We finally got there....and back

Isn't a miracle that we travelled all the way to Oregon AND back with four kids and NOTHING went wrong? We didn't have any sickness (well, Lawren got a little carsick), no car problems, or anything! I am so grateful.

We had such a great time, although it is a long time to be away from home with the kids....I think that they were ready to come home. Here's some more details:

Tuesday I went running on the beach, first thing in the morning. It had been quite stormy the night before and there were lots of really gross looking jellyfish on the beach. I have always thought that running on the beach must be easier, but it turns out, running just is not fun no matter WHERE you do it. It didn't help that I tripped on a piece of seaweed and fell flat on my face......walking is better for you anyway, right? Than we went for a walk downtown to see what there was in the little village of Rockaway. Later that day Lyndi and I went back downtown and had ice cream (Oregon strawberry....SOOO GOOD), and bought some sandcastle making supplies. We had a good time, just the two of us. We were scouting out places to eat some really great sea food. We went back to our house and made sand castles for awhile, which is not as easy as it looks, but it was fun. It was sunny and cool, and great to be outside. Later, for dinner, we returned to a place called the Beach Bite grill...it was great. After that we drove to Tillamook and went to the cheese factory there. The kids were really interested and stood at the window for a long time watching them package the cheese.. We bought some cheese curds (we call it squeaky cheese, because it squeaks on your teeth when you eat it). We also drove to a couple of the other "shore towns" to see what they were like.

Wednesday was a fun day. We headed north and explored Cannon Beach. The kids climbed some big rocks on the beach. We looked for shells and never found anything really cool except Jared. He found a starfish the first night we arrived back at our rental house. It was pretty cool! Anyway, after we went to Cannon Beach we headed still further north to Seaside where we fed the seals. It was fun, especially for the kids. The biggest seal would splash and soak the kids if they didn't feed him fast enough. Lawren was terrified of them. She clung to me pretty tightly. The next stop was Astoria, OR. It was so pretty there...I think it was my favorite place that we visited. It lies right at the mouth of Columbia River, which has a VERY long bridge that crosses into Washington. We weren't brave enough to cross it though. I have never seen anything like it. We went there to see what is called the Astoria Column, and we travelled up a VERY steep hill to see it. I was actually afraid that the van was going to tip backwards it was so steep. That night we had dinner at Norma's Ocean Diner in Seaside, OR, and they had the best clam chowder I have ever tasted. It was our favorite place out of all the places we ate.

Thursday was really rainy. I took Lyndi back to Tillamook to do a little souvenir shopping. I just couldn't find anything really interesting, so we decided that the shells we picked up on the beach behind our rental house would have to be good enough. That night we ate in (frozen pizza), and worked on the stack of homework the kids' teachers gave them to do. It was really stormy and rainy and turned really cold, and we were pretty tired from the adventures we had on the previous days, so it was nice to stay inside for the night.

Friday we travelled as far as Caldwell, ID. Saturday we came the rest of the way through a nasty snow storm. We had a great time, and made some good memories!