Yurting at Nehalem Bay State Park

The kids and I took a 4 day trip to Nehalem, Oregon and stayed at Nehalem Bay State Park (thanks for the recommendation Pam!!!) in a yurt (note here...this is the summer of yurts for our family!!!).

Photo of the inside of our yurt. It seemed a bit bigger than the ones we stayed in at Champoeg State park.

...and fancier. This is our first yurt with a mirror AND floor lamp!!! Living the life, yurt style!!!

Brandon tending the grill and making our dinner Monday night!!!

Family Beach shot for 2009 (last year's photo was on Long Beach Washington)

Monday night's sunset....it was worth the wait!

Monday evening's campfire.....we look forward to this time every night!

Tuesday morning...you can see a few of the kids down at the ocean while riders went by on horseback. I went to see about horse rentals, but they are not offering them this year.

Tyler and Sarah

Brandon, Tori and Ryan spent 2 hours straight chatting and standing in the waves.

Ryley skipping rocks on a walk down the beach with me.

Me and the ocean :) Photo by Ryley!!!

This cowboy on horseback took his horse into the waves and kept pace with us while we were walking down the beach.

While the temperature in Portland soared to over 100 degrees, it reached 89 degrees on the beach (unheard of). Ryan and Tori spent a lot of time playing in the water.

Tyler after a swim in the ocean.

Sarah and Ryley staying busy building castles in the sand.

Three military helicopters flew right over the top of us (quite low I may add). Not sure what they were up to flying so low over the beach.

Ryley and Brandon with their moat and castle

Ryan, Tori and Brandon spent 5 hours body surfing in the ocean. Once they got the hang of surfing on the second wave to come in they were hooked!!!

Sarah in her swimsuit on the beach....because it was just that HOT!!!

Tishendorf toes

Ryan and Brandon body surfing still.....

Ryley still trying to reach China

Trying to rescue the sandcastle from the incoming high tide

Sunset on Wednesday night.....it doesn't get any better than this!!!

Wednesday friends came and spent the day on the NOW fogged in beach with temperatures not going over the mid - 70s (brrrrrrr). Above is the Sand "igloo" of the day!

Sarah was tired and had a sunburn that "really really hurt", so she spent most of Wednesday on a blanket napping.

Ryley -- aka "Sandman"

Sarah's beach station...

Twins.....Ryley being buried in the sand by Ryan

Tori's action shot. I have to say we have friends that always take "jump shots" on the beach, and their daughter Lizzy always jumps SUPER high. We decided to catch our height by jumping from one of our chairs.

This is my favorite photo from the weekend. It looks like my friend is pulling the chair out from behind me while I am going to sit down. In reality, she was being kind, holding the chair while I jumped from it. Our photographer caught me landing, instead of in the air though.

Finally....my action shot!!!!

Photo taken by my friend of our family on the beach :)

Ryan jumping from the dunes

Tyler's turn

Ryley's turn

Tori's turn....love the pose

Ummmmm....yeah....that's Tyler....face planting