Oregon - or the graduation of a marine biologist.

The last of our summer vacations was a trip to the hypnotic Oregon coast line. We specifically went to support my brainy brother as he defended his dissertation.

This first picture is of the pouting Talmadge as he had just been told he could not go in the boat house and get Uncle Paul until he was done meeting with his review board. We all were anxiously awaiting Uncle Paul's announcement.

The boys found things to occupy their attention as they wait

He passed! He is now Dr. Paul H. Dunn the Ph.D.!!!

The Dr. getting some love from his Celtic Queen.

Once we knew Paul was in the clear it was time for some fun. We walked down to the docks and found this friend swimming around looking for some discarded fish guts, sounds like a tasty treat right?!

Paul and Heidi showed us a cool little hike to a waterfall. It looks like this background isn't real, right? Well, it's real ya'll. I'm sure you all know I couldn't figure out how to photoshop anyway.

They boys found a stream with bugs and slugs and all kinds of treasures only boys could love.

Jared and Talmadge exploring and finding which rocks they could jump on.

The reasons I am alive. The wonderful Kim and Hayven.

Spence had had enough of watching from the sidelines and jumped in.

A little ways away from the waterfall we found a river in the sunshine. These are my two handsome fellows. Please, don't be jealous ladies.

Refusing to get in even slightly cold water, I am soaking in the sunshine on the riverbank. Ah, delicious sunlight.

The true highlight for our little adventurer was the crabbing. Uncle Paul put out crab traps several times and Spencer and Talmadge were in heaven. They were able to hold the crabs and...

Throw them back in!!! The crabs were amazing once they were back in the water. They could flip back over and swim right on down to the bottom.

Talmadge was impressed with his fathers accomplishment. Jared made the balloon dog he is holding. What more could Jared hope to accomplish after that?

Next up are the boys running on Bastion Dorff beach. The water was freezing, but as you can see, they didn't care.

Talmadge will rarely smile for pictures but I promise he was loving his beach day.

Nana was helping Talmadge build a sand castle.

The mighty edifice with scavenged crab shells. Nana and Talmadge even put water in the moat.

Spencer was buried alive!

Me with my beautiful mother. I loved the humidity making my hair incredibly curly. It was great I hardly had to do a thing to it.

Talmadge had to be buried too.

Paul and Heidi told us about this really cool little lake out in the middle of no where. They said no one was ever there. We pulled up to find about 15 cars with loads of people. So much for skinny dipping.

Mother and recent Ph.D. taking it easy at the lake. Behind this lake was an awesome sand dune that Dad called his Mt. Everest to climb. We all made the trek up and ran around jumping up and down it. Of course my guys made the trek several times performing flying leaps as they ran down the giant hill.