Oregon Trip - Lincoln City, Low Tide Hunting

 After we got back from Tillamook, we waited a little bit for Low tide, so we could go check out the tide pools with the kids.  They were kinda slimy, and I had to be careful carrying Jayden around the rocks.  Lyndee found some cool things.  Grandma got a few star fish that wasn't clung on very tight to the rock.  Pink and Purple one. Our favorite colors.

 

Alex and Madi got bored, and decided to go rock hunting away from the water.

 Jayden was unsure of the sand at first.  This is one of his better pictures.

 

 Zach showing Madi how to fly the kite.

 Jayden checking out Lyndee's finds.  

We let most of Lyndee's beach finds (Critters) go back out in the water.  We did bring home the star fish and shells. (There is kind of a funny story about this, that you can read in a future post. OUR DRIVE HOME)

Oregon Trip - Tillamook

I seriously was SOOOO excited to visit Tillamook Cheese Factory.  We drove up the coast a few hours to Tillamook, Oregon.  Zach and the kids were just as excited as I was.  When we walked in, the first thing we saw was the Tillamook Cheese van.  Umm, yes we want to play inside.  Grandma hopped in with the kids.  Jayden was crawling in and out of the van multiple times.  We had to pry him away from it.

 I got Zach and Alex to pose for a fun little farm picture.

 Alex and the family enjoying the factory, watching how it all works.

 This is Alex, ALREADY whining that we had been there too long, and that we needed to leave.  Impatient little boy.  I wonder who he gets that from?  Hmmmm.

 Finally, CHEESE TASTING TIME!!!!!! This was our favorite part.  We love us some cheese.  The Smoked Cheddar was my favorite.  We ended up buying us some on our way out.

After eating our cheese samples, the kids and Zach picked us out a Tillamook magnet, then we headed over to the ICE CREAM COUNTER.   We shopped much faster than the rest of the gang.  We had our ice cream done and eaten before they came to join us with their yummy treats.  So while we were waiting, Zach took Jayden and Alex through the cheese tasting line 3 more times.  You would think such a thing would be banned, but nobody said a thing.  LUCKY, I wish I had me more cheese.

After leaving the factory, Debbie and Scott treated us to Lunch.  We checked Trip Advisor for a good place, and found this little shop called, Divine Burger Bistro.  I had AWESOME reviews.  The sign was not out front, but in the window had the Trip Advisor Sticker.  It is this little grill in the back of a consignment type shop.  We sat down.  The menu had no store name on top of it.  We ordered us some food.  It was a Hawaiian type place.  It did have a few burgers on the menu but not very many for a burger place.  We tried to keep the kids quiet as their bellies were starving. (I don't know why with all the cheese and ice crew we had just eaten.)

Lunch was good.  Not at all what I was expecting. (As you'll note I am typing this 2 months after getting home from vacation.  I had to look up the restaurant name on Trip Advisor again, because I couldn't remember it.  Now the APP says that Divine Burger Bistro has permanently closed. YEP, we for sure didn't eat at the burger bistro.  Still pretty good food, whatever restaurant we were in.

Oregon Trip - Lincoln City, FINALLY - 10 Year Anniversary

Lincoln City, WE MADE IT!!  We were over an hour ahead of Grandma and Grandpa.  We googled the address to the beach house and couldn't wait to get in unload and relax for a bit.  This house was right on the beach, only 90 stairs up the mountain from the beach.  We toured the entire house and decided it would be best if we stayed on the main level, by the kitchen so we could get up and feed the kids. (Since we know that none of them are patient, at all.  I think this gene comes from their dad. Just kidding I'm pretty impatient.)  We had to baby proof the house a little bit in every room.  Jayden had really started walking pretty good while we were on vacation.  He could get up and around to anywhere he wanted to go.
Zach and the 2 oldest kids headed down to the beach, almost as soon as they could.  After all, we had been waiting for the beach for quite some time now.

 These are the 90 stairs we needed to climb back up to the beach house.

I didn't go down to the beach that evening, but went the next morning with Zach and the kids.  Jayden was taking his morning nap up at the house with Aunt Debbie. We were down there until close to 1:30 PM.  We built castles, motes, and a large "THANK YOU" sign in the sand for Curt and Janet for bringing us to Oregon.  Janet didn't get to see it first hand because she was sick in bed with, what we think was food poisoning.  We felt so bad for her that she was sick on vacation.

 A piece of a shell from a crab.  We found it in the sand.

 The kids filled up water buckets to help create and darken the "THANK YOU" sign.

06/10/2004 - OUR ANNIVERSARY (10 YEARS)

This trip was sort of an Anniversary trip / family trip combined.  I can't believe we've been married 10 years.  It seems like only yesterday we were sealed together forever, and now it's been 10 years and 4 kids later. WOW!  Thank you for all your love, support, and sacrifice for our family over the last 10 years Zach.  I love you so much, and am so grateful that I have Eternity to be with you!!

We didn't even get one picture with us together.  Janet started feeling a bit better, so she decided to watch the kids, so we could go out on a date.  We ended up going so late because of illness, that we missed all the antique shops.  We walked around the tanger outlet mall and bought a really cool kite for the beach.  We also got a few little ones for each of the kids.  When we got back, dinner was already for us.  Thank you Debbie.

