The Bryans Do Oregon Part 2

This was the beach down from our little cottage.

The kids spent some time exploring and I enjoyed a pleasant walk by myself on Sunday.

We celebrated Merill's birthday a day late.

We all gathered at their cottage to eat and have cake and ice cream.

I missed the actual moment of the candles...but you get the idea :)

Ben made himself comfortable on the floor with his iPad...

The next morning Andy took the older kids along with everyone else on a sea expedition.  We were worried about how Ben would do on the boat so I stayed at the house with him.

Our cute matriarch...

They all went and ate at Mo's afterward...

Ben and I took a stroll through the community and I had to grab some pictures of the gorgeous hydrangeas...

...and honeysuckle :)

That evening we all gathered at Merill and Nancy's again and had dinner and took a family picture.

We were only missing two grandkids in the picture...both on missions...Katie and Zach.

The next (early) morning, Matt and Andy went deep sea fishing with some of the other more adventurous group members.

Matt ended up a little green around the gills and apparently he was not the only one.  Out of the 8-10 kids that went, there were only 1 or 2 that didn't get sick and a couple of the adults' stomachs weren't too happy either.  They ended up coming back about an hour earlier than planned.  Matt said he was glad he went even though he had been so sick.

(We {those who enjoy seafood} had crab-fest for lunch that day)

That evening we all went out to eat in Depoe Bay and then we swung around by the lighthouse on the way back to Bella Beach.  Abby and Josh walked down to the black rock beach with me.

The best part about this beach is the sound the rocks make as the waves roll over them and back out to sea.  Love it!

It was the fourth of July so we all gathered again and opted for some early sparklers instead of late fireworks on the beach during high tide :)

Ben with the boys...

The Bryans Do Oregon 2017

It's about time I catch up a bit :)

End of June...
We picked up and headed out of town just shortly after Abby got back from girl's camp.

She was exhausted and a bit ornery (sorry Abs but 'tis true).

The first 30-45 minutes on the road she told us all about her adventures and then promptly fell asleep...after insisting that she is never able to sleep in the car :)

Ben also zonked as we drove north.

He's still getting used to a booster seat instead of a car seat.

We drove all day long and the kids were champs!

We stopped in Pendleton Oregon for the night and the next morning drove into the Columbia River Gorge...

Bonneville Fish Hatchery

Splashing in the water with cousins...

Ben checked out the funny metal bird...

When we walked under the bridge to get to Multnoma Falls a train passed right overhead.  It was incredibly loud but we thought Ben would be excited to see a real live train.  We couldn't get him to look at it but Andy sure enjoyed it :)

I took the older kids up to the falls while Andy stayed down with Ben.

It was so packed up on the bridge...

...but we finally got a turn to take pictures in front of the falls.

We came down to find Ben asleep in Andy's arms.

Since we had just been there two summers earlier we didn't feel like we had to spend too much time being tourists.

We had more driving to do so we hopped back on the road and arrived at the coast early evening.

This was our cute little house (Breeze on Inn) for a few days.

We stayed at Bella Beach just north of Depoe Bay.

It was such a quaint little neighborhood.

The view from the balcony off of Abby's room.

Grandma Bryan thought of everything and brought trains for Ben to line up and keep him happy.

That evening while Andy went into Lincoln City to pick up some dinner, and Ben lined up his trains, the other kids played some games and I cuddled up with a book.

It felt good to be out of the car and be able to relax.

Fathers

For Father's Day I made a sign for Andy that included a few of the many sayings of which he likes to remind us, his family.

I debated which technique to use to transfer the words.  After experimenting a bit I ended up rubbing pencil lead on the back of the printed paper and lightly tracing the outline of the words onto the boards.

Then I just used a paint pen/marker to draw directly on top of the pencil marks and fill in the letters on the boards.

The guys of the family on Father's Day.

Love them all SO much!

Abby experienced her first Girls Camp this summer!

Wow was she excited and wow did she have a great time.

And speaking of Fathers...

Andy was asked to speak at a devotional one day so we were both able to go up and hang out with the girls for a bit.

The idea or theme of the devotional was how we can each beat our own Goliaths.

Their cute leader Katie had made 4 large Goliaths

After Andy spoke for 20-30 minutes about how, through our Savior we can overcome our trials and

problems in life (he did a great job by the way)...

...the girls were split up into different groups...

...and using slingshots, chucked paintballs at the Goliaths.

It was such a cool idea and girls had a lot of fun with it!