Valentines 2008 - Rockaway Beach

Day 2 was a much better day, than day 1 on our Valentine's weekend at the beach. (see Sneaker wave below)

Our dear husbands- Dan, Mark and Gary - decided to make us a fine dinner of chips, salsa, BBQ steaks, fingerling potatoes, coleslaw, brocolli salad and margaritas. It was a true feast. We were able to kick back with our 7 children and have a great time of eating and fun. Our friends are very kicked back (like us) and we enjoyed the time telling stories, laughing and having fun. Thanks for the great memory!

These are the 4 kiddos posing for a picture for us on the rocks. Notice they are dry. :) Lily and Ian are 5, Grant 6 and Paige is 2. We hang out with our friends quite often and they have lots of fun. The beach for 4 days was a big treat.

Our little Valentines!!!!

Here is Gary with 3 of the gang looking at the big waves. They just finished feed those nasty seagulls leftover pancakes. Isn't it amazing how you feed one and the entire sky fills up?

Our Ian (5) enjoying a look at the seagulls hoping he doesn't get poop on his head. :)

Our Grant (6) posing for a beach shot on the rocks. He is becoming very independent.

TRUE VALENTINE LOVE

GC + DC

Every beach trip ends with a beautiful sunset picture taken by Amanda.

Does God do amazing at creating nature for us to enjoy?

SNEAKER WAVE.....

We all learned a lesson about Sneaker waves at the Oregon Coast. We just arrived at the beach about 4pm on Friday. We bundled the kiddos up to take a walk on the beach. We put on boots, heavy coats, gloves, etc. We had our 2 boys and Dan & Amanda had their 3 girls. We found a great spot to climb down to the beach. The water was about 50 feet out. Our boys are attracted to water and tend to run away from us at the beach....Always have... They were headed toward the water. We just barely made it down off the rocks. Gary turned around and yelled, "RUN". Well, the tide caught the kids and us and water went all the way to the rocks. The boys body surfed in, Paige looked like a beach ball, we were soaked and very sandy. We walked back up the cliff and went back to the house. The shortest beach walk ever... maybe 5 minutes total. A lesson well learned? We certainly hope so.

Bestest Buddies - Paige and Ian

Ian Robert clicked with Paige Nicole when she was just a baby. I don't know if it because they are both the second child, but possibly having an older sibling to boss them around they really can understand each other. He decided he would help teach her to walk when she was a toddler. Paige(2 1/2) and Ian (5) are all about fun. They love to laugh and be wild. We had a chance to head to the beach with Everson's in February. They hung out in their favorite chair (above) watching the waves:) It is so fun to have a buddy to hang with.