New Years at the Cottage

We bid 2015 farewell and welcomed 2016 from our little slice of heaven along the Oregon Coast. The final sunset of the year was absolutely glorious! We bundled ourselves up, went down to the beach, and watched the sun paint the sky golden before dipping below the horizon. Walking along the sand, we reflected on all of the changes we had experienced throughout the year… leaving Shanghai, moving home to the states, changing careers, starting our own photography business. In just a short 6 months it seems we have built a whole new life!

We passed a family of deer on our way back to the cottage, so we stopped to blow them kisses. Obviously.

New Years Day blew in on some crazy strong winds… our beach walk only lasted about 5 minutes!Bella, ever hopeful =)All cozy in the cottage we entertained ourselves with drawing, reading and playing… and Isla played stylist to her very patient Daddo.The wind died down and the weather was more conducive to beach walking later in the week…Bella is 13 1/2 now, but she transforms into a playful pup the minute her paws touch the sand. Makes my heart so happy!This little cutie makes my heart pretty happy too!These days Isla has become quite the little mommy. She has an amazing imagination and just about anything can be her little baby. On the beach she found a crab claw and instantly started coddling and rocking it. She carried her baby crab claw around for the rest of our walk and proudly showed it to us. Repeatedly. “Isn’t my baby so cute?” she’d ask. She also found a broken clam shell to use for a bottle and fed her baby some milk. The winds carried in lots of sea foam onto the shore.  Isla thought it was great fun to through handfuls of sand into the foam and watch it dissolve.Jump! Jump!Isla and Daddo spent one morning drawing in the sand with sticks. Isla’s self portrait! She has just recently begun drawing legs and faces.During meals we spent time developing our pasta twirling skills. Isla is 1/8 Italian, after all ;). She really made a lot of progress…although sometimes she reverted back to the “shovel it in” method. That works too =).

Another highlight of our week at the coast was Isla’s first trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We’ll share about that soon!