To the beach!

In mid-October I attended a conference in Newport and we decided to have a beach weekend after that.  So Jay and Wren met me at the coast and we traveled south to Yachats. I had never been to Yachats before - a cute little town.  We stayed in a....quaint...motel that was walking distance to pretty much everything Yachats had to offer.  We happened to arrive during the Mushroom Festival weekend and the farmer's market and local restaurants were all participating.  We had no agenda for the weekend which is so nice!  We had great timing on the weather as well - sunny skies at the Oregon Coast - what luck!! 

On Saturday morning we visited a local bakery, Bread and Roses, and met two gentleman who were biking down the coast, taking their time, with the only plan to be in San Diego before Christmas.  Jay enjoyed talked specifics with them over pastries....and a cookie!  We visited the playground and the market and went down to the beach.  Wren loved playing in the sand and drawing pictures.  She did not want to the touch the water!  We saw a lot of sea anemones in the tide pools and watched a few daring surfers.  We tried out a second bakery, the Green Salmon - for lunch and yum!  They had good coffee and a very sweet and delicious maple covered croissant.  Jay and Wren shared the turkey sausage sandwich, but Wren hogged all the sausage!  For another meal we tried the Luna Sea Fish House.  Jay and Wren approved of the fish tacos!  I opted for a seafood-free burrito and it was pretty good. 

We drove south a short ways to Cape Perpetua in the afternoon and took a short little hike.  The views of the ocean were amazing! 

We liked the Green Salmon so much that we stopped back in before we left and hit up the playground one more time.  We circled our walking path of Yachats again before loading up to go home.  We left at the perfect time because the fog rolled in on Sunday morning, but once we headed inland the skies were bright once again! 

Pre-trip ponytail - a rare sighting on Wren

Daddy got a ponytail, too!

Not sure who this Mat person is.....

Cape Perpetua.  We never take couple pictures anymore!

A snake!  Can you see it?

All sand drawings courtesy of Wren H. Well

Ears make great handles!

Me and my gal!

Tiny hands in tiny sands

It's Fall!

Fall is here!  That means it's getting cold and the leaves are falling!  Oy, so many leaves.  We have taken many loads of leaves out to the street for pick up and the two big Sweet Gum trees in our front yard are still dropping them!  Wren has had a lot of fun playing in leaf piles in our yard and her buddy Geneva has even gotten in on the action. 

Wren was visited by her Opa and Oma (Larry and Dorothy) earlier this fall as well and they brought a pumpkin with!  Which was great since we missed our pumpkin picking opportunity at the pumpkin patch. Dorothy brought the pumpkin and carving tools and Wren helped pull out the gooey seeds and color the pumpkin.  We enjoyed the roasted seeds shortly after and the little jack-o'-lantern sat on our doorstep until very recently!  

Where's Wren?

Reading with Opa - the way to win Wren over is to read to her. Gets her every time!

Reading with Oma

Pumpkin carving!!!!

Pumpkin Patch! (a bit overdue...)

Back a while ago, you know, before Halloween, we took a trip with our friends Anne and Geneva to Airlie Hills Farm in Monmouth.  The girls had a great time, especially in the Hay Maze.  When we arrived at a dead end the girls would jump and dance.  Jay went back 3 or 4 times and had us time him. He made it through in an amazing time....too bad I waited so long to write this and forgot!  We went on a tractor ride and had a lot of trips down the slides.  We finished our visit with a big bag of caramel corn and some cider.  We will definitely go back next year and try everything again. They typically have a 5 acre corn maze but a crazy rain and wind storm earlier this fall destroyed all of the work that had already been done.  So we will look forward to next time!

Being cute with a river otter statue downtown

Moms and babes

Filtering wheat berries through her hands. But it looks like she's begging for food!

Tractor ride!

Dead end dance!!!

She was pooped and had to take a break in the middle of the maze

 

Funny enough, we didn't even take a pumpkin home with us!

Hoppy Halloween!

From our little green and speckled frog. 

2 Today!

Happy Birthday to our little Sweetie.  We love you, Wren!  

A little interview from Wren's Birthday Eve

A Quick Trip!

With Wren's birthday just around the corner (literally, like in less than 9 hours now!) we decided to take a trip to visit my sister in Las Vegas.  Children under the age of 2 fly free as a lap child and we took advantage!  We flew to Vegas on Saturday the 5th and had an amazing flight.  We got the very front row seat with the extra leg room and Wren was a perfect girl for us.  She loved the peanuts we got as a snack and enjoyed flipping through the in-flight magazine multiple times.  

During our stay Wren had a great time playing with her cousins, lounging at a cabana, swimming, drawing, checking out a nature preserve and going to a pumpkin patch. On Monday night Jay and I were lucky enough to get a date night away and had a nice dinner at the fanciest restaurant I have ever been to.  Aunt Liz put Wren to bed for us and we really appreciated the time away for a late anniversary celebration.  

Our flight home on Tuesday wasn't quite as great as the original flight.  A few days of being off schedule made for a cranky Wrengirl but she fell asleep by the time we left the airport parking lot.  We were happy to come home and get ready for Wren's birthday coming up on 10/10!  

Uncle Jay and Baby Landon

 

Banana Cheers!

Adorable floaties that didn't even make it into the water

It took some trickery but she got in!

 

Chalk Fairy

 

Bunny love at Springs Preserve

Jay can jump as far as a bobcat!!

Slidin' at McKee Ranch

 

Carting her bounty around the ranch

Borrowed boots

 

Don't mess with this little rider!

Riding off into the sunset