Beach Bums

Two Saturdays ago we took Elise for her first trip to the beach! I must start out by clarifying that in our part of the world "beach" is synonymous with coast/ocean. I've recently discovered that many folks in the middle part of the U.S. call lakes or rivers the "beach." I checked with a friend from Michigan, and she said that she's always called anywhere with sand the "beach." Although a dictionary search revealed her interpretation of the word to actually be the most full and accurate usage based on definition, I still choose to believe that only the ocean is the "beach." And one of the multiple dictionary definitions is " the area adjacent to a seashore" so I choose to remain narrow-minded in my definition. Everywhere else can be referred to by it's "proper" name (i.e. river, lake, stream, creek, etc.) End rant.

So we took Ellie to our favorite Oregon Coast town, Cannon Beach. We live close enough to take a day trip, which is exactly what we did. When we first arrived, we fed Ellie in the car and then walked through about half of the shops before lunch.

We had our favorite pizza at our favorite pizza shop for lunch. Then we walked through the rest of the shops after lunch (and managed to not buy a single thing). We then took Ellie down to see the actual beach. We set up our blanket in a section of sand where people were nicely spread out. Ellie then ate her first "picnic" on the beach.

My mom and brothers were just getting to Cannon Beach that day for a week-long trip to the conference center there. So they met up with us on the beach and took a few pictures for us. Then we walked up to the park (after dropping off our blanket in the car) where the oldest of my younger brothers, Kenny, got to hold Ellie for the first time. She was fussy because of the sunshine so he didn't hold her long, but she definitely loves her uncle.

We all then walked to Bruce's Candy Kitchen, the best candy store in the world (at least as far as salt water taffy is concerned - and they sell it online now!). There we bought a year's worth of salt water taffy (because of the amount of money we spent not because it will actually last us a year...we only have a few pieces left).

We ended our trip with coffees from our favorite coffee shop and got on the road just in time for Ellie to take a nice long nap. So much fun!

Her first look at the beach.

Kit trying on my hat since he forgot to bring one. (He took this picture of himself to see how it looked. He then promptly took the hat off. Hehe.)

First picnic!

Yummy.

Two happy parents.

I love that guy.

Our attempt at a family photo.

A little fussy.

Just chillin'.

Ah, this is the life.

Actual family photo.