Oregon Part 2 - Lincoln City

After a few days in Salem, we were desperate to cool off and in the Northwest that means only one of a few things, but mostly it means heading west to the coast. Oh, and it was much needed. The cozy fog, the wind with trace amounts of sea salt, the shops with unpredictable hours and of course the fresh seafood... hello halibut and clam chowder!

We finished the day off with s'mores roasted over a bon fire and with all the cousins playing in the sand- complete with copious amounts of sand in their every crevice.

S'mores and sandy crevices... all you could ever want. haha

Memorial Day @ Egin Lake

We have now been living in Idaho for a year now and we would always hear people talking about the "sand dunes". We didn't really pay much attention to it or were even interested in going because we don't have any recreational toys (ATVs, dirt bikes, rock crawlers etc.) so we never made our way over there. Finally on memorial day, we were bored and craving some outdoor time, so we decided to venture over there and see what all the hype was about. Along with Rexburg Rapids, this is another spot I wish we would have taken advantage of more this summer...

You can see some of the sand in the background- this is on the very edge of the sand dunes. Further down are mountains of sand. It was massive! It looked like the Goby desert... no joke! Our friend told us that people get lost all the time, especially once it gets dark and you are completely surrounded by sand and unable to see anything else. Yeahhhh no thanks.

5 weeks old and loving the sunshine and fresh air.

Rainbow Lake

Just a few days after leaving the hospital we decided to brave our first outing. I had been feeling great, still catching up on sleep missed during labor and the hospital stay, but physically feeling good. I felt bad that we hadn't done anything fun while Katie was in town (no Yellowstone, Hot Springs, Bear World etc.), she was pretty much a glorified nanny for Maisie and a maid/chef for the rest of us. So I wanted her to be able to do something fun while she was here. We had made tentative plans that if I hadn't gone into labor by Thursday, we would go paddle boarding, hoping it would help kickstart labor (haha could you imagine a 10 month preggo woman paddle boarding!?) But since Ellie finally decided to come, we obviously didn't follow through on those plans. 

So after our first weekend home and Ellie being only 4 days old, we packed up and headed to Rainbow Lake (it's maybe 5 miles away haha). I sat lake side with my two girls while Austin and Katie paddle boarded. I tried to get pictures of them, but I don't have a decent lens for long distance shots (they were on the other side of the lake where paddle boarding was permitted and the girls and I were on the "beach" side). But I did manage to get a good picture each of both Ellie and Maisie.

Ellie 4 days old

Maisie 4 years old (and her sandcastle)