Monday, September 18, 2017

Oregon

Ahhhhh, the Oregon coast. We had never been there before but now that I know what I'm missing, I want to move there. It was August and we were in jackets in the morning. It warmed up during the day but cooled down enough in the evening that it felt good to get in the hot tub. Besides the fighting and arguing amongst the children, it was awesome! Can I just vent about fighting and arguing for a minute? Why do they fight and arguing? That's the million dollar question. You know the quote that says if you read the Book of Mormon there will be more love in your home? If this is the more love we are experiencing then we can NEVER stop reading the Book of Mormon. It's not great. I hear that most behaviors are learned. I don't know if I agree with that. I don't fight over who's job it is to put my backpack away or who spilled the crumbs at my spot at the table or any of the other one million things they fight over. President Hinkley said that he and his brother fought so much that their dad gave them boxing gloves and told them to go at it and get it out of their system because he had had enough. I might try it. Anyway, lest you think negative about our almost always angelic, unless they're fighting, children, let's stop talking about it. They really are good kids, usually. Anyway, we went to the Oregon coast and had a great time.

We played at the beach.

Took a quick nap.


Flew kites. The wind in Oregon is perfect for kites! We just bought the cheap from the dollar store. They were perfect!

We stayed in this cute little house. We could walk to the beach and we had our own little space. We cooked our own food and were able to put A to bed, in her own space and we stayed up.

We loved the hot tub and although it said not to use it after ten, B and I may or may not have used our stealth and used it at night. If we had used it, I'm sure we would have just sat there being silent because I was so nervous that there were hidden camera's and we were going to get caught. There was a note on the fridge that says if you use the hot tub after ten, you'll be kicked out. So, in the event that we would have been crazy enough to risk eviction, I would have tried to be brave and relax but with every car that passed I would have been nervous it was them coming to tell us to vacate the premises. B would have told me to relax because we were in the backyard being very quiet. My nervousness would have been a total buzz kill. Of course, I can only say what might have happened if we had tried to be sneaky.

We did have a fire pit in the back and we were excited to use it but, we never got firewood so we just used the stove instead to make s'mores.

We stayed up every night playing games, which I usually lost because winning games is not one of my talents. Truly. Little B and I played a matching game the other day. He got 22 matches and I got 12. I didn't help him or let him cheat. He's just good at it and I'm not. Anyway, games are fun and if one is accustomed to losing, it's not that bad.

She got the raw end of the stick and had to take naps in the carrier. She was a champ and was happy when she was awake.

This was our favorite beach. We had planned on only staying for a few minutes, but ended up staying for a few hours. The water is like burn your skin cold but they didn't seem to mind. We didn't put on swimsuits because we hadn't planned on staying. Clothes can double as a swimsuit right?


She loved the water and as soon as she woke up she wanted to play in it. She would stomp her feet and scream at the water. She didn't mind that it was freezing and cried when we would take her out of it.

Seriously, look how cute this is! He wanted to hold her in the carrier. I told him if she got too heavy that I would take her back. He wouldn't have it and carried her back to the car. The walk back included a flight of stairs that looked like it had close to 10 million steps. As we walked up the stairs, people coming down would tell him good job; which made him beam and even more determined to carry her all the way back to the car. One lady stopped him because she thought he was carrying a doll.  When we made it back to the shower by the car, I was taking her out while B was manning the shower. Well, little B was covered in sand and while B and M were washing off their feet, he found an opening in the feet washing escapade and got in the shower, like all the way in the shower, clothes and all. I asked him what he was doing. He told me that there was sand on his shorts and undies and so he washed them off. What a helpful child! 

We saw whales! We were standing on the rocks about 30 feet away and it kept rolling and blowing air out of it's blow hole. There was a park ranger there and she said that the whale was probably a female  grey whale with her pup. They are usually 40-45 feet long and weigh about 50,000 pounds. She said that the whale needs at least 650 feet of water to swim and dive so there must have been a drop off  right by the rocks. It was really cool to watch. We stayed there for a long time because watching her was incredible! 

You can't tell, but she's pointing at a lighthouse that they went in.  It's the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. They loved it and while they were inside, I couldn't go in because they had to climb 114 stairs and they wouldn't let me hold A and climb the stairs. Anyway, while they were inside I looked at whales and seals. It was awesome!

On our way out of town we went to the Tillamook factory. I feel like it was a little overrated but that's only because I don't like ice cream or chunks of cheese. However, the other members of my family loved it, A included. They all loved the ice cream. We loved spending the week as a family and even had long moments of no arguing. I hope that our kids remember the good times we had as a family.







2 comments:

  1. Fun! I agree, Oregon is gorgeous, at least along the coast it is! I can't believe you saw a gray whale, that's awesome! We paid a butt load of money to go on a boat where half of us got sick but we did see whales so there's that. I love the pics of the kids at the beach! They are FA-REEZING but kids don't even notice, it's crazy! I totally agree with you on the arguing and fighting...why???? Love you guys!

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