All Good Things Must Come To An End...

I know I've inundated this blog with vacation photos, and there are lots more I could post, but I think I'll leave it with this wrap-up group of pics.  As if you couldn't tell, we had a blast and it was a wonderful time together.  Brian and I are thankful that we live so close to such a beautiful part of the country, and that we got to enjoy the beautiful northwest with BOTH of our families this summer.  

Thank you so much for that gift! 

Cooper likes the northwest, for sure!

Oma and Ella

How cute is this??

Laura & Cooper

Do I even need to say it?  Adorable!

Anne, Dad, Tom (w/Ella) & Brian....this is before Tom dipped Ella's feet in the water and she screamed because it was so cold :)

See?  She's running to Mama on dry sand!

Anne's attempt at being artsy.

Oma & Opa...aka Mom & Dad

This is at Heceta Head Lighthouse

Beautiful.

Thanks for a great trip!  Goodbye A Lul Quoy!

Devil's Churn & A Really Big Tree

Another day, we drove up the coast to see some sights like Devil's Churn which is a popular spot to watch, especially when the water is in a feisty mood.  We also stopped at a hiking trail with a really large Cedar (I think?) tree.  Tom, Laura, Brian and Anne went for a jog on the trail while Mom & Dad watched a seal video in the ranger station and walked along the trail with the kiddos. 

The cool girl in pink is ready to go!

With a dad like Tom, Ella isn't going to miss out on any adventure...including walking out onto the rocks at Devil's Churn!

 

When the water is really active and stormy, it's so fun to watch it (at a distance) pound these rocks.  It makes this thunderous crashing sound and is a sight to see.

Strike a pose.

I love this picture!  

Any tree you can climb through is cool on Ella's list.  

Oregon Coast Aquarium & Rogue Brewery

For one of our days on the coast, we drove to Newport (about an hour away) to see the Oregon Coast Aquarium and to go to the Rogue Brewery.  Probably Ella's favorite part of this day was the aquarium, and for the rest of us, it was more likely the brewery :)

The fish were cool, and what was even cooler is that there was a cafe...with coffee to drink while looking at the fish!

That's Ella in the pink...checking out some funky birds somewhere, I think.

After getting the scenic view of downtown Newport thanks to some faulty mapquest directions, we finally found our the Rogue Brewery, where we enjoyed some lunch and some tasty chocolate stout :)

We each got one of these taster trays, thankfully with labels so we could remember what we ordered...

Pete the home brewer extraordinaire!

Nice lineup there, Tom.

More Clamming!

After the intro to clamming with Ranger "Clameron," part of the crew went out early one morning a couple days later to go on a clam hunt of their own.  

Good catch, Mama!

They had to get up super early to get there at low tide, for the best clamming time.

Brian and Tom obviously got a little excited with the shovel here...once the clam knows it's being "hunted" it will squirt water out and dig itself further down, so it sort of becomes a race to find it.

Victory!

Tom found these crabs and grabbed them with his bare hands...no net needed for this guy!

More digging.  Brian got a huge blood blister on one of his finger tips from all the digging with his hands.

Now time to clean the harvest...it was gross to watch, but they seemed to enjoy the process.

Mom made a big batch of clam chowder with everything they'd caught that morning and it was a big hit!

Yost Vacation: Hangin' Out Around the House

Besides taking in some of the "touristy" things to do on the coast, we really enjoyed just hangin' out around the house, too.  Here are some variety shots of that time, which included (in no particular order): eating, beer tasting, napping, puzzling, cooking, eating, beer tasting, painting toenails & fingernails, playing cards (hand & foot), playing play-dough, watching Finding Nemo, exercising, reading, eating...and did I mention beer tasting?  The microbrew selection in the Northwest is pretty awesome, and we weren't shy about trying as many as we could :)

Ella loved the fresh boysenberries and blueberries from the Saturday market

What's up, Coop?!?!

One of the first orders of business for Ella was having Auntie Anne paint her toenails and fingernails. 

Explanation on this one (and others like it, to follow): Tom & Laura were doing the P90X home workout dvd series, so we think we about broke even for the week with calorie (beer) input vs. exercise/output.  Ella liked to join in, too :)

Mom & Dad's room had a big tv & dvd player, so it became the "Finding Nemo" & "Elmo" movie watching room.

The puzzlers finished a 1000-piece puzzle in about three days...

youtube videos were a hit, too...especially the music video for "Single Ladies" by Beyonce :)

The final masterpiece and the puzzlers who did it!

Brian and Dad still admiring the payoff of their hard work...

They couldn't bear to break it apart, so we left it for the next houseguests to admire, too.

Lots of play-dough goin' on

This is pretty much Cooper the whole week....quite the smiley guy.

This was the scene for several evenings, playing a lot of hand & foot while tasting whatever new beer we'd picked up that day.

Just like this picture shows, our time lounging around the house made us  smile :)