We feel so fortunate to have enjoyed half of July at our cottage on the Oregon Coast! Our days were spent together with our toes in the sand and the salt air in our lungs. Pretty much the perfect combination for this family!

Cole has been pulling himself up on everything these days!

On one particularly dreamy afternoon we took the kids down to the lake outlet to play. The water level was really low, but it was just perfect for Cole!

Isla was earning all sorts of style points for her fancy jumps into 2 inches of water!

The face of exhaustion!

Then he ate a little more sand and was all smiles!

Morning meditation time on the front porch with Daddo. So sweet! I love that these two share this practice together.

Isla befriended a slow moving bumble bee and spent some time observing it on a clover in the front yard.

Checking in with her barnacle friends.

Wavy and her family joined us for a few days and the girls had an absolute ball together!

Isla and Wavy are both fascinated by the kids’ baking challenge show and have been begging to have their own baking challenge. Cheryl and I set up a cookie making station for the girls and let them create to their hearts’ content! We then did a taste test and “judged” their final cookies. It was great fun!

Squeezing lemons Giada De Laurentiis style!

Later that afternoon we drove down to Newport to explore the Oregon Coast Aquarium!

It was the first trip where Cole was aware enough of his surroundings to enjoy the experience. Inside the tunnels he was absolutely transfixed!

Two of the lowest tides of the entire year occurred during our stay. They both happened to take place early in the morning, so we hauled ourselves out of bed while the sun was rising and made our way down to the beach. The coast was completely socked in and the tide was way out, which gave our familiar shoreline a totally otherworldly appearance.

Looking at our rocks from the west. The ocean is usually where we are standing, and so this is not a common view. It was still a few hundred yards behind me when I took this photo.

The girls had the best finding sand dollars! They were darting back and forth and cheering happily with each sand dollar they found. Altogether we brought in more than 70. Wavy found her first sand dollar (and many more) on this walk, and we enjoyed celebrating her exciting milestone.

The sun came out in the afternoon and this little tide pool was just perfect for the kids to splash around in.

Up again with the sun for the second day of record low tides. Nana Sandy joined us for this walk.

I’m pretty sure the girls managed to jump over or into every puddle on the beach!

Isla: The barnacles are telling me there are more sand dollars around here.

Me: (Looking around and not seeing any sand dollars) Are they buried?

Isla: Yes.

Isla to the barnacles: What’s your strategy to get them out? (Furrows her brow and listens intently) Dig with your hands and feet? Oh, I can do that!

Never a dull moment with this girl and her barnacle friends.

Someone constructed this gorgeous driftwood teepee near the mouth of the river and the girls had a great time playing in it. Within seconds of stepping inside they were busy weaving together an imaginary storyline and magical new identities. Isla harvested “zucchini leaves” outside to prepare a pretend feast.

Nana Jan gifted Isla her first kite and she absolutely LOVED flying it! She walked all the way to the mouth of the river with the kite bobbing above her head. A big thanks to her Nana for buying this on a whim. Perhaps the best $4 ever spent!

We celebrated our 12th anniversary at the cottage and after a lovely breakfast (thanks, Nana!) hiked the kids up the hill to our ceremony site and stood on the spot where we exchanged vows. The coast was completely socked in, unlike our wedding day when we had the most stunning views of the Pacific Ocean from this hillside.

Isla treated me to a manicure! She was so proud, and I loved her gesture so much I kept my nails exactly how she painted them for over a week! Isaac and I slipped away for an afternoon at Salishan Spa and dinner at Kyllo’s. We enjoyed relaxing massages, soaks in the outdoor hot tub, amazing meals, and shared some of the best conversation we have ever had. Our time together was absolutely perfect!

That night, things took a turn for the worst. It was so hilariously terrible that I had to journal it:

9:00pm Isaac’s stomach started churning. It got steadily worse, and we began suspecting food poisoning. Following is a timeline of events for the rest of the night:

11:00pm After helping Isaac as best as I can, he decides to camp out on the couch to ride out his nausea, and I go to bed.

11:15pm I am startled awake by Isaac throwing up (poor guy!). I get up and get him a cold compress, ice water, some peppermint oil. He is, thankfully, feeling better and says he wants to take a shower, so I go back to bed.

11:30pm Isla begins throwing up in her sleep. Okay, so we’re clearly not dealing with food poisoning. She throws up A TON all over her cot, herself, her pillow and both blankets on her bed. I get her up and into the bathroom. Isaac, was able to hop right into action (he’s a saint!), starts cleaning up her bed, getting the laundry going, and bleaching the floor. I draw a bath for Isla and dig around in the dark (Cole is also sleeping in our room, and I don’t want to wake him) to find her new clothes. Then I dig around and find more blankets and a new pillow to remake Isla’s bed. Isla is an incredible trooper through it all. We finish a short bath, get her teeth brushed, some fresh water, and put her back to bed. We go to bed and my heart is racing so I really can’t get to sleep.

12:30am: Just as I begin to doze off, Isla begins throwing up AGAIN. And once again she manages to throw up on every single item in her bed (minus herself this time). We begin the cleaning process once more. While I’m down bleaching the floor, Cole wakes up and starts crying. I pause my clean up, go and scrub my hands, and make him a bottle. I leave him in his crib with his bottle so that I can resume clean up. Everything smells horrific. I start bleaching the counters, doors, handles of the bathroom and kitchen sink. I empty garbage cans. I start another load of laundry. As I am cleaning, Isla tells Isaac she needs to throw up again, so he coached her through that misery in the bathroom (seriously, he is a saint).

Somewhere around 1:30am: We get Isla all cleaned up and put back to bed (with a giant bowl next to her). Cole is still awake. Now wide awake. I make him another bottle and begin his bedtime routine over again. I lay him in his bed, and thankfully, he doesn’t fuss. He does toss and turn for the next half hour or so, but makes it off to bed.

Well after 2:00am: I finally fall asleep, but I startle awake at every noise, fearing someone is starting to vomit.

6:30am: Cole is awake for the day. I get up with him to let the poor troops sleep more. As I pick him up I smell something awful. It turns out to be a massive blown out diaper, with diarrhea up his back and coating his jammies and sleep sack. I start changing his diaper. Cole thinks it is the perfect time to play keep away. I get him cleaned, changed, and into his high chair. I do another load of laundry… bleach some more…

I started feeling poorly mid-day. I spent the next few days in bed, feeling weak and yucky, but somehow managed to avoid throwing up. My poor mom was hit with it a day later. Oi! What a wild ride that was. Let’s hope it bolstered our immune systems and we steer clear of any more germs for a long, long time!!!

Despite the unfortunate ending to our July stay at the beach, we are so very grateful for our own little slice of heaven along this stunning coastline and the time we get to spend there as a family! We’re looking forward to spending much of August there as well- healthy and happy.