Tillamook, OR

I've been wanting to get down to the Oregon Coast & visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Occasionally I've called it the Tillamook Cheesecake Factory… can you tell what has been on my mind? My brother was down in Vancouver for a wedding, so it was a win-win to spend the weekend on the Coast and pick him up on the way home. I get to steal him for a few days before he goes back to work!

I made ourselves at home right away! Fruit in the fruit bowl. Check! A special rack for one of my favorite items - peanut butter. Check! :)

 Benson found all the cords right away in our rental! It was hard trying to divert his attention away from all those fun cords.

 I am so in love with that little face. I love that he'll just sit there and look at me. I was realizing as I was going through my pictures - I have so many of Benson and not so many of Carly. A big part of that is Carly doesn't want to stop what she's doing and pose or smile for me. Most of my pics of Carly are her side or her back since she won't stay still.

 She found the book shelf and couldn't leave it alone. It cracks me up how she likes to flip through these books with no pictures.

 Carly's first kite. Daddy picked it out and apparently it's Transformers….

 Now we're at the Cheese Factory. Did you know Carly really likes cows? She does a really great "Moo!"

 Our view from our rental. I seriously loved looking out the big windows and being able to see the ocean. It was really windy of course, so sitting on the deck wasn't so much fun. However, Morgan opened up the doors to the deck at one point and I loved being able to hear the ocean from the living room. A little slice of heaven.

 We went up to Cape Meares. We got to see gorgeous views of the ocean and the lighthouse.

 Carly found little flowers to pick.

 I think Benson was really enjoying staying on the go and everything he got to see along the way. Although he's not a huge fan of the hat I make him wear.

 The Octopus Tree. Pretty amazing. The more I look at it, it seems like a pretty great tree for a treehouse.

 Carly LOVES the beach. Each time we told her we were going to the beach, she wouldn't stop talking about it until we were finally in the sand. She loved picking up rocks and throwing them in the water. Carrying around the limited shells she found, running around, and digging in the sand.

 Benson was in the stroller the first time we went on the beach, but I put him down this time. He seemed to be in heaven (minus the sand blowing in his face occasionally). He would grab a handful of sand and just let it sift through his fingers. Lucky for me, he didn't try eating any. He didn't get sand in his mouth until he decided to put the shovel in his mouth. He loved crawling around in the sand and even made his way toward some water. I think he would have gone head-first if Daddy hadn't grabbed him.

 Carly's little footprints in the sand :)

 Just a little soccer on the beach. Apparently he's practicing the fine art of karate-soccer-parkour. In case you were wondering what that was.

Yet again reading more books. And why not with a little chair on the deck just her size?

Benson is 8 months!

Benson is 8 months! He is going anywhere and everywhere. His main method of transportation is crawling, but he has been pulling himself up and walking along furniture also. Needless to say baby-proofing is in order. I was spoiled with Carly and hardly had to do any baby-proofing. This boy has already been breaking things so it's time to whip my house into shape!

His favorite foods are bananas & sweet potatoes. Often he gets upset because I'm not giving him spoonfuls of those things fast enough. You would think he was starving. So far he only has 2 bottom teeth, but I keep thinking some top ones will be coming through any day. He's started doing a growl-type noise which makes me think there could be some full on growling coming soon. I can only hope. Growling babies really crack me up.

He is a Momma's Boy and has been following me around the house since he's been mobile. My favorite was quite a few weeks ago when I was vacuuming the house. Benson followed me as I went from room to room. He also loves any type of cord. So he was also following the vacuum cord I'm sure. He hangs out on the kitchen floor when I'm making dinner, etc. He's high energy and very fun to play with.

 He loves hair. Carly is a little bit scared of Benson & for good reason. She's really sweet with him, but also knows to keep her distance to some degree. I am sure I have lost lots of hair due to this baby (lack of sleep & the manually pulling hair from Benson lol). Apparently I haven't learned my lesson :)

 We went out to Enumclaw to visit some family last week. Carly really enjoyed jumping on the trampoline and having it all to herself.

 Carly loves to help in the backyard & garden. I think she has found the perfect size shovel for herself! Unfortunately she thinks it's ok to move dirt from the garden to the ground and vice versa. She's learning.... I usually try to make sure I water the garden when she's awake so she can "help". She has her own plastic jug that I fill with just a tiny bit of water and sometimes she dumps it somewhere useful (usually the strawberries or the rhubarb), but sometimes it ends up wherever. It's really fun to put her to work! She loves to help with pretty much anything. Lately she helps with the garden, meals sometimes, and laundry. She's really great at moving the laundry from the basket to the washer and rotating it on through when it's ready. In the past week she has gotten a little possessive of Benson. She will declare "my baby!" at times when I've picked him up or start playing with him. Obviously I must have been interrupting some of her plans with that boy! It's really fun to see them interact and have times where they just jabber & giggle at each other.

 Daddy is helping her water the raspberries.

 Bumblebees on our raspberries.

 Our sugar snap peas! So excited for our garden!

 The first strawberry is ready to eat! Hopefully it does better than last year.

Now that the sun has come out I'm realizing how hard it is to take pictures outside! When the brightness of the sun changes & you're moving around dealing with cloudy times, shady spots, sunny spots, etc. It's really hard to have to keep changing settings on my camera. I'm still very new & learning a lot. I guess it's time to step out of my comfort zone, or rather be forced out of my comfort zone.