I love the beach! Everytime I start planning a vacation, I always seem to work in some beach time. I'll tell you how I learned about Cannon Beach Oregon. Alan and I were talking about going away for our 21st wedding anniversary and I got on the Internet and I think I searched for "Beach Vacation in Oregon."
The first site I looked at had the most gorgeous photos of an incredibly big rock right on the coast of a place called Cannon Beach. I saw that and thought, "That is where we should go." So, after much discussion and planning, we did find ourselves right on that very beach taking pictures of that very rock. I guess it is a pretty famous place, but we had never heard of it before and I have to tell you that it is my new favorite beach. I'm hoping we can go back in a few years with the kids.
The Oregon coast is so beautiful. We visited a couple of lighthouses, toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, sat on the beach, flew kites, had some good seafood, took long walks, stayed up late watching the Olympics, slept in, and read books -- our favorite kind of vacation.
Alan's parents Pat and Wally invited us to go with them for a day to Wyoming so that Pat could show us and our kids where she grew up and where her family is buried. So we loaded up in Hugo and set off with genealogy records, tape recorder and picnic in hand.
Pat did a great job of giving detailed information that we were able to record and we took pictures of headstones and made notes of where family is buried in the different cemeteries. It was fun to ride altogether and we finished the day off with a stop at The Spring Chicken Inn in Wanship for dinner. You get one point if you have heard of the place and two points if you've ever eaten there! It was actually very good fried chicken.
A fun part for me about August was having my good friend Melora Collette come from New Hampshire with her son Tyler. Tyler is a freshman at BYU this year and she came to help him get settled in. It was fun to be on campus together again. I don't think we have been since we were at school together just a mere 24 years ago. We met as freshmen staying at Carroll Hall and have been great friends ever since. It was so fun to spend a few days together. We did a little shopping, some movie watching and lots of talking. I wish she didn't live on the other side of the United States, but then I guess it does make for some fun visiting back and forth.
While Melora was here, she took a few pictures of Tess working at Jamba Juice and of Elliot at his Marimba lesson. It's kind of fun to have pictures of everyday life and not just the vacations or special moments. Of course, they would have died, if I had tried taking these pictures. Is there anything worse than a mother following you around taking pictures?!