When we first started going to Cannon Beach, we played in the water running in and out of the water as the waves licked their ankles. They chased seagulls and splashed around the tide pools.  As they grew older, we added skim boarding to our water play. They watched videos of tricks and worked on jumping on the moving board at the beach. Thinking the next year they would be better. A couple more years went by and we graduated to boogie boards. We found the best save play beach is at Ecola State Park, just a few miles from Cannon Beach. The surfers haul their gear, often times building small fires to warm up and setting up camp net to the cliffs. Donning wet suits, we brave the cold Pacific waters to ride the waves into shore. Over and over again, the waves crash over us as we wait for the perfect one. As soon as we feel that lift, we paddle like crazy with our feet to keep that momentum going. After a few minutes, our legs become numb to the cold and we feel as if we could stay hours in there but our strength is zapped and 20 minutes or so is all we can last, even with wet suits. Once out it is so difficult to get back into the water and yet we do. We repeat that cycle until our stomachs tell us it's time for real food and dinner. We gather our belongings and make our sandy way back to the van, dragging more sand with us that could fill a bucket. We laugh and talk and plan for this next year.  Wondering about better wet suits and more boards.