bre visit, part 2

We wanted to take Breanna to our favorite vacation spot -- Oregon Coast!

We went to our favorite little place in Seaside, where the beach is right outside our door.

It was a little chilly -- as is typically the case on the coast in the Northwest.

Brooklyn was pretty fascinated by her footprints.

She loved running around on the beach..

...and hanging out with Breanna.

Grey skies, waves, and cute girls.

:)

Seaside will always be one of our favorite places to be as a family.

We brought some sand toys to play with.

Dinosaurs!

It got more and more chilly and windy though -- this is not California!

Brrrr!

We walked along the boardwalk to Seaside's main street...

...where we stopped at a carousel. Brooklyn is getting better at not being scared!

Later in the evening we drove down to Cannon Beach for a quick visit to see Haystack Rock and one of our favorite restaurants in the area. It was rainy and cold!

The next morning it was time to leave -- hard to say goodbye to a view like this from your room!

We drove south to...

Tillamook!

We liked reading about their famous cheddar cheese and watching the cheese get cut and packaged.

Of course we had to eat at the cafe. Their grilled cheese sandwiches are really good... but Austin thinks he might be better. :)

Can't leave without ice cream! Brooklyn wanted "pink" flavored.

Awwww.

We drove east to Portland, where we made an impromptu stop at the Pittock Mansion...

...which has this spectacular view of the city.

We had arranged to meet up with Austin and Breanna's cousins Megan and Jessica, along with Megan's two girls and Jessica's husband Cody. We all got together at one of our favorite Portland stops -- Powell's bookstore.

Olive and Brooklyn were great reading buddies!

We went out for Thai food together and then stopped by a cool local ice cream parlor called Salt & Straw -- they had lots of eclectic flavors. The ones we tried were pretty tasty.

It was so fun to be together with family!

The next morning we were headed home via Battle Ground, WA but we had to stop at Portland's famous donut shop! Austin got their trademark bacon maple bar. So good.

We had a pizza picnic with Mitch and Jennifer and Megan and Jessica and Olive and Rosemary. It was so fun to watch the little girls play together.

The kids had fun trying to make giant bubbles and playing with a nerf rocket launcher.

We walked down to the river, where the big kids had fun trying to throw stones at a large rock about 50-60 feet out into the river. We had so much fun visiting and playing with Mitch and Jen and family!

The next day it was time to take Breanna back to the airport. We had such a good time with her. We had a fun time doing lots of things, but most of all we loved being together as family. It was great creating memories and we are excited for the next time we get to see Bre -- she's got a little buddy who sure misses her!