The first week in July we joined with Kevin's family for the annual Pickup family reunion. We started are rendezvous in Lincoln City where we rented a BEAUTIFUL home right on the beach. It was so nice to be able to just step out onto the beach and to watch the kids from our balcony. The house was absolutely beautiful and accommodated us all very easily. On the way to the beach Kevin, Zane, Nora, Anna and I stopped outside the Evergreen Aviation Museum for a break. They have a really great playground and some fun tanks and airplanes to see outside. We didn't have time to go inside (meaning we would have stayed all day--Kevin loves that place), but it was a nice place to stop and feed Anna and let the kids run around.
Once we arrived in Lincoln City we planned on just playing on the beach until we could get in the house, as it was still being cleaned, but the weather was kind of "iffy." We still took our chances and only got misted on a bit.
We had a great time playing on the beach, flying kites, eating good food, visiting, having a picture scavenger hunt and building sand castles.
Anna and Hannah--five months and three months
Zane, Nora, Jennifer
Anna
One of the activities was a "picture scavenger hunt." Each child in the family got paired with an Aunt/Uncle and we had to find a list of things, take a picture and the child had to be in the picture. Kevin and I were paired with Kade. He was so enthusiastic about it. I'm sure we had the most fun.
Playing on the beach. The house we stayed in is the big one in the background.
Zane was intensely working on his project.
Nora had a blast at the aquarium. She loved getting right up close to the creatures. Here she is trying to pet a snake. 
We had a family work day with the goal of painting the fence. No small task considering the fence around this property. The Pickup's neighbor moved to Florida. They had this huge play structure that they needed out of their yard so they could potentially rent it. They were so kind to give it to Kevin and I and our family. If only we had a yard to put it in. For now it will happily reside at Grandma and Grandpa's. Some of the boys moved the play structure to the back yard while other painted the fence. Others tried to keep kids from touching the wet paint on the fence or took turns nursing the babies. We did manage to get almost the entire fence painted and mended in one day.
Why set up the slide? This is more fun.
Two of Nora's favorite things--sweets and swinging.
This reunion did not include nearly as much swimming. The water was just too cold for most of us wimps. We did have a couple of times where it was warm enough outside to make a cool splash feel pretty good.
Nora and Daddy in the pool.
Nora's at the stage where she doesn't want to look at the camera unless it her idea. Zane is just leaving that stage, so this is the best picture I could get of the two of them.
