My Oregonian Girl

We went out to the coast Mother's Day weekend, and I've been meaning to post these pictures. I decided I'd better get on with it considering how it's practically Father's Day now! Note to self: get something for the dads in my life.

If you remember from past accounts, my little girl has never been much of a beach bum. The sand was always too cold or wet, it was too windy, and don't even think about making her touch that cold ocean water! For some reason, all that changed. We drove out late Wed. night after Grant got home from teaching his class, so we got to the beach house around 10:30 at night. It was dark, but I walked around the beach house with Eleanor so she could see the ocean. We talked about how we would go see it when it was daytime. Eleanor kept telling me, "And I will stand on it by myself." Her one consolation for not going on the beach that night was that we told her she could listen to the ocean out her window and fall asleep to the sound of the ocean.

The next day, we left early to meet up with Grant's school group at the Marine Science Center in Newport. I didn't realize until we arrived in Newport that I had left my camera back at the beach house, so that was a bummer. They had a guided tour out on the estuary, where they dug for clams or shrimp. Eleanor trudged through the mud, loving every minute of it. She found a cockle shell and scooped in the mud and the puddles with it. She kept telling me, "I wanna scoop in the ocean." But there wasn't much ocean out on the estuary because the tide was so low. Try explaining an estuary to a two year old! I had to hover over her the whole time because the mud would suction her down, making it hard for her to walk. Some of the time, the mud was up to her knees. I could just see her flopping face-first into the mud. That would have made for a lovely car ride back.

Eleanor enjoyed seeing the octopus, even though we missed feeding time just like the year before. I think I got her to touch the sea anemones at least once, but then she grew cautious, probably because they are sticky. She's so protective. I would reach in to touch a starfish to try to show her how harmless it was, and she would tell me not to touch it. She would say, "Only that guy touch it," pointing to the man who worked there.

We had a nice picnic outside. We used this fuzzy pink blanket Cindy gave Eleanor that we happened to have in the car. It must have looked like a super girl powered picnic. Poor Grant. Wish I had a picture of that.

Since we were already in Newport, we went a little farther south to visit Uncle Father Bill, my Gary's brother. After enjoying a visit with him, we drove back up the coast to the beach house just in time for bed. The beach had to wait another day.

On Friday, we finally made it out onto the beach, and it was a gorgeous day. We took off Eleanor's sandals and put her down in the sand. I thought it would take less than 10 seconds before she would start whining to be picked up, similar to other visits to the coast. Much to our surprise, she was happy as a clam! She was so excited to be on the beach and to see the ocean again. Here come a ton of pictures. . . I liked them all. Is it just in my head, or do all kids look 10 times cuter on the beach?

Digging in her toes.

Burying her feet while getting her pants rolled up.

"Where our feets go?"

Another big surprise for me. She ran for the ocean as soon as we got close, and she didn't even come back crying when the cold hit her feet. She loved it! I kept wondering if this was the same child I had lived with for 2 and 1/2 years. I was so proud, I could burst. I've always liked getting into the ocean. Oregon beaches are the only ones I've ever seen, so I don't turn up my nose to the cold water, spoiled by experiences from other warm beaches. I haven't gone in the water as much since I had Eleanor because it's more fun when someone will go in with me. I guess I won't have that problem anymore. She has finally blossomed into an Oregonian!

Making sand drip castles with Daddy.

We ran in and out of the water together. Once, at the very beginning, she was standing in the water when a big wave came. I told her we needed to turn and run, and she tried to, falling down onto her bottom in the process. She squawked immediately, and since I was right next to her, I quickly lifted her onto her feet again. I thought to myself, "Well, that was a short trip to the beach. She'll no doubt cry the whole way back because her clothes are soaked with cold water." But I was wrong again. She just wanted to keep playing in the water. So, from then on, I held her hand so she wouldn't fall when we ran back. Such a little trooper!

The tide had formed many little pockets in the sand where there were puddles of standing water. Eleanor loved playing in the puddles the most.


And look, she finally got to scoop in the ocean.

Look at our soaking wet girl, happy after playing on the beach (though she would have played longer if her wimpy parents hadn't been concerned about her being too cold).
Later that day, when Eleanor got up from her nap, the tide had come in and covered all of her puddles. She was so sad. She kept saying, "I want my puddles back!" We had to take her out to ice cream to console her. That was sad for all of us (notice the sarcasm).
Saturday's weather was not as good to us. There was a slight mist falling when we first got down onto the beach, and it was cold. Eleanor didn't care one bit. Her puddles were still mostly gone, but there were a few shallow ones that qualified for her to exclaim, "My puddles came back!"

She loved running on the beach. Her little legs took her really far really fast, and she didn't even care if we were behind her or not. One time, she took off running and told me, "We're running from the ocean!" I didn't have the heart to tell her that, since she was running directly south, she wouldn't make it very far from the ocean.

Running with Daddy and looking back to say, "Come on, Mommy!"

The mist got heavier, until we were soaked and had water dripping off our faces. Eleanor still didn't want to leave the beach. This is her grin as she ran from the water just as a wave came in. She did this over and over with her daddy, smiling and laughing so hard every time they ran.
I made Grant run into the ocean with her since I was freezing already (I know, I wimped out).

Running again. That was a great trip to the coast.