Cousins, Camping, and Beach time

We had a super exciting weekend where we got to celebrate my Niece, Gwenevere's 10th birthday and go camping at the beach. On Gwenevere's birthday, James and Elizabeth had tickets to a show in Portland so they all came over and we got to have a little party, then send off her parents while Max and I took care of all 7 kids. It was a breeze with such helpful kids. But seriously though, if I was rich, I'd hire Gwenevere as a nanny!

All the kids were asleep when James and Elizabeth came home. We chatted with them, then sent them next door to stay in the vacant house. Charlie and Miles both had school the next day so the cousins got up and went around exploring Portland then drove toward the beach. 

We started that way as soon as Max got home from work. We grabbed some food on the go and got to the yurt right around 8pm. We went to this same campground and yurt back in April and loved it, even though it was super stormy. We were excited to go again even though we thought it would be much colder. Anyway, it was really rainy when we got there but not that cold. Miles and Charlie had fallen asleep in the car but woke up shortly after we set up the beds. It was too wet for a campfire and the cousins were all in their yurt already so we called it a night.

 My big boys were packing tons of toys to bring. I told them they had to limit it to one bag. Somehow, a bunch of weird masks ended up in their toy bag.

 Anyway, it was a pretty stormy night but we stayed warm and dry in the yurt. The boys woke early as the sun came in the skylight.

 I eventually got up and started my dutch oven breakfast.

Plenty of helpers all around!

 I was just really enjoying the age of all these kids. They play and interact so well together and can have good safe fun with fire.

As usual, the dutch oven breakfast took a long time to  cook so charlie kept bring food out and setting up a restaurant.  He burnt bread in the fire and tried to get people to eat it, marshmallows were devoured and turned into marshmallow men.
(Dutch oven cooking: This was another accomplishment I wanted to add to my 2018 accomplishments, I got more proficient at it) 

Once the Dutch ovens were cooling, the boys built a fire. 

Edwin just wandered and played with any toy he found. It was a huge contrast from last time he went when he would have fallen in every mud puddle.

Grandma Sharolee and Grandpa Don met up with us and we had a party for Gwenevere with dutch Oven brownies. 

 There were some grand puddles all throughout the campsite.

 We brought boots to stay dry, Miles did not even try to stay dry.

There was an outstanding puddle on the way to the lake. 

Grace doing some modeling!

 Wading back through the puddle.

While I was down at the dock with my big boys, Max was loading up the car. We planned to drive up the coast, and check out a beach and end up at the Tillamook cheese factory before heading home. We decided on Neskowin.  Despite the temperature being a little chilly (but still pretty good for January) the kids were in the water in no time.

Walrus pose

This is Edwin's face when he meets someone new, or when someone tries to make him smile and he doesn't feel like smiling.

Miles decided he was cold, since he was completely soaked 5 minutes after arriving to the beach. He got all his clothes of and got to snuggle with daddy for awhile.

 Love that man's eye wrinkles

At one point, we were watching these boys play, Charlie had a bucket and a group of teenagers walked by. It looked like a youth group. We couldn't hear what Charlie was saying but he started talking to a boy, and held up a bucket and pointed towards the ocean. We saw the boy, look at the bucket, look at his group (which was walking away), look at the ocean then look back at Charlie. He then grabbed the bucket and started running toward the ocean, he had to go pretty far to fill the bucket. Then he ran back with a bucket full of water to give Charlie. Charlie asked him something else to which he responded by pointing to his group and then ran off. A: There are a lot of Nice teenagers out there. B: Charlie is very social and fearless.

Edwin found a trail that one of the older boys had made and thought is was a thrill to walk up and down, up and down.

The Eddie cousins! (Edgar and Edwin, both named after great grandfathers)


The goofy Roemhildts

I still have some work to do before I make super cool crystal ball photos.

And I just kept going back to taking more photos of my wonderful nieces!

All the cousins!

 
 

And our little family

Near the end of our beach time, Charlie was so numb but still so happy. He wanted to help Everett with the volcano, he said " I want to help Everett with the volcano but I can't use my hands, so I'll just watch"

We cleaned up and started our drive up north to the cheese factory. I like being greeted by the giant cow. Edwin seemed to like it too as he kept mooing at it. 



A Winter evening is apparently the time to go. Not busy at all. Last summer, my boys got to bottle feed a real cow.

It was dinner time so we ordered some cheesy food from their restaurant, which was delicious. Then we got a double scoop ice cream to share. Edwin got the cone and was absolutely thrilled!
There he is, double spooning it!
Anyway, we wished we stayed an extra night, we were just having too much fun and the cousins all play together so well and throwing my boys out in nature for hours on end does wonderful things for them. I can't wait for all our summer adventures, but I'm also feeling super grateful we took the chance on a chilly January day and it all turned out wonderful!