{oregon part 2} wholesome recreational activities.

Well, despite appearances, our trip wasn't all leisurely walks on the beach.

We got down to the business of having fun, too.

We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

We saw sharks and seals (can I please have one for a pet?) and a sleeping octopus that didn't reveal his eight legs and a pregnant anaconda and the biggest creepiest crabs I've ever seen (we're talking 6 feet across). Carly became moderately obsessed with this giant goldfish-looking fish. It was the only gold one in the tank and she would point and yell to it "fish! fish!" like she expected it to listen to her. I'm pretty sure my mom stood there holding her for like 20 minutes while Carly yelled at her best friend. My current plan is to get Carly a few goldfish for her birthday. Though, they won't be giant, so she might not care for them.

[those sharks did us a favor and swam right above us for the picture]

We also went to nearby Tillamook, OR and went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We watched 40-lb blocks of cheese get cut and packaged, ate free cheese samples, had lunch (have your sandwich on GF bread for only 50 cents extra!), and had massive servings of some of the best ice cream the world has to offer. Tillamook Mudslide will make you a better person.

Closer to home, we found an assortment of activities to have fun and keep busy. We had a campfire on the beach one night, where we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and made Reese's S'mores. It was Carly's first campfire, and she seemed the most interested in eating cold marshmallows out of the bag. The next day we headed to the beach, past where we had the campfire, and she said "hotdog! hotdog!", so I guess it was memorable for her. It was actually a beautiful evening, and my first-ever beach campfire. I think I liked it, despite a slightly gritty hotdog (how does sand get everywhere?).

I think one of Carly's favorite things was flying the kite. She squealed "kite! kite!". She flew it with Gramma and Uncle Jason, and even got to control it all by herself. She was a pro.

I mentioned the tidepools and the sand hill earlier. Its fun to explore the tidepools and touch mushy things and watch crabs fight and tiny fish swim. The ocean is beautiful.

The sand hill is a large hill/mountain completely covered by sand on one side. We climbed all the way to the top only once, as it is quiet the workout to get up there. But the view is breathtaking when you do (of course, I didn't bring my camera that day). But no matter how old you are, running down the sandhill is still fun. It just hurts a little more when you get to the bottom if you are 24 rather than 9. Carly got to run down the sandhill a few times as well, and giggled the whole time down. We would get to the bottom and she would immediately say, "again!".

We also headed to the nearby outlet stores, where I made it out with some cheap Under Armor gear to support my growing gym addiction, and Carly made out like a bandit since Gramma had a credit card in her pocket.

The activities were the perfect offset to the beach walks and watching the NBA finals and Stanley Cup finals every other night.

{up next, last but not least: family time.}