Newport Vacation

Back to 2009 Pictures

After church on Sunday we piled into our car, which was full to bursting, and headed down the highway. Winding over and through the mountains, we crested the last hill and saw the Pacific Ocean in sunset glory. Quickly we found our condo, right on the beach, and watched the sun finish setting as we unloaded.

It took the kids quite a while to settle down in their strange beds. Even Ben Hur didn't bore them to sleep!

The view from our room was gorgeous! We enjoyed watching all the joggers and people walking their dogs.

As soon as we could (after running to the store for eggs and then forgetting butter) we found a beach to play on. We wasted no time getting our feet into the water!

Agate Beach was the one we stopped at three years earlier when we needed fresh air after our whale watching trip. I enjoyed it so much that I particularly wanted to come back. The mini dunes were so fun to run and roll on, though they made it rather difficult to get the stroller and stuff across to the water.

The weather was gorgeous: not windy at all and quite warm! Both the kids loved the water, though Joshua was more interested in digging than Lucy was.

Totally soaked and still loving it!

I fed the baby and changed her diaper when we first arrived. She was soon overwhelmed by the beach so she fell asleep and stayed snuggled in the stroller until it was time to go.

Roasting hotdogs and marshmallows on the beach sounds charming, but in actuality it's very hard to keep the sand out of everything. It was still very fun, though!

It was so pleasant to relax and just enjoy playing together for several hours!

Lucy conked as soon as we started the car and didn't stir when we moved her to the couch. She stayed asleep while Joshua and the rest of us got all cleaned up. Then we drank some hot chocolate!

The next morning we just walked down the stairs to the beach below our back door.

Esther stayed awake more this time, though she still didn't know what to think.

The seaguls loved Eli's stale peanuts and took quite a bit of convincing before they flew off to find another free meal.

During the afternoon we set out to explore Newport. We bought a kite and then walked through the historic Nye Beach area, just blocks from our condo. As the sun sank towards the horizon we trooped back down the long staircase and launched the kite. Though the wind had picked up since the day before, it was still warm. Perfect kite flying weather!

By the time we left on Wednesday morning we were quite rested and refreshed!