More on Rockaway

I was too tired last night to do anything more than the slideshow. I'm feeling refreshed after sleeping in our own bed, even though my shower this morning was less than satisifying (you'll understand in a second).
Here are some of my favorite things from our trip:

• showers at the Carl's beach house-- the water pressure is truly amazing. We've tried, unsuccessfully, to emulate it at our house, even bought the same shower head and everything
• Kari joyfully jumping in the waves with anyone who would go with her
• Joel literally gagging when his hands got sandy on the beach
• Kari "fishing" off the dock at the lake-- I think Grandpa started something here
• Aubrey going to sleep by 7pm most nights
• going to the Air Museum, learning some history, and watching our kids play "pilot"
• Tillamook ice cream waffle cones--finally got my German chocolate cone on our way out of town. Yum!
• Grandpa's beef "steaks" that weren't--he said someday it will make a good sermon illustration, so you may hear more on that later
• watching all of our family love and play with our kids all week--it's hard work keeping up with them, and we sure appreciated you all. As Brian noted, every activity you come up with only lasts 20-30 minutes before they're ready to move on and do something else. There are so many 30 minute increments in a day!
• finally winning the dice game--10,000
• playing Settlers almost every night
• Joel just being funny little Joel-boy and making me laugh just by looking at me with his impish little grin
• feeding the seagulls with the kids and Grandpa--the birds got pretty aggressive and hovered a few feet from Joel and Kari as the kids alternated throwing and taking bites of the bird food (bread)
• having lots of time to hold and play with my baby

We had some unfavorite times, too, such as the hours spent trying to get our two older kids to sleep in a new place the first couple nights, the multiple lengthy meltdowns/tantrums by our overly-tired and sugar-highed eldest child, excessive whining from our overly-tired 2-year-old, and our fogged-in weather the last couple days, but overall, the good far outweighed the bad. We really had a great time with my family.

Now it's time to gear up for beach trip #2 with Greg's family in a couple days. (It just worked out that way this year.) This time we're headed to Seaside, a different beach. Better get to that laundry. Packing this time will be a breeze.