A day at the beach!!!

If we had our way, we would be able to pick and choose when it was best to go to the Oregon Coast in the winter, but with our very busy and overly schedule trip for the holidays, we had one day rain or shine and we took it. Like you would expect, it rained, and as it turned out it was the worst weather of our entire trip so I guess we really picked our day poorly. Our friends Tim and Ilana met us on the highway to Seaside, we stopped in at a local surf shop and rented equipment for Doug, my brother Joel and Tim. From there we headed down to the south end of Seaside, got bundled up and started our day at the beach. The wind was blowing pretty hard from the south, and within minutes of being out on the sand it started heavy misting, we survived for about 30 minutes watching the surfers and walking the beach before we headed back to the car cold and wet. After a round of snacks, I ventured back out to snap a few more photos, the the real rain came and I might as well have been surfing for how wet I was.

After surfing we all went to Doogers for lunch on the promenade in Seaside, then walked down to the Seaside aquarium, which is small and dark compared to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, but much cheaper and fit perfectly into the energy amount the kids had left for the day. When we entered, you could buy a basket of seal food to feed the seals, and right by the cashier, the seals had a window where they kept a watchful eye to see if there were any takers. We decided it would be fun to feed them, and was it ever worth the $1, there were more than half a dozen seals in the tank and each one had developed a self taught different routine to get your attention so that you would throw the food to them. It was hilarious, Caleb got a little scared by the one that used splashing you as it's routine, but an unforgettable experience for sure.

At the meeting point, stretching our little restless legs

Doug, Tim and Joel bracing themselves against the wind on the walk to the surf

The rest of the group making their way out to the beach

Joel, Doug and Tim fully suited, ready to get wet

Playing in the sand, it was fairly wet which made it hard and not as much fun to play in

Grandma Janet protecting Rachel from the wind and raining side

All three of them catching a wave in to walk back up the beach, the wind and current kept sweeping them down the beach

Doug riding and Joel almost up for his first time

Joel started getting the hang of it, getting up on almost every wave

Tim riding a small curl

Finally got one with Doug and Joel up at the same time, Tim was also up, but I was zoomed too far in to capture all three of them

Harbor seals at the aquarium in Seaside waiting for their treats

going after the treats

Caleb loved the touch and feel tanks

Both kids were very interested in the hermit crabs and other critter you could hold in your hand, they didn't want to leave this part of the aquarium

Early Brannan Christmas

Since we were spending the 10 days surrounding Christmas in Oregon, we celebrated an early Christmas with Jim, Diane and Doug's Grandparents. We had a wonderful prime rib dinner, followed by opening gifts. Both Caleb and Rachel were pretty into the presents, they showed good restraint for their age, but presents sure didn't last long.
My attempt at getting a nice Christmas photo of the 2 of them together

Candy Cane bribery worked for Caleb, but Rachel wouldn't put hers down, and she finished it in less than 2 minutes requesting another.

Rachel's main gift of the evening a very nice table and chair set from Grandpa Jimbo and Grandma Diane

A nice tea set for the new table from the Great Grandparents

Playing with cars some new and old (many are Doug's cars from his early childhood that were cleaned up and given to Doug and Caleb)

Christmas tree hunting and other December randoms

So far since October we have been blessed...maybe that isn't the right word, with 50 inches of snow, which is a lot by my recollection of the last 5 years and by many who have lived here for 30, usually we get snow it melts then a week later we get snow again, this year the sun has continued to shine like normal, but the temps are struggling to get above freezing and the snow is so dry that we get snow it takes a week to melt then we get more snow before the old snow is gone. This pattern has been really pretty but has not been great for those of us with little kids who like to play outside, but are too little to navigate the snow in their 4 inch high snow boots. Luckily we escaped to the Pacific Northwest for 10 days over the holidays and missed one of the rounds of snow and enjoyed beautiful weather most of the days we were gone. More on the holiday trip in a future blog.

walking around the neighborhood holding hands, this photo direction hides the obnoxious faces that they make when I try to take a nice photo

more neighborhood walking

playing in the snow

Rachel modelling her new coat

Tree hunting up at Red Feathers, the best family shot we could get, the sun and snow were so bright, and full shade was hard to find, maybe squinting would have been better than shadows

Rachel the pink snow bunny

Caleb and Maia sledding at the start of the trail before the forest became too rugged for little sledders

Maia and Caleb "can we have hot chocolate and donuts now?"

the donuts and the bright sun, Rachel, Caleb and Maia

The tree at home and decorated a couple weeks later

November

November wasn't as crazy for us, Doug was out of town for work most of the month so we spent a lot more time at home just the 3 of us, my lack of a working camera for most of the month meant there aren't may pictures of happenings. We celebrated Maia's 2nd birthday at one of those jumping places loaded with inflatable slides and obstacle courses, both the kids had a terrific time and didn't want to leave even though they couldn't keep their eyes open for more than a minute once we got in the car. Thanks to Scott again for sharing his photos with us. The next week we ventured down to LaJunta with Doug on one of his work trips, it was nice to get to spend the extra time with him, but also hard to spend much time in one room in a hotel, the pool was visited frequently. After that came Thanksgiving, which I had a new camera, but didn't take any photos, I never seem to for that particular holiday. It was a busy day, we celebrated with 2 thanksgiving meals, first with Doug's dad's side of the family, then with Doug's mom and cousin. I didn't have to host either which made my life easier, but we also didn't have any leftovers to savor the rest of the weekend.family slide time at Maia's birthday

Caleb going for a ride, it took him a couple trips before he would do the whole thing by himself

Rachel doing the back slide

That was fun, but now my hair is a mess

Sunset over a lake near LaJunta, testing out my new camera

swimming at the hotel

Painting on the aquadoodle

Taking or attempting to take portraits of Rachel

the other good shot

Luckily I took her portraits when I did, the next day she fell off the top of the stroller onto her nose, she was OK, but still climbs on everything she isn't suppose to

Caleb's turn for portraits

giving me the cheesy model look

smile nice like if you were laughing, hardy har har type of laugh is what I got

on rapid fire mode, I figured I would have to get something