Our river of life: Making up for yesterday. (5th stop)

The next day started off on a better note. One major bonus, my stomach hurt a lot less. I'm telling you I made sure to make good food choices for the rest of the trip! Lesson learned, again. ;) So it was either a way better day or I took a ridiculous amount of pictures to try and make up for the day before. It did end up being a long travel day because we were trying to find a good dunes spot that we could stop at with the trailer in tow. Ended up being trickier than we had imagined. A lot of failed attempts/side trips that ended in disappointment because there was no where to park or the down hill incline was too steep to go down with the trailer (knowing that we would have to go back up again). In prior trips we had one vehicle and it was no problem finding a spot. Our last time at the dunes Banden was a baby and the others obviously weren't there, so we really wanted to show them the big dunes and they had been looking forward to it the whole trip. Sigh. Really puts the pressure on.

Pit stop on the side of the road. So pretty. :)

So we finally found a place to stop that didn't have a no trailers sign. We were suppose to have a pass but accidentally passed the spot to pay and didn't see a good way to turn around. So being as we were desperate at that point we just went for it. I was stressed out the whole time that we were going to get a ticket so it sort of took a bit of the fun out of it for me. But not the kids, and that's all that mattered at that point. I loved seeing their little faces when they started climbing the big dunes and running down. They were so excited! :)

By the time I made it to the top these boys had already run down!

Somebody was a daddy's little girl for most of the trip. ;)

These girls loved stretching their legs on the beach! And they deserved it, such good road trip partners! One nice thing about little dogs, hardly anyone cares if you accidentally drop the leases. ;) No one was even on this beach so it really didn't matter. They had a blast!

It was super windy, can you tell? We all had so much fun, but we kept the trip short because of the whole don't want a ticket thing. ;) Also we had already been on the road for a while and needed to get to our next stop. I wish we had been able to camp by the dunes but it didn't work out schedule wise. One day we will come back and make our destination the dunes. :)

The long steep trip back down. And I'm happy to say, no ticket was waiting for us. Phew! Dodged a bullet on that one. ;) We stayed at state parks the whole way back so I didn't feel too guilty about not paying for day use for an hours time.

Made it to Beverly Beach State Park! This park was crowded but it had all these really cool octopus trees! So I'd rate it as didn't hate, didn't love. ;) It was well taken care of and clean so that is always a bonus in my book. It was a long way to the beach though, and since we had already been running up and down dunes we drove to a parking spot just to get to the beach. It would have been a really, really long walk. Which my kids can do, but we were just not up to it.

They really loved the octopus trees. And learning all about them. ;)

The beach was worth the drive. Very pretty. It was crowded close to the entrance, so we wandered down the beach a ways.

Oops I dropped the leashes again. ;)

Stretching those legs!

Vicious poodles!! ;)

The boys spotted this and it begged to be climbed. ;)

This girl found some really amazing rocks on the trip, made a mother proud. :) She found one at Rogue River that had crystals on the inside, it was beautiful!

Almost to the top!

In all honesty I was getting a little panicky about Atty just because he's a bit of a klutz (in the clumsy way) and I was worried he would slip and tumble all the way down. This picture doesn't do justice to how high up they were.

What is the logical thing to do when you've reached the top and your mom asks you to come back down? Slide!

Oh dear! He saw his brothers slide and turned around and started from the top. My heart dropped! But by the time he was half way down I was laughing so hard! I don't think he realize what he was getting himself into! It was a bumpy ride on that side, but he made it safely down. :)

And they all headed back up again. Of course!

Then we headed toward the water. Time for chasing waves!

Here's one way to get a group shot. ;)

Once again Atty chose to hang out with me on the nice dry beach. ;) Drawing in the sand. He drew pictures and sweet words for me.

He wrote, "Mom (heart) valentines" and was super excited to show me. Adorable. :)

After we left the beach we headed back for a campfire dinner of hot dogs and chili with carrot sticks.

Atty decided to roast his carrot as well. And it was on!

Roasting carrots, we aren't the only ones are we? ;)

This was by far our favorite treat of the trip. Roasted apples. We pushed a skewer into them when they were done and then rolled them in cinnamon honey and ate them like a candy apple. Only over a plate because no one wants hot apple in their lap! So, so, so, delicious!

We got in the habit of after dinner walks, which was awesome and I wish that happened at home. Unfortunately at home dinner usually becomes a rushed affair before bed. Anyways, at this campsite there was a little walk beside a creek with lots more of the octopus trees.