinnie the Pooh book, Dain.
Ellory got a couple of cards
from her Raff cousins that sang songs
when you opened them.
Those songs were stuck in our
heads the whole week.
Nothing is better than having Jake
suddenly start singing
a Doc McStuffins song.
Nana gave Ellory a little picnic basket
that came with some play food inside.
And she made Uncle Kyle play with her.
Time for cake!
I made my mom's famous chocolate cake
and made Ellory her own little one:
Dig in:
Birthday beach walk:
Kale was looking for little treasures:
Welcome to the Hike from Hell.
It wasn't a difficult hike physically.
It was horrible because a certain
little 2 year old refused to
walk on her own,
refused to stop screaming,
and refused to be held by anyone but her mom.
Can you guess who???
The hike ended by this waterfall:
And you are above the waterfall on this
trippy suspension bridge.
It was really cool.
The only time Ellory was happy and running
around on her own,
was running back and forth across the scary
suspension bridge.
That girl.
Needless to say,
she and I weren't exactly friends for
a little bit after that.
And we were pretty tired when
we got back to the beach house:
We all took turns cooking dinner,
which I thought was fun
and a really good idea.
Here are Jake and his girlfriend, Caree,
cooking on their night.
It was delicious!
Ellory watching Home on the ipad
and cuddling with good old Uncle Dain.
Time for some beach time!
It really wasn't very warm,
but we still had a blast.
Tyler rocking the skimboard:
Nana brought kites for the kids:
Good old Pop-Pop!
We built lots of fun sandcastles:
Pop-Pop was especially good at it:
There was a fun little loft area in the house.
Kale loved it up there!
Nana is fun to read books with :)
Athletic Trainer in the house!
Tyler worked on Dain for a bit.
Dain only cried a little.
Look how awesome Kyle looks:
I misjudged a wave and Ellory
got SOAKED.
Poor girl.
She took it like a champ though!
We had a fire on the beach.
It was SOOOO nice to have
Kyle got a little dramatic....
We made s'mores and banana boats.
YUM.
Kale got buried too!
Uncle Dain!!
The basement had an air hockey table.
That's pretty much all Kale wanted to do :)
Tyler did this with the Scrabble board:
I like it :)
On our last day we went to Tillamook
and Dain, Kyle, Heather and I ran
in their 10K!
Here's the helicopter in case something
went terribly wrong...
We did it!
Dain finished 3rd overall.
Amazing.
There was a fun little obstacle course
Kale did.
Like a boss.
We pretend to be runners!
(Except Dain. And Kale).
Mom rocking the baby carrier:
My dad help me get ready for this 10K.
He gave me weekly workouts and
we would talk about how I was feeling
and what my goals were and such.
And we would text and we came up
with some really fun hashtags.
My dad is a hashtag king.
It was really fun and I'm really glad
we got to do it!
#coachandfave
We were able to get some family
pics with Heather's camera.
This is my dad in a nutshell:
Love my little boy!!
Uncle Jake!!!
My adorable little family:
Kyle, Heather and Charlotte!
Jake and Caree.
Too cute.
Mom and Dad and Dain.
Good lookin crew.
And that was it!
Well at least that's all the pictures.
We did a whole lot of fun things
and it was just really wonderful
to be together.
And even better that my family only had
a little over an hour drive back home.
Haha!
