"He's a keeper!" --Kim Roberts

This past week we had the opportunity to go with our friends the Roberts' on their annual Oregon Coast vacation. So last Friday we flew into Portland and drove to Cannon Beach. It is so beautiful there and dare I say, we were cold much of the time! It was seriously a sauna to come home.

Anyway, the first day we went into Seaside and went to the little shops there (and also the outlets!). Those who know Nate can just imagine his excitement about shopping, but he was a good sport......and there were lots of samples for him and CJ (ok and me too) to enjoy. That night we built a fire on the beach. I really think the campfire smell, smells different there.

Saturday we drove down the coast and stopped at a crabbing place just to see how it all worked. So we decided to rent a boat (CJ was the captain and Nate was the puller) and went and caught a TON of crabs.........seriously I think there were about 80. We 'crabbed' for a couple of hours and then brought the ones that were big enough to keep and went back to the dock. They they showed us how to clean them and cooked them and then we enjoyed. YUM!!!

Then we went on to Tillamook and took a tour of the cheese factory there. Of course we had an ice cream and I saw some people with BYU shirts on and it made me feel right at home. (Don't worry I told them that I really enjoyed their shirts).

That night we went to a play. We were a little bit late, but somebody at the back opened the door for us. We saw these cookies sitting right at the front and CJ asked if he could have a cookie and then took a couple into the play to enjoy. So of course I followed his example and took some for Nate and I. During intermission he went out to get another cookie and found out that they were $1 each. Ooops, we had stolen the cookies.

The next day was Sunday so we went to church in Seaside. There were LOTS of visitors (probably like Bear Lake or Island Park in the busy seasons). We drove on the beach and went to an old ship wreck. I made (those who know him really know that I MADE him to this--good thing he loves me!) Nate pose like on Titanic (too bad we were solo), it would have been better to be on there together.



Then we went up north to Astoria and saw the house were goonies was filmed. We tried to get Nate to do the, "truffle shuffle", but he wouldn't. Party pooper. We also went to the Astoria column and saw a beautiful view. That night we got goonies and watched it, just to make sure that was the actual house. Don't worry, it was.







At the "goonie house" we thought we heard sea lion barks so we drove down to the dock and found them. Nate was trying to get as close as he could (I am pretty sure we weren't supposed to go down there) and there was one at the front of the group or pack or whatever that was very protective. He would get up from his rest and scoot over to Nate barking the whole way, Nate had to run back a couple of times. It was good times. Kim missed it as she was on the phone, but she did "strike a pose" for the camera

The next day we rented some bikes and went on a long bike ride up to Ecola State Park. It was beautiful and quite the workout getting our beach cruiser bikes up the winding mountain road (but it felt good!) It was gorgeous up there and it felt so good to ride back down the mountain!

We ate LOTS of great seafood. Nate and I went running on the beach 2 of the mornings. Nate pretty much would run sprints and then slow down and wait for me to catch up and then run sprints again. We would go to the different tide pools and look at all the little ocean critters. There were lots and lots of wild life. Nate loves this kind of stuff!

It was so much fun to get away, but we missed our kids and were glad to come home to see them. My mom told me that Kace had a countdown going on when we were coming home. I was kind of surprised at that. Many many many thanks to my mom and dad, Jess and Mac and Mary and Isaac for watching the boys. You guys are the BEST!!