Vacation

Ahhhh.... Vacation. Most vacations are supposed to be relaxing, right? Well, ours was a whirlwind adventure of driving, visiting, beach hopping, aquarium exploring, barbecuing, swimming, and driving. Did I say driving already??? Well, that should tell you just how much driving Chris did (thanks, Honey!!!).

Sometimes, I think pictures can capture more than words. Here are a ton of pics from our vacay. I'll explain some of them along the way.

After spending the night with our friends, the Roths, we all packed up and headed to the Oregon coast. Our first stop was in Tillamook, where the cheese factory is. This is a prerequisite stop for ANY trip to the Oregon coast. Tillamook puts out the best cheese and ice cream around. The factory was packed!!! The kids were fascinated with the cheese packaging process that was visible through the observatory windows. Aiden loved the cheese samples, and Paige and Finn (and me) were all over the ice cream. I took a picture of this picture because I thought it was hilarious. I am easily amused, after all....


Here are Aiden and Paige at the cheese factory. They are posing with the fake cows up on the observatory deck- though you really can't see the cows.

After Tillamook, we traveled down Hwy 101 to Lincoln City, our ultimate destination. Jamie booked us a beautiful room at a beautiful hotel (both of which I neglected to get pics of...). This is a picture of the kids on the beach that evening. Yes, in July. The Oregon coast is not your typical summertime beach. Even in August, you're lucky if you can make it to the beach in shorts, without a sweatshirt. As you can see, it was VERY windy that evening. So much so that Finn could barely stand up. Funny enough, after we left the beach and had dinner, we took the kids swimming in the hotel pool....

The next day, we decided to take a drive. Finn needed to nap, and he was NOT having any part of napping in the hotel room. Before we knew it, we were driving into Newport. Newport is the home of a fantastic aquarium that we love. In fact, the kids prefer the aquarium over the zoo. So, we made a snap decision to visit the aquarium while we were there. Especially since the beach was foggy and cold. Go figure. Paige loved the giant crabs, Aiden loved learning about the octopus from the college kid that was there teaching, and I loved the otters. I think Finn liked the jellyfish the best, and Chris just enjoyed the kids' excitement.

This is a picture of the coast from our car. I was trying to capture the low, dark, ominous cloud bank that was hanging out over the ocean. You can see the ocean, the cloud bank, then the sky above it. By afternoon, those clouds had moved in to cover the beach and the road.

Since I couldn't wrangle the kids for a pic together, I tried to get one of me with all the kids.

We love taking pics of the kids in the sand with their names. Aiden and Paige thought is was cool. Finn did not.

Me and Chris

After we left the beach behind, we headed up to the Vancouver (WA, not BC) area to spend a little time with Chris' family. An afternoon barbecue was on the agenda. Did you know that when we get together with Chris' immediate family, there are 29 people??? And 17 of those people are all our kids!!! It's a ton of fun. I really love the chance to see everyone in one place. It makes me and Chris both wish we lived closer to everyone. The pic above is all the grandkids and Mom and Pop.

Paige had a blast playing with her cousins. So did Aiden. But the boys were so busy, they wouldn't hold still to pose for a pic.

Our family

Next, we made the drive over Mt. Hood to spend some time with my family. The kids got a kick out of the drive over Hood, especially after Chris told them it is a live volcano. Paige swore she saw penguins in the snow on the top. I didn't get any pictures at my parents' .... I always forget to!!! We visited with a family I babysat for when I was a teenager, spent some time with Gigi and Grasshopper, made it through a storm with hail the size of marbles, and spent some time in the pool.

After 6 days on the road, it was time to pack up and head home again. We had a fantastic time on our whirlwind vacation, but it IS always nice to be home again.