Even More Seaside Fun

Gun safety at its finest. Even at an arcade, this made me nervous.

Enough of us posted this photo on Instagram (#seaside) that it ended up on the homepage for the city of Seaside for a few days. The kids thought they were famous, and could not have been more pleased about it. I suggested the adults all pose for a similar pic in our swimwear. We never did get that picture taken.

Can you see his determination to eat ALL the sand?

Cutest. Beach. Bum.

Bonfire on the beach. (Bonfire not pictured.)

Staring at our campfire. (Again, not pictured. The fire, ironically, was bad for photo lighting.)

The view from the lobby of the condos. I got to lounge on a deckchair by the pool for a bit because it was so beyond overcast one morning I knew not even I could get sunburned. Huge heated pool, two hot tubs, and then the ocean. That's the life right there.

More Seaside Fun

You may have noticed that I skipped from Sunday to Tuesday on the entries below, and that's because we did a lot of things on our Seaside days repeatedly and I'm too lazy to try to go back and group things by which pictures were taken which days. Partly because we're wearing the same clothes in tons of the pictures. Early on in the trip, the kids discovered these hoodies at a "value" shop and were delighted to spend some of their souvenir money on sweatshirts. It was $9.99 very well spent for them, and they were able to spend the rest of their souvenir money on other things they wanted - which turned out to be a charm bracelet for Dahlia and bonus fudge for Mickey. 

I think Jason would have spent A LOT more time playing this ball-rolling game if he also hadn't had to pay a quarter per round for the kids. He and his brothers are seriously contemplating renting a strip mall space somewhere for this game. They think they'd be able to retire early if they can find enough tourists with money to burn in Salt Lake. And they might be right. It's pretty addicting.

Fudge and an ocean sunset on the promenade.

The water in Seaside is cold - but worth it.

We ate at this bagel place a couple of mornings. One, because their bagels were really yummy. And, two, because Bella thought the bagel man was summer Santa Claus and it was just so cute that we let her keep on believing that.

Bumper cars is another business the Torgerson brothers are looking into. We got a little obsessed with these. The pictures where Jason is trying to video the bumper cars with his GoPro make me laugh. He looked like a moron. But he did get some fun video.

I'm not as young as I used to be, and I couldn't stomach the Tilt-a-Whirl. But the kids loved it.

Arcade fun. Tyson spent most of his life savings trying to beat the high score on this basketball game. He got pretty close until he realized he was shooting at the machine with the highest score and he easily could have beat the high score on any of the other machines. And then he decided it wasn't worth it to keep trying.

This guy in the gray shirt was at the bumper cars every time we were. It got to be quite the family joke, how he must just live at the bumper cars. But he was staying at the same condos as us, and I noticed him in the pool with his grandkids, who were all pretty young. I decided he must have heard us every time we decided to go to the little shops (we're a big group and let's face it, a bit obnoxious) and just followed us there hoping we'd end up at the bumper cars, which we typically did. Because we were a lot more fun at the bumper cars than his young grandkids would have been. I don't blame him for stalking us. I probably would have done the same thing.

Tillamook Tuesday

On Tuesday, we took a drive up (down?) the coast to Tillamook, home of the world's best cheese and ice cream, and therefore one of my favorite places on the planet. The views along the coast and the little lake outside Tillamook are not bad either. Not bad at all.

I was on the short list of people Theo got to spend time with his first year of life. After he was born at 25 weeks and spent his first months in the NICU, his parents were understandably choosy about who got to see the little guy. But if you know me, you know that if I have a super cute preemie nephew, I will be on the list of people who get to hold him. In fact, I will BE the list if necessary. So I was delighted to be able to take Theo on his first tour of a cheese factory, including the tasting table, which he loved. And, full disclosure, his parents were inches away taking video of the whole experience, so I had full permission to be feeding him large amounts of cheese.

This was not a candid shot, by the way. This is Jason posing for a picture of him and Dahlia eating the world's best grilled cheese. And yes, I did think it was funny he wore a bright orange cheese shirt to Tillamook.

Theo's actual parents. Whatever.

Slugbug Van full of cousin cuteness. Can you tell Mick was annoyed with all the family fun at this point? Hehe. Sometimes it's hard to be the oldest cousin.

This pic is for my friend Ashlee, who collects pictures of libraries like some people collect shot glasses. After ice cream at Tillamook, we drove to Cannon Beach. When we got there, we tried to park in the library parking lot which, ironically, became Mickey's favorite memory of the trip and Dahlia's least favorite memory of the trip. Cannon Beach was weirdly crowded for a Tuesday afternoon, and parking was at a premium. We were patiently waiting for two (significantly older) ladies to pull out of their spot, but the driver was a little nervous about the tight quarters and started yelling at Jason about arrows and directions and such. For the record, there were arrows in both directions, there was plenty of space, and even I wasn't nervous about anyone hitting anyone else's car. But... things got a little heated. I wish I had video of Jason throwing the van in park, jumping out of the car, and the kids shrieking in the background like the world was coming to an end. Embarrassed by the crying children and his wife who was laughing hysterically at an elderly lady flipping Jason the bird, Jason got back in the van and we found a little street-side parking spot far, far away. The kids were nervous the whole time we were in Cannon Beach that we would run into That Lady again, and Jason was secretly hopeful we would, but we didn't. And hopefully we never do, because I'm pretty sure Jason will remember her face until the day he dies. Perhaps longer.

Anyway... we had a lovely walk out to Haystack Rock (aka Goonies rock) and a very pleasant afternoon. 

Jason took this incredible picture of Haystack Rock, which I'm hoping to get printed large enough to go over the loveseat in our living room. Because it is perfection. And we also got one of my other favorite pics of the trip, when Jason's sister called for directions while we were trying to get a nice family picture AND HE ANSWERED. It's very modern, very 2018. And it cracks me up every time.

Can you hear me now??? Good.