Beach weekend!

We took a long weekend over the 4th to catch up with friends of ours whom we met when we were living in California.  Sam and Amy moved to Virginia a fews years ago and Jay visited them when their daughter was 9 months old.  They were making their way to the Northwest, family in tow, and let us be a part of their weekend!  We met up in Portland on Thursday for a wonderful greeting with Sam, Amy, Corinna (age 2.5) and Elliot (age 0.417) and drove out to the beach near Seaside.  Jay's Dad, Larry, and his lovely bride, Dorothy, were so kind as to host us for the weekend at their beautiful home.  Even sweeter was getting to celebrate their 10th anniversary with them!
  On Friday, my sister and John came to the beach with Karsyn to visit for the day.  We all went down to the beach for some play time and Corinna worked on making little sand castles.  We enjoyed a lot of catching up time, drawing on the kitchen chalkboard, and a few walks on the beach, even though the weather was quite variable for us.   Saturday took us to Astoria where we climbed the stairs of the Astoria Tower.  Corinna climbed every step up and down by herself (well, with a little assistance from her Dad's hand) and when she came out she said (in her super adorable little voice) "Let's do it again, Daddy!"
  On the 4th Sam's family rose early to cheer him on in the Gearhart Fun Run!  Jay was there to play photographer (I slept in!!).  Sam came in 2nd place - pretty awesome for someone who didn't know about the run until 2 days before and wasn't sure he was actually going to participate until the night before!  A very cool thing about Gearhart's July 4th celebrations is the parade, which is open to anybody!  Larry and Dorothy's neighbors had a great pedal dump truck that Larry decorated.  Corinna rode in the truck while we all walked along.  This is the first parade I've been in since High School with my marching band compadres and I can say with 100% certainty that it's much nicer to walk a parade route in normal clothes as opposed to a wool band uniform complete with suspenders!!
  When Monday rolled around we said our goodbyes.  The time flew by and we hope the next time we see Sam, Amy, and the kids will not be too far off.  Jay drove Larry's truck down to Corvallis to use in our yard projects - we are very grateful to get to borrow the pickup along with a pressure washer and some very helpful yard tools!
  Here are a few snapshots of our great Independence Day Weekend 2010!