Our Adventure Begins

So I have to start off by saying that this is one of our first vacations we have taken by ourselves without any extended family. No cousins to play with, no grandma and grandpa to take a turn entertaining kids, just the four of us. We decided that we will make it our family tradition that we go to the Coast in the summer, and it was kind of exciting to think that we were blazing a new trail in our family's history. I just wanted our family to have a good time and enjoy each other. I really wanted to make this trip special for Kendle because I feel like she is growing up so fast (1st grade coming up in less than a month) and she often gets overlooked because we're taking care of Morgan. I hope we accomplished that, I think we did.

*Being the obsessive list maker that I am, I made an itinerary for every day we'd be there so we would have ideas of what to do instead of sitting around asking ourselves what to do. That turned out to be a great help. I wrote down places to visit, hours they were open, rates to get in, all the info. and it saved us a ton of time. Never knowing what the weather will do at the coast, this left us lots of room to be flexible.

Monday I had wanted to leave by 8:00, I knew that was a lofty goal, but we did end up leaving around 8:45 so not bad. We made it to The Dalles and stopped for an early lunch. Then we got back on the road and made a planned stop at Multnomah Falls. I thought it would be a good way to get the kids out of the car and get some exercise before our last leg of the trip. No matter how many times I've been there, it still amazes me how beautiful the setting and the sound of the falls are. It was a beautiful day and Kendle really wanted to hike up to the bridge, so Riley took her up there while I got Morgan out of his stroller and let him run around a bit. He saw a squirrel and almost caught it. He thought it was really funny. Here are some pictures I took:

It was a fun break, and on the way back to the car we stopped at the little visitor's center to grab Kendle some maps to look at. I think she's inherited my crazy love for maps and they keep her entertained. From there we didn't stop again until we got to Tigard to get some more gas. Morgan has turned into a not so great traveler. He has started screaming in the car and it is really annoying. He did not do much sleeping in the car, so we did lots of singing and clapping. We probably sang Bingo and Twinkle Twinkle little star a hundred times.

We finally made our way out of the forest and to Lincoln City where we could see the ocean. That always gets everyone excited and happy. It was a really nice day. We were staying in Newport, so we drove on farther south. We made it to our hotel, checked in, relaxed for a bit, cleaned up, and then headed back north a few miles to Depot Bay for some dinner. We went here:

Gracie's Sea Hag has the best Clam Chowder on the Oregon Coast, it is world famous and rightfully so. If you were just passing by, you might think it's just some hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but nothing compares. I'd been looking forward to that clam chowder for months. YUM! After dinner we walked around a bit and ended up in one of those totally overpriced but very alluring candy shops and picked out some assorted salt water taffy and caramel corn. Double yum!

After getting back to the hotel we decided to go swimming and it was a lot of fun, not to mention a great way to tire the kids out more. I swear if I ever get a million dollars I will build my dream home with a huge track and make my kids run laps at night before bed, they have way too much energy. I sat in the hot tub and tried to soak all of my cares away. The children's laughter and squeals filled my ears, and I had to smile as I watched them swim and wrestle with their dad. Our vacation was off to a good start.