First Beach Trip

We live about an hour and a half from the beach (or coast as we call it in Oregon since it's frickin' freezing) but as of 2 days ago Bria had never been. Last summer we thought Bria was too young to really enjoy it so we thought we would wait until this summer.

I realized last week that this summer is rapidly coming to a close and we needed to make a beach trip ASAP. So we did.

Heather and Amy came with us and showed us their favorite place to stop and eat on the way there, then led us to their favorite beach.

To say that we all had a good time is an understatement. We had an absolute blast. Bria LOVED the ocean (despite it's -30 degree temperature...alright not that cold but it was cold) and couldn't get enough. We played in the sand, watched kites fly, jumped over ocean waves, ate delicious food, and had a grand old time. Bria was seriously an angel. She was happy the whole day despite missing her nap, I was so thankful.

Bria always takes a little while to warm up and the beach was no different...

Not so sure about walking on the sand, she kept saying, "Owie!"

Asking me what the heck we were walking on

Clinging to my leg for dear life

Realizing the sand wasn't that bad

"Oh, this is kind of nice."

Building sand castles with Dad

Once she warmed up to her new surroundings she quickly dug in:

(By the way, it was awesome having our own "paparazzi" there, Heather and Amy captured so many pictures for us, thank you!!!!!)

Playing in the little stream that runs down the beach

This is the part where I'm thinking, Should've brought a swim diaper.

After we played for awhile we decided Bria was ready for her first trip into the ocean. As we were walking toward it she got so excited and kept saying, "water! water!" over and over.

Walking into the ocean

"Oh paparazzi, we just want a nice family day at the beach without swarms of cameras!"

;)

Flyin' high

Pretending to be fed up with cameras but really so excited they are capturing these fun moments

Daddy's little girl

Who needs a swing when your Daddy is even more fun!

"Karate kick!"

She got so comfortable with the water that she didn't want me holding onto her at all...which made me nervous.

Once she was good and soaked we decided to head back and play with more sand so she could warm up, ya know, in the 63 degree weather ;)

Bria loves kites. Some of the books she has have pictures of kites and she just became very fond of them. So many people were flying kites at the beach and she was thrilled to pieces and kept watching them.

Brian of course bought her her first kite.

A girl on a mission

Finally we decided it was time to clean up and head out for shopping and food. We enjoyed a delicious bowl of clam chowder at Mo's and Bria even got a pink dolphin, 'cuz she had to have a souvenir of her first trip to the beach.

Bria listening intently to Amy

It was a wonderful day and we packed in lots of activity so we were all pretty tired.

This picture says it all!

Bria fell asleep (as did Heather and Amy :) on the way home which was perfect, it was a late nap but much needed.

Can't wait to go again :)