The coast...

In California, it's the beach.

In Jersey, it's the shore.

But in Oregon, you go to the coast if you want to see the ocean.

We wanted to see the ocean today, so we headed to the coast.

Ain't it purty?

Though I adore the mountains of Utah, I am an ocean girl at heart, and it looks like my Lola bird is following suit.

 The last time Lola and I came to Cannon Beach, she couldn't walk yet and was terrified of the sand.

She's still terrified of the sand, but braved it in order to search for her beloved Dory.

She spent the better part of the outing calling out for the fabled Pixar fish, but to no avail.

It kind of broke my heart.

In fact, when I told her Reece was going to go catch Dory in the water, she started to cry and begged me not to let him hurt her friend.

Mother. Of. The. Year.

 I fear my obsessive-compulsive need to keep Lola from having sticky hands at all costs is beginning to spread to my daughter -- only sandy feet are her nemeses.

She ran from the water to the blanket screaming "I need wipes!" and then promptly dive into the diaper bag and furiously wipe her tootsies until the sand was somewhat defeated.

Then, it was back to the water.

10,000 wasted wipes and one frustrated toddler later, we decided it was time to shut it down.

On a somewhat related note, Lola's total disregard for beach blanket etiquette (never walk on the blanket with sandy feet) prompted Reece to deem her the "worst beach partner ever."

Poor Lola.

As for little James, he spent most of the day camped out under a blanket in his car seat.

His only real exposure to the ocean came in the making of the following photo, and as you can see, he wasn't happy about it.

What an adventure.

And no, I didn't mean for Lola and I to match.

We came off looking a little too "Motherboy" for my taste...