more guests (yay!) & a quick coastal vacation

**I thought this one had posted last week. Sorry for the delay! (Make sure you check out my other recent post...contains some very exciting news...)

First off, I just want to express how grateful I am that we have friends & family willing to travel the miles & spend the money to come see us. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed thinking how many visitors we've been having backtobacktoback, how they'll see my dirty kitchen floor & unorganized fridge, never mind the dust on the window sills & my long-dead flower arrangement. And then I mentally slap myself & say, "Jenna, you are so blessed! There are so many people out there that have no idea of the concept of friends & family. Forget the kitchen floor & enjoy your people." I don't always remember that, but I try to. And so it was with excitement that we had an old friend & her husband stay with us while they were out visiting other relatives. Most of their week we were just ships passing in the night with work & birthday parties (Dar turned 27 August 20th!) & general summer mayhem. We did get to spend Sunday evening together, which was lovely. We went up to Silver Falls & did a little hike, then came back to our place for some golf & catching up. It wasn't like old times (nothing ever will be again), but it was still my friends & time spent together. These new memories will replace the old! 

Sinn family vacation: coastal style

We spent three nights out at the coast with Dar's family. It was mostly a fishing trip, but those of us not unfortunate enough to be stuck on a boat for 10 hours a day got to spend the surprisingly sunny days on the beach & carousing around town. Or lounging in your airy room's deep cushioned window seat, reading more books than you've read in the prior year combined. It was a great vacation. Just what I needed, after putting in some long hours at work & being constantly on the go for a while. 

 Little Livy is smiley & sweet, a great vacationer. 

 Seafood was the menu nearly every night: if it wasn't salmon, Riley was catching crabs in the bay steps from our rental home. One night he caught 27!

 We built a sandcastle, tooks naps in the sand, hunted for sand dollars (which we found!), & ate lots & lots.

 We did go for a short hike & museum trip across the river in Washington state at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. (Ahem, Alex & Wes, remember this place? Because I do. I have terrifying memories of being lost in the woods here...) It was a perfect PNW day, i.e. a little drippy, ferny, & very green. A good day for a museum.

 The lighthouse at Cape Disappointment, near the Lewis & Clark center.

 Livy, napping on the beach. I'm a little awed that this peanut's been to the beach 3 or 4 times already in her short life. How different my children's growing up will be than mine!

Crabbing at the bay near our house. 

It was a lovely time. And just one more reminder how blest I am, & how wonderful of a family I've married into.