Trip to Oregon!

It's hard to even know where to begin! Anna Kate and I just spent an absolutely wonderful week out in Oregon with all of my extended family. I grew up in Oregon and have quite a large (and ever-growing!) extended family who still lives out there. None of them had met Anna Kate (or Cooper, my sister's youngest), so Sarah and I packed up all three kids and headed west...on separate flights...sorry Sarah. Check her blog for her airplane story...I'm sure it will be told! Anna Kate's first airplane trip was much easier than I expected. She did a lot of sleeping, a lot of reading stories, and a lot of looking out the window. And she LOVED the bump for each touchdown! Once we landed in Oregon it was go go go for an entire week and we had a blast!

There is so much that could be said about our amazing time, but I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

One of the first things Anna Kate's great-grandpa wanted to do when we got there was to read her "Goldie"-my favorite book growing up!

Cooper and Anna Kate (and Wesley!) spent every morning lounging in their jammies and crawling around the little rocking chairs and the hearth at Grandma and Grandpa's

On Sunday we had all of the cousins over for a family reunion/birthday party for my cousin April. We had 9 out of my grandparents' 10 great-grandchildren all together at the same time...amazing! We sure missed Leah though!

From left to right we have Emery (5 months), Lane (3), Gabriel (2), Blake (11 months), Sarah (4 months), Mayson (6), Wesley (3), Anna Kate (1), and Cooper (1).

For some reason Uncle Gary thought it would be ok to tell the kids they could dig into April's birthday cake before it was time! They didn't have to be told twice!

Anna Kate had to get in on the fun too!


Happy birthday, April!

We let the big kids go outside, but told the little ones they had to wait for their mommies. They were so pathetic looking out the window!

Wesley and Lane were two peas in a pod! Here they are climbing the little tree in Grandma and Grandpa's front yard.

And a sweet shot of just Lane

Cousins playing together

Here's a picture of Anna Kate on the tractor my dad received for his 5th birthday from his own grandpa. Three generations of Burgin children have LOVED this tractor!

Cooper and Anna Kate ready to go to the park!

After a wonderful 5 days in Portland, we headed to the Burgin family beach house in Ocean Park, Washington, on the Long Beach Peninsula. Here are all three kids loaded up in the backseat of Grandpa's Lincoln!

We made it...to the most beautiful place on earth!

Here's a picture I shot one morning of a rainbow out over the ocean after a storm

One of the highlights of our time at the beach was digging clams. Even Wesley helped! It was a great clam tide and we all got the limit (15 each) both days!


Here's Grandpa teaching Wesley how to clean and prepare the clams for dinner. For the record, Anna Kate even ate some!

One afternoon Grandma and Grandpa said they would watch all three kids (mind you, they were sleeping!) so Sarah, Aunt Patty and I could go out for a little bit. We had to go over to Oysterville to get some smoked oysters for my brother. Here's a picture of us overlooking the Willapa Bay on the other side of the peninsula.

Aunt Patty brought her dog Lucy-doodle to the beach to meet the kids. They loved her!


Anna Kate really liked her bed, too!


Out for a walk


And our last morning at the beach. Always sad to say goodbye.

Great-Grandma with Anna Kate

Sweet girl and mommy (can you see the baby bump?)

We'll come back, I promise!