Bella Beach

While at the coast, we stayed in a fantastic little spot called Bella Beach (appropriate, don't you think?). We got a beautiful house all to ourselves for the price of a hotel room. We highly recommend it. Visit bellabeach.com to book your week long trip (because that's how long you should stay). There was even a little playground just down the street.









And last but not least, here is our lovely daughter sticking asparagus up her nose. And then laughing about it.

Devil's Punchbowl and Beverly Beach

We went here two times - once on Tuesday afternoon and then again on Wednesday when the tide was much lower. Tuesday was a bust because all the fun stuff was underwater, but Wednesday was loads of fun. We explored the caves and Andrew went wading with Bella in the backpack. I was quite nervous about him being knee deep in Pacific Undertow with a squirming weight on his back, but I got over it long enough to take pictures. We didn't make it into the actual punchbowl, but here's some pictures from up above the day before. The first picture is from Tuesday and you can see all the rocks underwater. In the later pictures, we're climbing on those rocks, and in the last picture you can see those rocks totally exposed.

Newport

We had lunch at the Rogue Brewery Pub in Newport on Tuesday. Crab Melts and Hazelnut Brown. Yum yum yum. Then we went to see the noisy noisy sea lions. Bella was quite intrigued.

Oregon Coast Aquarium

We went to the Aquarium on Tuesday and Bella loved seeing all the "Sheeshees" (fish). We saw the otters and seals and eels and jelly fish and salmon and three foot crabs and shrimps and birds. Lots of tiring fun for a little kiddo.

Night #1

Just to prepare you, we took around 250 pictures on this trip. Thank goodness for digital! I promise not to post all of the pictures, but I'm going to post a lot of them. Here's our first night at the beach.

Sleepy Girl

Salamandastron

Did anyone else ever read the books by Brian Jacques? Back when I was in junior high, our church would go camping near this lake at the coast. The group of us kids had a ball running around mostly unsupervised for a whole weekend. We named lots of places on the lake, and this tiny beach was Salamandastron because it used to be swarming with little Pacific Salamanders. Unfortunately, there were none when we visited last week. Must be all those Oregon laws that protect the environment. Anyways. So Andrew indulged my nostalgia and we stopped here to check it out. That spot in the third picture where the tree sticks out into the water (aka Caterpillar Point - thusly named because of all the caterpillars) is actually where Scotty was baptized. Ah, memories.

Skinner's Butte Park

We've been gone for a week in Oregon. A friend of ours got married and we used her wedding as an excuse to spend some time in Eugene with family and then a few days at the coast. While in Eugene, Aunt Janice recommended this fantastic park, so we went to check it out. It was amazing. Bella will be able to enjoy it much more in a few years, but she still thought it was pretty cool for now. The swings were huge.

Ouch.

This is how I found Bella after her first nap this morning. Amazingly, she hadn't been fussing too much. Who knows how long she was stuck like this.

Fun with Riley

Little Miss Riley came over last night and she and Bella had a grand old time playing together. Naturally, the most entertaining toy was not to be found in the toy basket, but was indeed a basket itself - a laundry basket to be precise. They also enjoyed rocking in the recliner.

So Thoughtful

Bella left a little snack for me on my bedroom floor today. What a sweetie.

Such a Big Girl

Bella (or, "Lella" as she calls herself) is in love with shoes, which I may have mentioned before. She particularly loves my heels, which she tries to walk around in quite a bit. Sometimes she has issues, but it's always very cute.

Fun at the Fair

Wanting Bella to be able to experience as much fair food as possible without suffering the sugar high, we split our fair visits up between two nights. The first night we went and had elephant ears, and the second night we went and had gyros, hot dogs, and cotton candy (which, if you'll remember from last year, Bella loves). The second night grandma and grandpa came too, so that made it even more fun! Bella loved seeing all of the animals, and tried to call everything "coo-coo" (kinda like 'scooter'), which was amusing. Here are some fun little pictures, and a video of her being quite excited about the ponies.

Bugs, Bunnies

Bella does not like bugs on her. She kind of freaks out. But she does like bunnies. When she sees them, she says, "Hi munneee," and it's all very cute. Here she is, terrorized by a grasshopper, and terrorizing a few bunnies that we ran into on the path.