My longest blog post ever!!!

I think this may be one of my longest posts ever! I spent 5 days in Pacific City with my family and I took a ton of pictures! I go to Pacific City often by myself and always see cute little kids there that end up in my pictures. This time the cute kids were my niece and nephews! This trip reminded me how much I love my family and how grateful I am for the time I get to spend with them.

Here are a few, I mean several pics of highlights from the trip:

Will enjoying the sand in his toes.

Mathew LOVED the ocean! He chased waves for hours. He is growing up so fast.

Mom and Mathew.

My oldest nephew Christian(17 years old and I can't believe it!!!) texting his girlfriend on the beach... ahhhhh young love....

Ahhh yeah. This is pretty much one of my favorite photos ever taken. Will couldn't hold it and I got a picture to share with his first girlfriend! Bad Auntie Beth!

Daddy and Mathew.

Megan the aviator.

Action shot of Will. This kid has energy. He ran around for hours everyday. Note to self: remember this when considering babies in my future....

Megan and Christian buried Will. Good times.

This pic and the next were taken by my Sis.

Surfer girls.

My Mom and my kitten. Braya is so big. This will probably be her last fun field trip. She will soon graduate to adult house cat.

fires on the beach are fun.

My oldest and youngest nephews.

MMmmmmmm... Smores.....

Braya and her beach adventures..... She got a little wild and had to be contained in my sweatshirt... She is such a pretty kitty cat!

Sadly, the sunset was not visible for this wedding. We watched from a distance.

My Bro and Madre making bacon and eggs for breakfast. Did I mention that our beach house was awesome and about 1 minute from the beach? Ohhh to be a millionaire!

Angie and her beautiful boys!

and another action shot of Will.

Mathew wearing a cowboy/surfer hat(??) from the surf shop.

Will was stoked about his wetsuit rental! Surf's up Dude!!

Auntie Beth and Mathew time...Love that kid!

Down time at the house. When we weren't at the beach or relaxing with cable TV(I miss cable sometimes, okay a lot), we were playing ping pong. This house really did meet all our needs!

Megan and Will getting ready to ride some waves.

Aaahhh schucks.... we were all suited up!

Will was fearless! He learned that he can put his head underwater and Not have water up his nose. Realizing this in the ocean at the age of 5.... I'm not sure if I should be excited or nervous!

Carrie and Mathew cuddling on the beach.

Megan is a water girl too. We played in the surf for hours... It was so great to hang out with her!

Surfer boy.


Sunset from our ping pong room.

More M & B time.

cutie pie.


Dave and I climbed the big hill and I made him pose for several shots up top. Thanks Dave for your patience! Did I mention my brother rocks?


Bro and Sis.

En route to pizza dinner with fam. It was a long 1 minute walk. I love Pacific City!!

Posing for a few family pics near the end of our vacay.

This family trip was SO MUCH FUN! Looking forward to the next trip already!

St. Helens

Our Annual 4th of July trip was a success! Well kind of. We had a trip filled with laughter, delicious backpacking food, lots of old growth forest, a couple lucky 4 leaf clovers and some varying temperatures. In fact, there were several times on this trip when we were reminded of our close proximity to a mountain by the cold mountain winds! Despite our occasional teeth chatters, we survived and look forward to climbing Mt. St. Helens when the time is right- hopefully this summer!

Here are some pics from our lil' trip:


We drove North after work on Friday. Our late arrival meant sleeping in the Subaru. We didn't mind though. The stars were awesome!

Had I known that this would be the last time we would catch a glimpse of the mountain, I would have taken more pics. It was clear for 30 minutes when we started our hike in.

The first part of the hike was through a large landslide. Not sure if it was from the big blast in 1980 or not.

We encountered several fascinating types of foliage on this trip...... and yeah... that is snow.

We also had one of those goose bump experiences where Betty said, "wouldn't that be great if we found a 4 leaf clover right now"? As she said that, my eyes made contact with a very healthy 4 leaf clover that was promptly picked and put in my book. We decided that it might be time to turn some of our wacky money making ideas into a lucky business??? The clover will be our mascot??

This was our campsite. We slept on a cliff and it was awesome! We also had a view of a raging waterfall that sounded like a relaxation CD.

We nestled in for the night and celebrated all things outdoors.

Of course we had to entertain ourselves with a few cheesy pics... There were more, but not everyone is as shameless as I am!

Betty had to pull out coat #2 as darkness approached. It was chilly!

Gotta love the sunset picture.

It was a blast as always-