End of the summer beach time

Greg took a vacation day Friday, and we headed to the beach for the day. We made our way to Rockaway Beach via Tillamook so we could go to the cheese factory, do some sampling, and get our ice cream. We shocked the kids by allowing ice cream before lunch. Little do they know, I'm up for ice cream any time of day.

It was a beautiful, sunny day but windy and not all that warm. We were only on the beach for about three and half hours, just about the right amount of time on the Oregon coast for me. The beach is not my favorite, but I love my kids, and they happen to LOVE the beach and everything that goes with it--the cold wind, the cold water, the messy sand. I hunkered down in my multiple sweatshirts and hoodie (should have brought a winter coat) and had a lot of fun taking pictures of my family while they played and had a blast. I took A LOT of photos, as you can see, and I didn't even post them all. We let the kids play, ate our picnic lunch (along with some sand), let them play some more, and headed home in the late afternoon. It was a good day trip and totally worth it.

(click on the collage to see better)

We'd only been there a few minutes when Grant got knocked over by a little wave. He was NOT happy about it. As you can see, Greg thought it was pretty funny, and it was. :) Grant got over his indignation pretty quickly but didn't venture too far into the water after that.