Oregon from Rory's Perspective

Here's some photos from Rory's phone:

Madelyn being weird in front of a ginormous plant.

Spider eating a bee in Grandpa's garden.

Madelyn practicing her photography skills.

The view from a walking trail we strolled along. 

Grandma Sherri made mini pizzas with the kids one night. A good time was had by all.

There's baby Bosco.

Family exploration at Sunset Beach.

That's it!

Oregon Visit

We got to fly out to the Oregon coast to visit Grandpa O'Connor and Grandma Sherri this past week. We all had lots of fun. Plus we got to see Kathleen and cousin Beck! The cousins sort of got along. Mostly Lily was cranky at Beck. Haha.

Madelyn discovered that she loved the beach and all things tide pool. She could have spent all day scrambling around the rocks and looking at all the cool things.

Lily preferred to stay on the beach and look for shells.

These two climbed pretty much every rock they could find.

Walking back up from the beach.

We visited the Shore Acres botanical garden. It was misty moisty and beautiful.

Rory with his head in a plant as usual.

The rose garden was especially beautiful. The rain drops made the roses look bedazzled. Madelyn said they all looked so special.

Happy Kathleen.

Beck loved smelling every single rose he could find.

At Grandpa's house Madelyn discovered he had these orange berries growing all over his yard. They were pretty tasty and the girls picked a lot of them.

We visited the beach every day we were there. I'm not sure why Lily looks so sad in this picture. She must need a pinch.

Beck was not well pleased with the beach that day. Or the fact that Uncle Rory carried him over the log instead of his pregnant mother.

Grandpa O'Connor showing off excellent balance.

This beach was less rocky but Madelyn still found ways to enjoy it.

She takes after a certain dad of hers.

They found all sorts of treasures.

Look at how much fun Kathleen was having! Hahaha. Beck was still having a hard time.

Rory found a big rock and climbed it.

Even Lily climbed a little!

Madelyn climbed everything in sight.

Carefully coming down.

Things are easier when Grandpa helps.

We visited this little zoo on the last day that let the kids feed some of the animals. They were in heaven.

Until this big deer came and ate all the food in one bite.

Lily adored the baby goats. There was a lot of squealing.

They got to pet various baby animals including this fox, an opossum, ferrets, a kangaroo and a bear named Bosco.

The last beach we visited was Sunset Bay and the sun actually came out!

The girls and Dad built a magnificent sand castle.

Madelyn thought it was really funny to run away from the waves.

It was a great trip! We loved getting to see family and getting to wear our cozy cold weather clothes.

Tooth Drama

Two weeks ago Madelyn was practicing riding her bike and face planted. The poor kids scraped her lip up pretty good and fractured one of her teeth. Of course this happened on a Saturday and none of the dentists that took our insurance (and had giggling gas) were open. So she got to hang out all weekend with one of her teeth half cracked off. Luckily it didn't seem to hurt her much. She got to eat a lot of popsicles and smoothies.

On Monday I called a bazillion dentists and finally found one that could get us in. They said they might not be able to take the tooth out that day but they were willing to look at it. We went in and they took Madelyn back. About 15 minutes later the dental hygienist came out and said they had her under the nitrous gas and were taking the tooth out immediately. I'm glad they agreed that it was a bad crack. Especially because we were supposed to be flying out to the Oregon coast two days later.

Madelyn was a trooper through the whole thing. She said she didn't care about her tooth coming out because her brain was asleep and she got to watch Kung Foo Panda. Sounds pretty good to me!