We had dinner and headed back out to the beach for some kite flying and a beautiful sunset.

 Lyndee and her normal "I'm mad at you face"

 All I really wanted was to see a beautiful sunset go down over the horizon without clouds.  Looks like I GOT IT!!  I really was so nice and peaceful.  Such a nice night with my family.

After the sun went down Zach, Alex, Lyndee, and I hopped into the hot tub.  Oh it felt nice.  Alex chickened out and said it was too hot.  The rest of us enjoyed it.

Oregon Trip - The last stretch to Lincoln City

Since we had 6 hours up the coast we thought we would stop here and there and make a day trip out of it. After leaving the Oregon/California border, we followed behind Grandpa up the beautiful coast. At this point Alex was sitting up front with me while I drove.   We got a few pictures that he took of things he thought were pretty cool.

A marina

A logging Company

 

 Some awesome Graffiti of course

Something he absolutely LOVES, and gets super excited about is our Nations Flag

 and . . .we can't forget the patriotic painted fire hydrant.

Grandpa took us to another Lighthouse on the coast.  We couldn't quite figure out how to get over to it, but we snapped a picture anyway.

After a bunch of driving, we were all pretty hungry.  We pulled up Trip Advisor and found this DELICIOUS sub shop called "CITY SUBS".  Seriously one of the best sub sandwiches I've had.  I am pretty sure it was their bread that made is so good.  It's in Coos Bay, Oregon.  We love to support the small businesses, and so happy we did. Again, we LOVED IT!!

After lunch we chose not to go with Curt and Janet.  They were headed to more lighthouses, and we really wanted to make it to the sea lion cave for the kids.  I was upset that we got there 30 min. too late. UGH!!  It would have been so cool.  They take you down an elevator to a cave where hundreds of sea lions come.  I hear it is stinky, but pretty cool to see all of them.  I was so sad we missed it.  So we continued up the coast, hoping to make it to Lincoln City ASAP.  We were sick of driving.  

Lyndee is bored.  She loves selfies. (Not my daughter, or Zach's in this matter.)

Oregon Trip - Oregon / Cape Blanco Lighthouse

June 9, 2014

We left Crescent City, and within 15 min we reached Oregon.  Our long anticipated  trip to Oregon and we finally made it, well to Oregon, but we had 6 hours up the coast to the "Beach House".

 At the California/Oregon Border I taught Alex how to jump states.  He thought it was so cool to to be in 2 different states at one time.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

We stopped at another lighthouse.  This one is working and it was the only one that you could actually go up inside the tower.  Zach had been driving and I was in the back seat. We had just drove on some winding roads.  When we got there I opened the sliding door and bailed out before I lost it.  I hate that I get car sick so easy.  I know Zach hates it even more.  Sorry love.  Thanks for putting up with me.

I couldn't believe the wind here.  Zach could literally let go of Jayden's stroller and the wind was pushing it up the cement hill.  It took my breath away.  I think I was really white in color, because Janet asked me if I was okay as soon as we stepped into the gift shop.  The gentleman at the gift shop described the wind as, "Just a lite Gale".  We had no idea what that meant until we read the wind book up in the lighthouse.  It was 40 mile/hr winds.  

Inside the Lighthouse, I had to talk Alex into going up to the top.  He is deathly afraid of heights, and since he could see down, even though he was on a staircase with a rail, he was so, so nervous.  He and Jayden stayed at the bottom with Janet and Debbie, while Zach and I took the girls up.

 This is the huge light up in top.  I always though it was a large bulb that flashed on and off.  Actually it is this big glass light that rotates in circles, and when your eyes meet up exactly with one of the 6 sides you see the light.  It never actually flashes.

 Madi was a little nervous to be up so high.  She didn't want to stay up very long.

 I made her stay as long as possible because the view was amazing.  This was the tallest light house on the oregon coast and because of that the light can be seen 22 miles out to see.  This is the horizon (Curvature of the earth).  Something cool we never knew.

After we got down I  talked Alex into going up with Aunt Debbie.  I knew he would do better without Zach and I with him to cry to.  Grandma Janet said he was just shaking when he was up top, but he said he thought it was pretty cool. I knew he would like it, and I didn't want him to miss out.

Panoramic View from up top the lighthouse.

These are the large barrels that they kept the fuel in when the lighthouse was first built.  

 A cool view from the bottom of the staircase.

We learned so much about lighthouses, and how they worked and operated today, and back when they were first built.  We really did enjoy it.  Oh, it took 200,000 bricks (Which they made by hand) to build this lighthouse.  (Just a little extra info.)

At the gift shop we bought our Cape Blanco Lighthouse magnet, and Aunt Debbie bought us a figurine of the lighthouse for our anniversary.  She's too nice, and I love it.

Before we left, of course Alex and Madi needed to go the bathroom.  I took Alex over to the weeds, which was easy and he left his butt clothed.  Madi, on the other hand . . . I pulled her pants down and was getting ready to lift her feet up, but because of the cold wind, she couldn't hold it and peed all over herself.  I was so upset, and I had to practically unpack the back of the van to get to her suitcase.  I was upset, but looking back on it, I shouldn't have been.  We cleaned her up, and I asked Zach if I could drive since I had gotten woozy.  Off we went.  What's next . . . Lunch. Yes.