Dune Buggy

We had a jolt of adrenaline today when we took a dune buggy tour of the Oregon Dunes. The dunes are huge, and the buggy was fast. Bridget and Tor got to ride in the front, with Mom and Dad and Jillian in the back, and Grandma Cindy and Hal in the middle.

The rest of the camping crew was in another buggy. We were out for a half hour, and sand got everywhere, but it was certainly exciting!

Sandsations Mini Golf

While waiting for our dune buggy tour, we played a round of mini golf. The course was actually pretty tough:

Other Activities

Just a smattering of things that we did after lunch in Bandon. We shopped in Old Town Bandon, and Mom bought a chocolate bomb and a cheesecake: the kids scarfed them down in record time:

We made a quick stop at Bandon Dunes, the famous golf course:

In the evening, Bridget and Tor found a climbable tree behind the camping spot:

The next day, after breakfast, we played "It's in the Bag", a party game that Jillian won in the white elephant gift exchange:

Bandon Dunes

Our second day started with french toast, bacon, sausage and eggs for breakfast, followed by a road trip to Bandon. We found a public access beach, hiking down long stairs to a cove of sand and rocks.

That was followed by hanging out at a park, grilling hot dogs for lunch and playing on the equipment.

Salmon, Ribs and French Fries

We ate our fill tonight with Jason's fresh sockeye, and Hal's pork ribs and crinkle cut fries, topped off with strawberry shortcake and s'mores.

Bridget and Tor kept themselves busy battling over Nick's hammock:

With the remaining daylight, Bridget and Tor went to the playground to shoot some hoop (and also monkey on the playset):

Swimming Pool

We spent nearly 3 hours in the pool - practicing strokes, floating around, and playing with Jacob and Lindsey. The pool was lukewarm:

To warmup, we headed to one of the two hot tubs (joined by McKenna) -  it was not overly hot:

Eventually, it clouded over, and we were tired, so we headed back for dinner.

Periwinkle Station

By far, the highlight of the shopping tour was Periwinkle Station, where the kids found a section of Harry Potter stuff, including wands of every type:

River Roasters

While everyone was checking out the River Roasters, Tor walked down to the water for this shot of the bridge and dunes:

Florence

Our first day's activity involved going to the Florence waterfront to browse the shops (and spend some money):

Newport Aquarium

We'd been intending to go to the Newport Aquarium for a long time, and we finally did on the way to Florence, Oregon. After seeing numerous small tanks, sea lions and see otters, one of the big draws was the underwater viewing tube that we walked through, seeing sharks and rays swimming overhead:

There was a large megalodon jaw model at the exit:

The final stop was a long, fast slide at a playground. Tor made 4 trips on it:

Double H

On our way to our camping trip to Florence, Oregon, we stopped by the Double H in Salem to shop. The Paul family gave Bridget an early birthday present, shown here:

Bridget will be wearing it during showmanship with Gracie. She also got a halter and lead rope from Mom and Dad.

Gracie

Bridget is officially the proud owner of Gracie, a 23-year-old performance mare! Here she is with her, and the previous owner Josie:

Last week, she had went with Aunt Dany to Ridgefield to check her out and ride her a bit, finding out that she was very pretty, mild-mannered and well-trained.

It didn't take long to decide that Gracie was perfect, so we helped get everything ready for her at the Paul farm yesterday, then rode to Ridgefield with McKenna and Noel in Aunt Dany's truck and horse trailer. Bridget got a few pointers from Josie, then Gracie got a bunch of routine shots and lots of information was shared (her official name is Miss Potential Grace).

Finally, the registration was transferred and payment made. We loaded up Gracie in the trailer and brought her back to the Paul farm, where Bridget is staying the night to get lots of riding and bonding time tomorrow.

Jillian and Tor came along, too.

Busy Workers

Jillian, Bridget, and Tor came up Thursday afternoon. After a little play time, Jillian and Bridget got to work pricing Grannie's things for the garage sale for a couple hours. After dinner and more play time, they enjoyed having Tierney and dogs Charlie and Winnie come to play. Later they were joined by Cale, Erika, and their dog George. After the dogs wore out they all sat outside at the gazebo until dark talking together. Late bedtime.

The next morning it was off early to pick the little wild blackberries. Being the first picking, it was search time to find the best spots. Jillian did a lot of great picking!

Bridget and Tor helped too (see some in her container) but also found time to explore some trails.

Later that day Bridget gave Tor a basketball lesson with some good concentration by Tor. 

