The Oregon coast/ parents of the year!

One of Eric's partners invited us (along with another partner and his family) to stay at their beach house for the weekend.  With 6 adults and 7 children I expected it to be a fun but crazy crowded time. The house was amazing, everyone had a bed to sleep in with an ocean view and the house was right on the beach! It was fabulous. 

Having grown up in California I am not used to needing sweatshirts/ jackets and rubber boots at the beach, but they were sooo handy.

After getting chilled to the bone playing in the ocean, the girls took hot baths and then had hot chocolate. Such a hard life!

We went exploring to several different locations but this was the most memorable from the trip.  We all went hiking through the Oregon rain forest. While we were walking on of the kids found a newt with a bright orange belly. All the kids were holding it and oohhing over how cool it was when another child caught one. I knew we had a critter keeper in the car (Lucy was hoping to catch a crab) so we brilliant parents all agreed the could each take one home.

After we got back to the house we were talking about the newts and someone said "I just hope they are not poisonous".  Eric quietly pulled out his phone and started Googling oregon newts. He asked Ruby to bring him one... This is where we get the parents of the year award.

Here is what we learned about the new pets we just let the 7 kids (ages 2-12) take home:

"The skin of T. granulosa contains toxins that are used as a defense against predators. Rough-skinned newts are exceptionally potent in this regard, producing a powerful neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin. The toxin has been known to irritate bare skin and mucous membranes of some individuals. One should be careful to wash one's hands after handling them as an accidental rubbing of the eyes afterward can be very painful, but is generally not serious. Humans have been documented to die after ingesting these newts."

The kids were all crying when we told them they could not keep any of them.