1st Week of Summer Vacation! The Beach!

For the first week of our Summer Vacation we went down to the coast for the annual Cannon Beach Sand Castle contest. It was a great time! Once again, we enjoyed the sunny days and the cloudy days....at least there were not many rainy days.
The actual week was really meant to be a "working vacation". My Mom, Bryan (for the weekend), and I worked really hard...painting, cleaning, and doing a mini-makeover on the beach house. We painted the kitchen walls and cabinets, painted the utility room walls and cabinets, and painted the bathroom walls and cabinets. We also scrubbed floors, walls, and cleaned out cabinets of clutter. My favorite part of this mini makeover was seeing the final project and all we accomplished in a weeks time. I also enjoyed the accessorizing and decorating. It is a great feeling to complete so much and enjoy the beach house in what feels like 3 new rooms.
Of course each day, we tried to fit in something fun. We enjoyed the sand castle contest on June 19th...which is also our anniversary. 11 years! Wow...it really has gone by so quickly. Maybe it feels like we just were married because the girls love to watch our wedding video on a weekly basis. We relive the day we were married about once a week. All of the day feels fresh in my mind and I love that!
Some of the other fun things we did were:
*drove into Seaside and went on the merry-go-round and played games in the arcades.
*We also dug in the sand quite a bit. Peyton especially loves to dig and we spent hours at a time making fake campfires, seagull birthday cakes, digging holes, and building sand castles.
*We looked around the tide pools for hermit crabs and other sea life.

Here are some pictures from the week. I did not include painting and house pictures. I want everyone to be surprised when the walk into the beach house....no sneak peeks.

Maddie and Peyton in front of a big banana split.A Turtle and a mermaid.

I love pictures like this.
Anniversary Ice Cream Cones....we were able to go out to dinner that evening....thanks Mom!On the Seaside merry go round.Peyton doing her very favorite thing! Playing in the sand.Maddie and her "campfire".
Just playing on the beach!