 After some more garage sale pricing, Tor got to play with Tierney's dogs again. Winnie is very shy and a puppy still, so Tor spent a lot of time getting her to like him by throwing balls for both dogs.

Outdoor Volleyball

For the last summer open gym volleyball, the girls went outside in front of RA Long HS to play. Tor and Dad walked over to watch and ran into Bowen who was there watching, too. Before we knew it, Tor and Bowen had joined the girls on the court.

Playdate with Bowen

Tor has been waiting all summer to have a playdate with his buddy Bowen, and it finally happened. He went to Bowen's house for about 6 hours and had a great time. They spent nearly all their time in the backyard pool and hot tub.

Oregon State University Volleyball Camp

Jillian attended the Oregon State University Volleyball Camp the past 4 days. She stayed overnight in the dorms, rooming with RAL High School teammates Macy and Lila. The first 3 days were general skills, and the last day she went to the setter specialist group. Here's Jillian's account:

Hello! So on the first day of camp I had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, which was a struggle! When I got there I said goodbye to Dad and then went up to my dorm room which I roomed with my friends Macey and Lyla, who are a year older than me, but we play volleyball together (Macey's an outside hitter, and Lyla's a setter). Then we went to the first session at the main gym, I was starving the whole session because I thought I was going to get lunch there, but it was earlier in the morning. The first and second sessions were mostly just the basics and fine tuning of passing and setting. The food at the dinning hall was pretty good, they had Italian, fast food, Chinese, and ice cream.

On the second day we worked on hitting, blocking, serving, and defense. Well, we were supposed to work on defense and serving, but instead our coach took us out to play beach volleyball, which was super fun!

.     The third day was mostly just scrimmaging, and mixing with other teams to play and do games and go bowling. We didn't spend a whole lot of time in our dorm, but I can now see why people strongly dislike dorms. The reason I don't like dorms is the bathrooms, if you've ever lived in a dorm, you know. We woke up at about 7 am every morning after staying up till, like, 11 pm every night. Oops.

On the last day I went to the setting specialized group with Lyla while Macey went to hitting. The coach said I was a really good at jumping setting.

On the second night Macey, Lyla, and I went bowling and played air hockey, which was super fun! Overall the camp was super fun and I learned a lot!

Wacker Performance Horse Show

Bridget went to a horse show in Beavercreek, Oregon on Saturday, and did an amazing job. Here she is all done up:

After a tough start on leadline (Rocky was being difficult), Bridget came back strong in riding. Under Aunt Dany and cousin Lindsey's tutelage, she is learning fast and gaining confidence.

When it was over, she was tired but happy!

Tor came along, too, helping with Rocky and petting the horses in the stalls.

Fair Time

Tor came up to go to the fair with us and to see how the girls fared on their entries. Jillian was at volleyball camp and Bridget was getting ready for her horse show. Jillian entered 5 photos and they all got blue ribbons and this one got Best in Show.

Bridget entered this story and she got a blue ribbon and an honorable mention ribbon. It was the first chapter in her story.

After looking at exhibits Tor saw this bow and arrow exhibit and decided to try it. He got better with each shot and finally hit the target on the last two. Then we looked at cows and pigs and ended up at the quarter arcade. There were about 8  stations and he did them all and some twice. 

Then it was back to the house to play some basketball (lots)and see Tierney and her new puppy Winnie. Then we had salmon dinner at Aunt Julie's and Uncle Kevin's. They were amazed at how much salmon Tor ate.

 

Boardwalk

We had a large and delicious dinner at Drop Anchor in Long Beach, followed by ice cream at Scoopers. Then we worked all of that good off as we walked south on the the boardwalk, finally looping back to the car.

Go-Karts

For the first time, we did the Go-Karts in Long Beach. The kids thought it was awesome! Jillian and Bridget were old and tall enough to be able to drive on their own in a single cart, while Tor had to ride with Dad in a double cart.

Here's the girls driving out of the gate at the start of the race:

Dad was happy to see Jillian and Bridget driving slow and cautiously, at least until the end when Jillian tried cutting off Dad and Tor when they tried to pass her.

Browsing at Jack's

One of our "traditions" when biking is to stop at Jack's Country Store to browse all of their unique things. This time around, the kids found some items to buy: Jillian got a Jacob's Ladder, Bridget got the Peg Game, and Tor got a water-squirting basketball game.

Cozy Book Nooks

The kids' favorite locations for snuggling down at the library with some good books: