Birthday Fun

Brian's birthday was Oct 7! We celebrated it several times and it seems like his birth"day" became his birth"month". He was very busy on his actual birthday and I was very excited to give him his presents so I let him open them 2 days early.

Van wanted to open them and get grabbing for them.

When he realized they were for his dad he was less than excited...

One of his presents from me was a trip to the coast the following weekend (this last weekend). It was perfect. The weather was probably the best we've ever experienced on the coast and we had so much fun! We stayed in Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, which we had never been to before. I wish we had taken pictures along the drive out there. It was a route we hadn't taken before and the fall foliage was gorgeous. However, we did get pictures of some elk we saw! They were everywhere and there were several elk viewing stations along the side of the road. These two were locking horns!

That night we just played with Van in the cabin before he had to go to bed

Our cabin overlooked Lake Marie, it was really beautiful. We ate breakfast on the porch and took a hike around the lake.

If you look closely in this picture you can see our cabin on the other side of the lake. It's up on the hill and semi hidden by the trees.

After our hike we packed up the car and headed out exploring the area.

We went to the beach..
and the Oregon sand dunes,

Brian wants to come back now with an ATV and do some sand camping.

We took the long way home so we could drive along the coast.

Unfortunately our camera battery died shortly after we left the dunes so we don't have pictures to document the rest of the trip. We spent the rest of the day taking our time getting home and stopping whenever we saw something interesting. What a beautiful place we live in!

Happy Birthday Brian! (is your birthday month over yet?)