Manzanita Trip 2011 - Part 1

Vacationing in Manzanita has been a part of our relationship from the very beginning in 2000. Over the past 11 years we have made many trips down together, brought along dear friends and made several trips with our wonderful families. Through these trips silly little things have been established as tradition, like stops for Tilamook ice cream (typically something fruity for Kevin and either something chocolaty or sometimes bubble gum for me), visiting the Blue Heron Cheese Co.(originally for the wine and cheese and now for the petting zoo), crab dinners (the fresher the better), salt water taffy (from The Candy Man), and even indulging in a tasty snack of (albeit artery clogging) Con Queso and chips. What pleasure it now brings us to share these traditions and continue making more with our children.

While standing on the beach watching my incredible husband play with our little sweeties, I experienced a flashback of a long walk we once took on Manzanita beach when we were newly engaged, excitedly dreaming of our future together. We painted this cute little picture of coming to the beach with our own children and all of the fun that would be had, only to get to look up and see this playing out before my very eyes. SO AMAZING!!

This trip we had Grandma & Grandpa Stevens and G.G. & Papa Bob join us for our first few days. It was Janie's first trip (special that she started to crawl at the beach house) and Clara is at such a great age to explore and enjoy the beach.

On our first trip down to the actual beach, Janie was asleep in her carrier the whole time. The next trip we were so excited to see her reaction to the sand, with fond memories of Clara's delight during her first time. I guess we must have pushed back her nap a little too far, because we set her down and she started to cry. Poor baby! We tried again the next day and it didn't take her long to figure out that she loves it as much as the rest of us.

We took so many photos during our trip, that the only way to share a fraction of them was to make a Smilebox.

This picture collage generated with Smilebox