Memorial Day weekend in Manzanita!

We spent the long weekend at the Oregon coast, in the town of Manzanita. We rented an enormous house - 9 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, and an acre of grassy yard space - along with our friends Michela and Brian, Elise and Todd, Mary and Patrick, Anne and Cuong, and Adrienne and Jeff. We were 23 people. It was a last-minute madness, and it turned out beautifully.

 

  

The beach was cold, of course, although not cold enough to keep my children out of the water. They ran and splashed in the waves on both Saturday and Sunday, and then shivered and buried themselves in the warm sand and covered themselves with blankets. Other children proved to have more sense (although not Camille, and not Seb's friend Frances, separately in Manzanita for the weekend with her family).

 

Dinner on Saturday night was a choose-your-own burrito adventure with wheat and corn tortillas, chicken, black beans, rice, sweet potatoes, roasted zucchini and red peppers, guacamole, salsa, and cheddar cheese.

And for dessert, marshmallows roasted and burned around the fire pit. Sebastian was initially quite nervous and wouldn't participate - he's never liked getting close to fire, and the last time he had marshmallows he was sick. But eventually he got in there and joined the unhealthiness.

Storytime! We got all the kids into their jammies around 8, and then Adrienne read a story and Steve told them two - one about a boy and his dog and his red bicycle, and one about a girl and some dragons.

 Sunday morning at the beach. The Ceccacci's haven't yet adjusted from California. :)

 Sebastian and Frances at the beach.

 Jeff and Patrick digging a two-room mansion. Or maybe a tunnel to China. It was unclear.

 Baby Filomena and baby Genevieve, both fascinated by the same hole.

 Good thing we had a former cheerleader to help us retrieve the frisbee that was stuck in a tree.

Dinner prep for Sunday night: hot dogs, sausages, corn on the cob, roasted asparagus, braised kale and leek.  And smores, this time, since plain marshmallows weren't enough.

The giant-sized lawn, and lots of children to play with (and adults), was fantastic. We had soccer, bocce, cornhole, football, and lots of random tag and wrestling games.

Steve entertaining the children with various games - he was truly a Pied Piper all weekend with the gang.

On Monday morning, our family took off a little earlier than the others (we were up before 6, and the kids were getting grouchy), and hiked up Neahkanie Mountain. I'll publish those pics in a second blog post.