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As we headed down the coast on our first unplanned roadtrip with the girls, the sights we came across were amazing and wonderful. God has made a beautiful world for us to live in!  I feel so blessed that we get to take our girls to explore it!

Yep, that's K out on that tree.

There are many pretty lighthouses along the coast but we did learn that the state with the most lighthouses isn't even on one of the coasts.  Who wins the award? Michigan!  Lake Superior...

Yep, more fish...this might become a habit.  Less work for me!!

This is how the girls would sit so they wouldn't get hit by the smoke from the fire. Talk about a human shield!

We did finally stop at one lighthouse for a tour. This light was red and white.  I had no idea that lighthouses didn't just warn of a coast too close.  Apparently the colors and the pattern of the colors actually told sailors exactly where they were.

This is an oyster farm right off the coast.

This tree became K's favorite place and we even went back the next morning so she could climb one more time.

There were flowers at our new campsite, so K made a floral arrangement for the table.

Ah, this is the completed glass globe from her glass blowing days.

This coast also had seals...

Back on the road, we found another, well, you guessed it, a beach.  But this one had a ton of driftwood on it and the shore looked like it would have good tide pools.  The tide pools were a bust but the driftwood was a hit.  They began building their own tee pee.

And then they built a fire pit in it.

They were working so well as a team that we stayed for much longer than we had intended.  But that is what an unplanned road trip is all about - do what strikes you that day and in that moment.  On this day it was a driftwood tee pee.

In another town, the girls ate their first strawberry rhubarb pie.  Both our grandmas used to make that pie and it was our favorite and when we realized neither of the girls had even tasted it, we ordered it on the spot.  I really hope we don't lose so much contact with the past that we forget the little things that make it a joy and give us comfort!

Well, this day ended at another random, clean and beautiful campsite - with showers!!! Oregon is so clean!!

More from Oregon

The thing I loved the most about hiking on this coast was the variety we kept walking through...and, of course, the company. :-) Em and I went for a hike together while the other two went fishing again.

This was one of those trails that branches more times than you can count so I kept stopping to remember how to get home.  Finally Em took her stick and stuck it in the ground and declared that the stick was telling us to go, "That way."  Finally I asked her, "And how do you know what the stick is saying?" And without a pause she quipped back, "Because its's a magic stick just like Jack and Annie's." Her shoulders and hands said, "DUH!" (Jack and Annie are in The Magic Treehouse series we listen to in the car sometimes). So, from then on, at every intersection, she buried her stick and I asked her which way it said we should go.

Note the sand above and the moss below...so much variety.

Em didn't stop talking from the time we left until, well, I am not sure she has stopped.  But at this point we were walking in Mama T-Rex's territory and she had three babies so we needed to be careful not to let her know we were there. BTW, she knew Mama T-Rex was there because the rhododendrons are her favorite candy.

The beautiful thing about Em: conversation, a couple bags of chips and lots of imagination and she is in for three and a half miles before she even starts to complain. (It was only supposed to be two and a half but somewhere we took a wrong turn and added in an extra loop).

So, though the stick gave us an extra mile, we made it to the beach, and boy was it a beautiful day!  I took some pics of the beautiful scenery - though the one was always a moving target.

Emily was in LOVE with this sand because it was SO SOFT!!

They keep telling me that she is really smart and they know because she compensates so well for tunnel vision, double vision, and the two eyes not even working together (yes, they have stopped coordinating again - I know that is sad news but focus) that she has most of us fooled into thinking she sees better than she does.

So I love taking pics of this crazy kid!

Once we finally got back and reconnected with the other two, we went to a place where they will let you blow your own glass.  We decided to let the girls give it a try.  First she added color to her hot glass, then put it in the oven.

Then it was to blow it out - a much harder task than you might think.  We decided to go small.

Then it was Em's turn.  She had a spotter...

But she did a great job!  I now have blown glass globes blown by my own little girls.  And Em's has a small piece of brick on it to remind me that she hit the edge of the oven on her way out.  More to come!  We are starting vision therapy for Emily tomorrow.  Please pray this is helpful to her and that reading will not be quite so hard!  God Bless!