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Beach trip 2011

We had a blast at the beach last week. We hope to make this a yearly trip. I love the beach and I’m so glad the boys did too! (or giant sandbox as they call it) We rented a small cottage with a very nice view. It was so nice having our own space (so we didn’t feel so bad about being loud) and being able to cook our own food (so much cheaper than restaurants).

We went to the beach every morning, napped (okay poor Matt worked!), and then went back to the beach. There was a train crossing a block up the road from the cottage and the boys had to go see the “thomas crossing” every day. The weather was divine, never above 72°, it was a little gloomy in the mornings, but the sun would come out in the afternoons. We loved being able to walk wherever we wanted without feeling like we were going to melt. The last night there we took a super long walk, walked out on the longest wooden pier in the US, then walked around downtown Oceanside. For all that walking the boys were rewarded with pizza and ice cream.

The first evening there we went straight down to the beach near our cottage. The tide was coming in and the coast line was rocky right there. The boys went out in the water with us right away, but Noah lost his balance in a wave and was done with the water. We were all playing in the sand up high by the rocks and told Noah the water couldn’t come get him. The waves were coming nowhere near us, so we all relaxed and had some fun sand play. Imagine our surprise (and poor Noah’s terror) when a large wave came up and knocked us all over and started taking our stuff out to sea. Poor Noah wanted nothing to do with the ocean after that and I thought our trip was ruined. The next day though we found a little play beach with no rocks and eventually he warmed up to the water and ended up loving it. 🙂

On the way to Oceanside you drive through the sand dunes. I pointed them out to the boys and Ezra demanded we go play. He just couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t stop to play in this sand. I explained it would be more fun at the beach. The boy loved the giant sandbox near the water and requested to go to it constantly. “Go play big sandbox”

You can see more photos here, and also click on the first photo in this post to scroll through and read descriptions.

Some video of the fun:

Untitled from matt adams on Vimeo.

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Canvas Prints

Stephanie and I really enjoy seeing some of our favorite pics on canvas. Seems like a classier way to showcase large prints, without breaking the bank. We have a few canvases in the house of our favorite wild subjects. Usually black and white, but we have been wanting a few color ones too.

So perfect timing, Easy Canvas Prints asked us to demo their work at an 8×10″ size. We found a good photo and sent it off.  We used a family photo from the botanical gardens last fall that our friend Tara at third book photography (now in portland) took for us.  We chose color on a 3/4″ frame, with a black edge wrap.

Turned out great.

 

We love the print, and the photo, colors and texture were great. I will note that when using a group shot, the canvas texture may show on close inspection to create odd skin details. Mainly because the canvas texture is so heavy, that on a 1″ face will show a lot of texture for small facial features. This is pretty much the same on every canvas we have seen, So more of a general photo to canvas note. Step back 4 feet and its fine.

 

* Disclaimer. We did receive a free print from Easy Canvas Prints with the intention of a review. We Did not let this skew our opinion of the product, and we would indeed buy from them again.

 

Check out these awesome canvases!
Easy Canvas Prints

 

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Beach Day 1

Got to Oceanside. Its so nice, and low 70s. The boys got to play in the sand and the ocean. Ezra loved it, Noah got knocked down by a few waves and we had one massive wave out of the blue that caught us off guard that kept him out of the water for a bit. Hoping he gets over it more today.

 

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Berry Picking

The Boys spent the weekend with Gma and papa at the cabin, They saw squirrels, a horned toad, and a tarantula! They rode the ATVs, ate a ton of mac & cheese and had a good time. We all went berry picking on sunday before bringing them home.

Ezra lasted about 10 minutes of dealing with thorns and finding the ripe ones. But lets just say Noah was in heaven! He was eating them as fast as he could pick them. Being the little genius that he is, he figured out mommy was picking faster, and had a large, full bag already going. So he moved on from the bushes to just getting handfulls out of moms bag. We think he ate a pound of raspberries in 20 minutes.