Family Get Away

Some friends of ours stopped by yesterday afternoon with the news that, hey, it's sunny at the beach today. Next thing you know, I've convinced Jelani to take a mini-vacation in the middle of our work week and off we go!

So, once we were all packed and on the road we began discussing which beach we should visit. I mentioned Cannon Beach, because it's closest and then went on to list Seaside and Manzanita since both are nearby. Jelani immediately fastened to the idea of Manzanita. "I've been to Seaside too many times. I'm tired of the Seaside beach." Unfortunately, due to an incredibly long drive through traffic, we had to cut our losses and drove into Cannon Beach instead. (We wanted to take advantage of the rare, warm evening.)
We were lucky to find a little cove that only a few other people knew about. With Ella packed up in the baby bjorn, we followed the trail down to the beach and strolled along until we found a beautiful drift wood to rest on. Ella even took a turn sitting up on it!

















The seagulls and pink skies were such a beautiful backdrop, we just had to take some family photos!







I remember our trip to Hawaii, Ella screaming when we put her feet to the sand. But the beach yesterday was much cooler on her little toes. She really enjoyed crawling around and playing in the sand!









The following day, we made a trip to the Carousal Mall. Ella got to ride her very first Giraffe! We also visited the Seaside beach, which Jelani found out he'd never even been to! (So much for being tired of it, haha).



And what else filled up our mini-vacation, but lots and lots of FOOD!!! We visited a couple of good restaurants, but oddly enough, the service was equally TERRIBLE almost everywhere we went! You can see Jelani was very impressed with it! Obviously, Ella will have fun no matter where she goes!