Seattle and Oregon Coast...

These are pictures that I added later because they were from Jake's camera. Our Ashton Family picture on the beach right outside our beach house...
Beck Family with "Bubba" stand in beach ball. We sure missed our little brother Kalan!
Beck had so much fun collecting pieces of oyster shells from this beach. We ended up gluing them to a frame he made back at the beach house.
Back L-R: Dad Bruce, Mom Dawn, Collin, Broxton, Britni, Korbi, Paisley, Stephen, Piper, Kortni, Hanna, and Brandon and Alizah.
Front L-R: Justin, Bridger, and Branson in front, Beck, Jax sitting down with Jakobi, Lizi, and Chad.
THE OREGON COAST!!!! Jake and me...

We started off the vacay on Monday and drove to Seattle to visit my little brother, Kalan. He is working there at an architecture firm (?) and living in an itty bitty apt with a big bathroom and no air conditioner. :)

I seriously LOVE my little brother. I love being around him and talking to him and laughing with him. We walked over by the space needle where they have this little mini carnival with all these rides. Beck actually quite enjoyed the roller coaster. You see what I mean about Kalan? That kid is funny...Beck really wanted to touch this water sculpture. It sprays all random like and actually sprays LOTS of water, so we had to wait for the right exact moment to run in and touch it. I was for sure we were going to get drenched... Family picture outside the big music museum by the space needle.

See, he's funny!

Paisley loves to copy Beck and usually Beck makes "super hero" poses when I try and snap a picture, so I think that this is Paisley's "super hero" pose!?!?!

Walking out on the pier... Stephen wanted to take us to this restaurant called Chandler's Place. Him and his dad went there years ago. As much as I HATE seafood, I figured I better buck up and go. Then I saw the place... $50 for steak and I thought, "great, my kids are gonna be the death of a very nice dinner..." Luckily, they were rather well behaved and my steak was AWESOME!!! We sat by a couple that did not say one word for their entire hour and a half dinner. Really weird. A young couple, who we figured out was married about half way thru dinner (saw rings) and no, they weren't deaf. We heard him say "yes" to a waiter. Just lots of weird smiling and silent watching as he chowed down on crab legs and she just sat there. Then she fell walking right past our table and he didn't even flinch and kept walking. We made up a story of a possible affair to make it more interesting...

And then it was 6 more hours on to the beach house.... The first night we were there (Tuesday night) we were in charge of dinner and everyone made their own individual pizzas. The kids LOVED it and yes, Beck put each piece of grated cheese on individually...

The beach was freezing! Maybe mid 60's and not very much sun. The kids did love the sand and it got tracked all through the beach house and was found in pockets and everywhere else thru out the few days...

Our beach house is the blue one on the left behind my parents. Thanks mom dad for the fun and memorable vacay!Stephen and I brought up some kites and Beck had a lot of fun flying them. I think that Stephen did too...

Beck is also very obsessed with crabs. At the Aquarium, the beach, the tide pools, any picture books. "Where's a crab??" Really likes to point out all the crabs. I found this dead one on the beach, and he packed it around for a bit.

While there Jakobi let me pick out a color to dye her hair. Brave little thing. I think that it turned out great if I say so myself!I made Bridger and Hanna matching King and Queen of the sand/oceans crowns out of the grasses...

The jelly fish at the Aquarium in Newport were so interesting. Also gave me one more excuse for not liking to swim in the ocean. :) Beck likes to carry around his "friends." In the right hand he has Robin and the left he has Batman. They like to see the jelly fish too and they like to sleep with him and "mom, my friends need breakfast too!" His "friends" range from Bumblebee cars, power rangers, super heroes... Paisley at the Aquarium touching the starfish.

As I mentioned before Paisley is obsessed with doing everything Beck does. If Beck doesn't want to try his food, then Pais thinks it's gross too. Even if she was previously just munching away on it. If Beck is pouting, then Paisley is right along beside him... After standing in line to go up into the light house Beck got up there and they measured him and he wasn't tall enough. This is him walking away mad at the lady for not measuring him until after he stretched. Too bad that even after he stretched he was still 2-3 inches too short! I am pretty sure that he better just start getting used to not being tall enough. Even his cousin, Piper, who is 3 months younger was tall enough to go up! Piper and Branson at the tide pools by the Lighthouse. I have to wait for Jake to upload all her awesome pictures from there. They were really neat, seeing the low tide and all the little marine life that stuck to the rocks. Crabs, Beck's favorite, starfish, anemones...Eating at the Famous Mo's. Once again a fish place and I ordered a bacon cheese burger. I did branch out and try a bite of Stephen's oysters. :) Almost gagged on my Mountain Dew as I chugged it down to wash away the taste though. We had the best waitress, her name was Karen. Go to Mo's; request Karen.... :) We found some docks in Newport where the sea lions rest. It was pretty neat to just sit and watch them. Beck is really liking pirates right now. So every time we saw a pirate statue or picture, we took a picture with it.

One night my mom brought some frames for the kids to paint so that they could put a picture of the trip in it when they get home. It was lots of fun to see all the kids get creative. Beck had gathered a bunch of oyster shell pieces in his pockets from the tide pools. He glued them onto the frame and it looks pretty darn good. Paisley collected a bunch of black rocks from the tide pools and we glued those onto her frame. After the frames my mom also brought a flower pin/hair piece activity for us older girls. I love crafting and it was such a cute thing.

We had to get a crazy picture of the glasses Maimi Dawn got all the kids. My kids love sunglasses, and they were a hit! Trying to get a picture on the other hand was a different story!

Top L-R Bridger, Justin, Jax. Middle L-R Branson, Alizah, and Broxton. Front L-R Hanna holding Lizi, Piper, Beck, and Paisley We brought up some sparklers, so on Thursday night we let the kids go crazy. It was crazy chaos, but the kids really enjoyed it. Seriously, sparklers where everywhere! 11 kids, plus a few adults, and 150+ sparklers=utter chaos of sparks, close calls, and relief when it was finally over!

On Friday morning Stephen and I took a walk on the beach, which we should have been doing every morning, but we were just so dang tired! (not fun getting old) Before our walk we had buried 3 "treasure boxes," so when we got back we gave the kids the treasure maps that we had "found." Beck just soaked the whole thing up. With his love of pirated and everything he was just so excited. Although after finding the treasure he was for sure that we needed to "give it back to the pirates, they want it for their girlfriends!"

We took a big family picture of everyone, but I need to get it from Jake's camera. This is the best we got for our small family photo. Although cold, it really was quite beautiful there