Brielle and Ronan blog: A nice, long Bandon vacation

We recently got home from a week-long trip to Bandon! This is actually the longest period of time we've ever gone, and it was wonderful to just relax and watch the kids enjoy their favorite Bandon activities.

Staying at Grammy and Kelly's house is always fun and relaxing. But being there a full week really gave me and Kraig a chance to have some down time. I can't remember the last time I just surfed the web, looking up random stuff I was wondering about! For example, I learned how to do a "fish tail" hair braid. I found out it's sometimes referred to as a "mermaid tail" braid, which made Brielle quite happy.

A wonderful development for us was that Brielle and Ronan were old enough to sleep together in a separate room. This, combined with Grammy and Kelly watching them in the early morning, meant that Kraig and I actually got some sleep! I hadn't felt that well rested in over 6 years (wonder why...)

During the drive down to Bandon, we asked the kids what they were looking forward to. Of course the first thing they both said was "see Grammy and Kelly".

The second thing they mentioned was looking forward to taking doggie Emmett on walks around the neighborhood.

Grammy and Kelly live in a small, peaceful neighborhood with many retired people who are excited to see "little kid energy" and come out to say "hi". Most of the walk is actually through forest paths that the residents have maintained and set up with magical little surprises.

At one special clearing the kids can discover little gnomes, houses, and other objects that somehow seem to move around day to day, sometimes hiding or hanging from a tree.

Grammy Barbara is sweet to take photos of me every once in a while to prove that I was actually there. Ronan got shy.

In one area of the woods, Grammy created a little dog park so that the neighbor dogs could play together off-leash. Emmett seemed to enjoy it with a neighbor dog who dropped by.

The walk has all sorts of special places to see. Here, someone dropped some yard debris behind a bench and a beautiful hydrangea grew!

The kids also enjoyed picking veggies in Grammy and Kelly's yard.

Brielle only seems to like photos of herself where she's making funny faces.

And of course we went out to the beach. The weather was really nice during our visit, but the beach can tend to get windy in the afternoon. We seemed to time it pretty well.

We like to take the kids to play in an area of the beach that's a little further out and shielded from the wind. There are little rivers where they can play with beach toys and wade in the water.

Bandon is strange in that when you go to the beach, you might be wearing just swimsuits, or you might be wearing a jacket, depending on how cool the wind is. On the day we went to the beach it was actually nice and warm. The water is too cold to swim in, but the kids had fun dipping their feet in the surf and jumping off of the sand dunes.

Ronan didn't want me to take pictures of him at first. But then he suddenly decided that he was ready to pose.

The kids also enjoyed a visit with Grandpa Taylor and Linda. We enjoyed a great dinner at our favorite local Chinese restaurant (the only Chinese restaurant in Bandon, so luckily it's great!). The kids liked taking selfies with the grandparents.

Back at the house, the kids enjoyed some of their favorite activities, including swimming in the spa.

Ronan decided to be sad for a few minutes.

The kids also enjoyed one of our favorite activities - relaxing in the sun on the back deck.

The adults like drinking wine on the deck and having adult conversations while the kids play in the sandbox or ride bikes/tricycles. The kids like making vegan smores.