When the girls were not on the beach, we found some time to spend as a family just reconnecting before the girls head back to school. One of the girls favorite memories of our trips to the Oregon Coast is eating Tillamock ice cream from one of the local coffee & ice cream shops.
In addtion to running the Inn at Manzanita, Grammy and Papa Love also care for a vacation rental in Manzanita. They took the girls for an afternoon swim in the hot tub there. Is it any wonder that Grammy calls the girls her "Little Mermaids"?
Almost two weeks ago, we took a family trip over to the Seattle area for Dave's 20yr high school reunion. We stayed in Bellevue and the girls had a great time pretending to be princesses on our balcony at the Hilton and swimming in the pool. While in town, we were able to visit with Dave's grandparents and Uncle Jim (Charlie's parents and brother). The girls enjoyed the attention as well as the "walking money" that they received from Great Grandpa and Great Uncle Jim. The girls and I took Great Grandma for a little girl time at The Velvet Goose for lunch. Unfortunately distance prevents us from visiting more often but it was great to see them all while we were in town.
Our final day in AZ was spent at Water World Safari with a large group of my family and friends. All of the kids had a great time in the wavepool, lazy river and various water slides. This was a great finale to our summer trip to AZ.
We spent a few days at my parents "cabin" in Crown King. The girls and I enjoyed the change of scenery with all of the various types of cactus on the drive up. Once we arrived, my dad kept the kids busy teaching them blow-darts, fire starting, and quad riding. Kelsie and I took the girls on a quad ride that turned out to be a 12 mile excursion around Towers Mtn. We tried to get a nice picture of all of my parents grandkids but this goofy shot was pretty much as good as it gets for this group of kids.
One afternoon my brother, aka Uncle Troy, took us boating on Lake Pleasent. The girls had a great time taking turns with the boys being pulled on "Big Bertha". Once everyone was done tubing, we stopped to let the kids jump off some short cliffs at the lake. Between the lake and the heat, the kids all slept well that night. 
