A Day at the Beach~

In Dash's own words, on Wednesday we "hit the jackpot" when we decided to make an impromptu day trip to Newport for some Pacific Northwest beach fun.
The weather was superb, the kiddos were happy (we ended up taking sweet Douzen-kun along!) and none of us wanted to leave when 4 p.m. approached.

Bringing the very much underused beach umbrella was a really good move.
What is usually a chill and gray coastal beach, was sunny and hot!
Not to mention, it shielded us from some kicked up sand from the wind.

Even Tak'e Dog came along! He had a most excellent time~

Here's the whole gang enjoying the sand in their own way.

And Ella Rose discovering the joys of becoming a sand mermaid.
As you've probably guessed, she didn't want to have anything to do with the water itself, let alone the sculptable sand that comes with it...
Douzen-kun, on the other hand, had a blast running through the freezing water - brrr!! :D

So there you have it!
We all had a lovely time, then topped the trip off with a tasty treat at an ice cream parlor -- yum! ;)

Hopefully, that won't be the last trip to the beach.
And for those of you thinking of hitting up the coast too -- Happy Beaching!!