Nye Beach

We couldn't have asked for better weather today in Newport!  It was almost 70 degrees, bright blue skies and not windy at all.  It was so warm the kids wished they had their boogie boards....until they felt the water!

 We were out during low tide so there were all kinds of rock formations for the kids to climb on.  Ashlyn wasn't even scared to walk barefoot on the slimy seaweed that was covering the rocks.  However, when we weren't watching a wave snuck up on her and all of a sudden she was in water up to her ankles and FREAKED out.  She wasn't very convinced when I told her to hang tight and wait for the water to recede and she could climb down...turned out Mom knew what she was talking about though!

 Poking sea urchins and anemones with sticks to watch them close up NEVER gets old.

 Blake thought he'd go in for a closer look to try and find some starfish....a wave snuck up on him too!

 They were excited to find more dunes to play on.  Ashlyn was a little mountain goat getting up, until she had to walk across the face of it and got a little nervous.

They made it all the way up to the top and then decided to shout down at me, calling me a pansy for not climbing up with them.  Hey, I had to take a picture from the bottom for proof they made it...as Dad says - if there's not a picture for the scrapbook, it didn't happen.

As everybody knows, if ya climb up something-ya gotta get down.  Ashlyn was a little nervous about how steep it was going down and decided to crab walk down the ENTIRE way!

 Then this evening we went down to the docks to see the sea lions.  They were all asleep when we first got there, which was kind of a let down.  However, right before we started to leave a sea lion climbed up on the dock and knocked the balance off and they all started sliding into the water, almost flipping the dock.  HILARIOUS!!!  

This caused a HUGE and VERY LOUD fight among them and they began playing "King of the Mountain".  Four of the biggest sea lions sat on each corner of the dock and watched for other trying to climb on then they'd get right in its face and start growling and shaking its head at them and then all the others in the middle would join in snorting and barking...sooo funny!! We sat and watched their game for almost a 1/2 hour.

We're hitting the Outlet Mall tomorrow morning for some Back to School shopping, but hopefully it will be a nice day again to play a little more on the beach before we have to head home tomorrow night.