Trip to Oregon

The kids have had this whole week off school. For some reason our district thinks we need a "mid-winter" break (even though Spring break is six week away). Anyway, I did something out of the ordinary for me and took the kids on a trip by myself. We went to see my long-time friend, Kim, and her family in Florence, OR. I have the pictures in reverse order and am too lazy to change them :)

On the drive home Wednesday I decided to take 101 all the way up the coast. Drive to have a good time, instead of driving to make good time, right? We left Kim's around noon and got home at 10:30pm. It was a long day but it was beautiful outside and I thought it would be fun to drive up the coast.

We stopped at Manhattan Beach State Park. Besides us there were literally two other people (and their dog) on the entire beach. It was fabulous! The kids had a great time playing in the sand and water.

Kim has 5 girls. Ivy and Miranda are just a couple of months apart. Ivy just had her hair dyed purple when we were there. I asked Miranda if she'd like to get her hair fixed like Ivy's. "No", she said. "But I like it on Ivy".

On Tuesday we had gone to the aquarium in Newport. On the way home I stopped to get a picture of the Lighthouse (I can't remember the name). Hmmm . . . I think I need a better lens to zoom in next time :)

At the aquarium Christian really enjoyed the aviary and reading about the birds. He asked the volunteer about the holes in the rocks and we learned that is where the birds build their nests during mating season.

When we first walked into the fish tunnel, Merek stopped dead in his tracks and stared. He was AMAZED at the fish swimming all around him. He stood there for a few minutes (quite rare for a 15-month to stand still that long) and just watched. He'd point and say "oooooohhh". When other people would walk by he'd point and show them the fish. It was really cute.

On the way down to Florence on Monday we stopped in to say hi to cousins Jessica and Tanner. Then we met up with some of my Personal Scrapper friends, Erica and Lindsey. We had lunch at Burger King (with all of our kids) and then went to a park so the kids could play. I love visiting with online friends in real life. And it was really fun to see the kids play together even though they had never met before.

I'm so glad that I didn't let my normal inhibitions take over and prevent us from going on this trip. Sure it was hard driving alone with the kids but we really had a good time. I just had to mentally prepare myself for the journey. Which is really what we need to do for all of our life's adventures :) We are much stronger than we give ourselved credit for sometimes.