Sand, Sand, and Sand

We went on a sand dune ride! We went on this big purple thing. It was super bumpy. 

It was super bumpy- but I think we all agreed, it should have been longer, gone faster, and done more tricks in the sand.

While on the ride, they stopped and let us play in the sand. There was this super steep hill of sand.

The kids would run and jump- basically off of a cliff- They pictures do not show how steep it was.

Tanner ran up the hill as I was taking pictures

and got in the way of the camera on accident. I think it is a great picture.

Then we went to the beach! To get to the beach you have to hike a super steep hill. Not that bad until you realize you are also hiking in 6 inches of super fine sand. That is a killer. Then you go down hill on the other side. Kind of fun going down.

It was "act weird in a picture" day or something

The older boys of course hit the waves. But they didn't stay too long. They said it was a lot colder here.

Chase and Andre were digging a hole. They found weird creatures in the sand. Then everyone got involved in finding more and more.

They are about the size of a silver dollar- but oval. This is a bucket of about 50-60 of them. They look like a giant roly poly from the top, them definitely have crustacean legs.

We dumped them onto the sand. They played dead really really well. They would just sit there- not moving for hours. Some went running but as soon as they found soft sand, they dived in and started digging.

Later, Tanner asked a ranger about them and was told they are called mole crabs. Here is a picture of  a mole crab from the internet.

I spent a good portion of every beach looking for cool things on the beach. I only found 3 pieces of sea glass- But I love cool shells and rocks. Today, Jaxon and Andre joined me. Jaxon collected orange shells. They look pretty cool.

The boys built a habitat for the mole crabs. It turns out that they swim really well.

The huge hills of sand that you have to climb were so fun for the boys. They loved playing in them and would have for a lot longer if we stayed longer.

This was Alex's favorite beach

Then we went back to camp and had dinner and back to the giant hill of sand that was near the lake in our campground.

Picture of Alex and Chase....

Photobomb! by Tanner.

Unbeknownst to me- he saw me taking this picture and ran as fast as he could across the dune and jumped in. He was so proud of himself.

That night we all took showers and played games. They showers were not perfect, but they were in all the campgrounds. That was my favorite part of Oregon campgrounds.

This was our last camping night. Seven nights camping! That is a lot.