Oregon Trip

First of all, this picture. It's from the Boise Zoo and not our Oregon trip, but I had to share. I love it.

I have taken two trips with Raelan this year, but we finally got to take our first trip with Ammon. We were so excited to get to the beach, especially since it was Raelan's first trip to the ocean. :)

On Tuesday we drove from Boise to Portland, listening of course to Harry Potter on CD. It made the drive so much less boring! We stopped at Multnomah Falls and hiked a little. #waterfallselfie

We checked into our hotel and went for some pizza. Raelan's favorite part of the trip thus far: the hotel ice machine. She loves to eat ice, and getting a whole bucket was a dream come true. She was quite pleased.

We set up Raelan's pack-n-play and sadly realized she could climb in and out of it. She slept in our bed with us. Luckily it was King sized.

On Wednesday we headed out to IKEA. I've never been to an IKEA and I was amazed. It's kind of crazy. I'd love to go back without a toddler, that's all I have to say. 

Next stop, VooDoo donuts. I'm so glad we made this stop, even though we weren't hungry at the time. WORTH IT. My favorite was the maple creme filled!

And you're welcome for the donut selfie. 

Next we headed to the Portland Children's Museum. I'm surprised that only one person recommended this to us...it was awesome! So I'm going to recommend it for you if you have kids aged 1 to 10. Go there. It was the perfect place for Raelan and I wish we had one in Boise. 

There was an entire room of water play stations, including little waterproof aprons to protect clothing.

There was a carpentry room, a treehouse with little rock climbing walls, a play veterinary clinic, a play grocery store and restaurant, an art studio where you can make things with clay or paint or color, outdoor play, and lots of other rooms full of things to explore. 

Our favorite was the giant Lite Brite station.

Sadly, this photo turned out blurry. I'm sharing it anyway. Memories, dangit!

After the museum, we headed to Tillamook and met up with my family at the cheese factory. This was a completely necessary stop on our journey. We needed squeaky cheese! Raelan loved watching the cheese being made, I loved the macaroni and cheese, and we all enjoyed the ice cream.

After much anticipation, we finally made it to the ocean! We stopped at Cape Lookout because we were SOO excited. Raeland ran to the ocean and even though it was freezing, she loved it! She squealed with delight at every wave. I can't even tell you how awesome it was.

With a little hesitancy, we hopped back in the car for the rest of our drive to the beach house.

 It was such a comfortable, beautiful home and we were so blessed to stay there! Here is the view from the living area. 

This is the deck. It kills me. Such a gorgeous view. Raelan loved hanging out on the deck with grandpa and reading stories.

That night we went out to the beach. It was unbelievably windy. I know it's windy on the beach, but I've never experienced wind that crazy. Yet, I took the plunge and did some boogie boarding.  I'm an amateur boogie boarder, so I often hit the waves wrong and get lame rides. But after a few of those, I caught the best wave I've ever had. I had one amazing run and it made it all worth it. Even if I did catch pneumonia. ;)

On Thursday, Ammon and I started our morning at 6 AM because of this:

We really didn't mind getting up and sitting on the deck wrapped in blankets. I'd love to start every morning that way. 

We spent the day playing on the beach and at the house. There were some tide pools just down the beach from us, so we walked to them to explore. 

I had to try a panoramic shot. Not too bad.

Raelan gets snuggly when she's cold.

The girls made a trip to the outlet malls...they were only 5 minutes away. Score. When we got home, we discovered the boys had been hard at work. They created a wind barrier. From where they are laying there was no wind. Apparently it took them forever to move the driftwood around, and then some people destroyed it that night. Jerks. At least we got pictures.

Ammon has good memories of skim boarding with his dad and siblings, so we purchased a skim board before our trip. We're so glad we did. Ammon had so much fun with it. He spent hours each day skim boarding and somehow I didn't get any pictures! Sad day. :(

That night we went to a murder mystery play. It was odd, but entertaining?

On Friday we headed down to Newport. We stopped at the Yaquina Head lighthouse and tidepools. It was extremely windy and somewhat foggy, so our picture was pretty much a fail. But we saw a whole bunch of seals! Exciting stuff.

We went to the Oregon Coast aquarium in Newport. 

Ammon was terrified of the sharks. Can you tell? ;)

I had a special moment with a seal. I won't bother telling the story, you just had to be there okay?

You're welcome.

After the aquarium, we headed to Mo's on the bay front. They're famous for their clam chowder. It was amazing, and I don't even think I like clam chowder?

Then we went to all the little shops along the bayfront. We found a store named after Raelan!

We also went to Ripley's museum, which was more like Rip-offs. Ha. Ha.

That night, we were relaxing at the beach house when some people started doing a firework show on the beach, right in front of our house. We had an amazing view of really great fireworks. I was kind of in awe of how lucky we were.

On Saturday we did some more shopping at the outlet malls. Ammon and I went for a long walk down the beach and discovered 4 seals swimming in the ocean. It was so fun to see their little heads bobbing along. At one point that day, my brother was boogie boarding and he looked over and saw a seal 20 feet from him. He screamed and scared it away. N00b.

We got sadder and sadder as Saturday came to a close, knowing it was our last day. We played games that night, enjoyed another firework show in front of our house, and spent one last night in the house that should probably become our home. Yeahhhh.

This was the kind of vacation that is so amazingly good that you want to cry when it's time to leave. I'm so glad we went, so grateful for the experience and memories, and so anxious to do it again. We are blessed!