Oregon Coast Vacation!

Oh my gosh guys...you're going to LOVE this post.

I have the best family ever. Everyone be jealous!

(That was sort of a thank you to the end of an awesome family vacation!)

August 10th-17th we went to Manzanita, Oregon for a family vacation on the West Coast!

My Mom, Dennis, Grandparents, Melanie, and my little family all stayed in a 4 bedroom

BEACH HOUSE!

August 9th is our anniversary, and this year we celebrated our 4th by driving to Boise to get a head start on driving to Manzanita!

The boys did fantastic on the drive!

Here we are in the truck!

Trace didn't make it pass Blackfoot!

So I thought a 13 hour drive to the coast would be a little rough, and so I got the boys "good behavior presents!" They each got 10 gifts that were mostly activities like puzzles, coloring books, stickers, stamps, and things like that. Best $20 I've ever spent at the Dollar Store! Great motivation to be good boys too! They really wanted to open those presents!

Oh...and these trays were also a great buy! Aydan really loved having his! Look at his sweet set up!

Traceon's tray didn't quite fit right over his car seat and was a pain for Mom (who didn't want things to spill off!) The portable DVD players were also a life saver! I now have the entire Lorax movie memorized!

We got into Boise about 6pm and went to Cabella's to look around for a bit, and then had an Anniversary dinner at Tucano's! It was so delicious, but it was hard for me to say "no" to some very rare cooked meat! I miss rare steak people!

This is Justin eating a chicken heart! Ah yuck!

Justin told our waitress that it was our anniversary so the sang to us, and brought out a dessert. It was pretty fun and the boys got to shake maraca's and tambourine's!

That night we spent the night at Melanie's apartment (so cute) and then woke up and got back on the highway at about 8am! We drove up to our beach house about 5pm that night and got settled in! Our room was great! It over looked the ocean, had a king sized bed, and bunk beds for the little guys! Oh and a living room including a TV! I should have taken a pic!

The house had 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a porch on the top and bottom floors that wrapped around, and most importantly (for beach purposes) 2 sets of washing machines!

Here is the house! Our room windows are the 2 above the garage!

My grandparents arrived just after we got our stuff set up in our room, and we were headed to the beach when they pulled up! Then after they got settled we all went to the beach to check it out!

I would say the boys were pretty excited!

It was pretty windy and cold! About 65 degrees that night! It felt good and bad all at the same time! IF has been SUPER HOT, so it felt good not being sweaty and gross, but my body was in shock from the cold, which felt bad!

After EVERYONE arrived the boys went back down to the beach to check it out again with Grandma Chris, Papa Dennis, and Grandpa Vern!

The next morning (SAT) we went back down to the beach for awhile, then we headed down to Tillamook, to check out the cheese and ice cream factory, and then went to the Tillamook county fair!



Here is Aydan at the Tillamook Cheese Factory in a photo prop!




Upstairs in the factory is where we could watch them make the cheese! It was cool to see all the big machines, and to see how fast production is!
Here are the boys and me with a Tillamook Ice Cream Cone! Yum!
Grandma and Grandpa enjoying some Ice Cream!

Downstairs they had all kinds of cheese samples to try! The boys really liked this and had a great little snack!






After trying out some cheese, the boys got to "ride" in a repleca of the old trucks that delivered cheese!



 After the factory we went to the Tillamook County Fair! It was fun to walk around and see all the 4H stuff from their little county!
Trying on some cool shades!

Then the boys got BALLOON ANIMALS! And loved them so...Aydan got a Dragon with wings, and Trace got a puppy! Both animals were on leashes!

Saturday night was SEAFOOD night! We had crab, and clams, as well as chips and nachos!

Here we are crackin' crab!

I'm sure glad that crab and clams (in small increments, meaning I can't eat 40lbs of it like I want to) are safe eats during pregnancy! Actually they recommend 6 oz of "safe" cooked, seafood a week, because it's chalk full of great vitamins and minerals! Yay for me, the seafood lover!

Then we took the boys to go roll in the sand....

Which tired them out, making them want to watch the Lorax...again.

Sunday was beautiful and we totally played on the beach for awhile!

The ocean waves were so fun for the boys to run in!

They got to work on building a sand castle!

Which included a mote!

Our beachy family!

That afternoon we went to a cove where some tide pools were, in hopes to see some starfish!

It was a gorgeous little hike down to the beach!

This waterfall was right above some of the tide pools!

Some clams, and that green thing. I don't know what it's called, but IT WAS ALIVE! If you touched the middle of it, it would close up, and if you tried to pick it up, it would bury itself deeper into the sand!

Look we found a purple starfish!

I love this picture, because the boys faces! The starfish look like they might be squishy, but they are hard, and don't move very fast!

Some more bright orange and purple starfish!

Aydan became brave enough to pick one up! We told him he could take one home if he held it!

The tentacles!

My Aydan-Bug and me!

Our starfish family!

Melanie and I!

Dennis, my Mom, Grandpa Vern, and Trace!

Monday we went all over! We started with visiting one of Dennis's uncle's. Uncle Herb lives close to the river and raises fish for a hobby. It was fun for Justin and my Grandpa to listen to him and his stories!

While we were there the boys spotted a slug!

And swung on a swing!

Next we went to Seaside, a cute little tourist town 30 mins from Manzanita. We ate lunch, and walked around. After that we went to a beach to fly Aydan's and Grandpa Vern's new kites!

Later that afternoon we went to Ecola Park, to see the pretty scenery!

These are called Sea Lion rocks. Thousands of birds live on them....yeah, we all know how I felt about those rocks!

The sunset that night was great! The sun was huge!

Tuesday, I didn't take a single pic! It was a relaxing beach day, and my Mom, Dennis, and Justin went golfing!

Wednesday my Grandpa, Justin, and Dennis went fishing in the Nahalem Bay with Dennis's cousin Irv. They didn't catch any though, apparently they won't come in from the ocean for another couple of weeks!

While they were fishing the boys played on the beach, and at the house! Here's Aydan climbing one of the trees in the back!

Nahalem Bay, Wheeler, Oregon!

That afternoon we went to ride the Tillamook Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad! It was a cute old train! Before it started out, we took the boys up to the locomotive, where the conductor let us take a look around, and even ring the bell!

Our family on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad!

The boys with the tickets!

Grandma and Grandpa!

Papa Dennis, and Grandma Chris!

The train going down the tracks and blowing it's whistle!

While on the ride, we rode pass Tillamook Bay!

Here are the boys looking out as we pass the dinner train in Garibaldi, Oregon.

We stopped in Garibaldi for a 15 min break, where we got to check out another old train!

Wednesday night's sunset! GORGEOUS!

The boys jumping in the sand!

Then we lit some "sparkles" (as Tra calls them!)

My man and I after the sun went down!

Thursday morning we took family PICTURES!

I think they turned out great! Yay for a tripod, and self timer on my camera!

Enjoy! And steal if you want!

I don't know why this pic is so fuzzy, not blurry, but fuzzy. I think the lens was compromised. It's still a good pic though....

After pictures Dennis's kids Kendra, and Travis came for the day, and even spent the night with us!

Here are the boys in their very cool bunk beds!

Friday we cleaned up and headed out! Justin drove ALL THE WAY HOME....13 hours straight! We got home about 3:30am Saturday morning.

The boys did awesome, and I'm so proud of them for being so good! It made the trip less horrible!

What a great trip eh?

Thanks to my family, who made an effort to get everyone together, where we could enjoy each other, especially when we all live so far apart!

We had a fantastic time!