Saying goodbye to Oregon

The boys found ways to stay amused while Justin and me cleaned and packed up for the trip home. It was sad to leave "our" little beach house. We had such a great time there. Hopefully we'll be back again in the coming years. 

 We drove back to Portland through McMinnville so that I could pick up my wallet. It was good to have it back! Our flight didn't leave until mid-afternoon, so we had time to go see the International Rose Test Garden (we were careful when we put in directions this time... no getting lost in a little suburb). All the roses were in full bloom. It smelled so good! And it was hard to pick our favorites.

 Lucy doesn't really know how to smell quite yet.

 And this is as close as she got to the flowers. Apparently there's a large fine for picking the roses.

Ezra began collecting petals that had fallen and putting them in his pocket.

 Some of our favorites:

 Getting to the airport was a little stressful. You would think that having turn by turn navigation on the phone would get you there just fine. Nope. We still missed an exit, had trouble finding a gas station to fill up the rental car, were slowed by construction, and started to get nervous that we were late. We weren't really, but there's always that anxious feeling when flying with kids. Our flight felt empty. There were only 40 seats out of 140 occupied. Lucy got to be in her seat again, Ez got a window seat, and Nolan chose to have his own row. It was a quick flight home. Now we have such happy memories of Oregon. What a great trip!

Oregon Day 7

Our last full day in Oregon might have been our most favorite. Justin woke early to go on a long bike ride. He did 30 miles and wound through some beautiful little towns. I got the kids going for the day and we headed to the tide pools that are right there in Pacific City by the giant sand hill. We found a sheltered little cove to enjoy the sand and warm sun. At one point we saw a traditional Dory boat come riding up onto the beach. Apparently this beach is famous for having the perfect conditions to do that.

Checking out the tide pools.

Lucy loved splashing her feet in the water.

She could have played in the sand for hours. She was so happy! And luckily she didn't want to eat as much sand this time around.

Beach lovin'!

I challenged Nolan to see if he could climb these steps. He got a little ways up and decided it wasn't that fun.

But he had a great time with this little friend he met. She was more experienced in finding animals in the tide pool. Soon Nolan caught a little fish and a prawn. He was very pleased!

Starfish and anemone:

Dad met up with us at the beach after his bike ride. We called him and asked him to bring food. We were starving but not ready to leave the beach. He brought some delicious food from BJ's. I wish we had eaten there more often. By the way, he was rockin' those bike shorts.

We returned to relax and the kids built a little play area so that Lucy could be on the bunk bed with them. She was pretty excited to play like her brothers.

We had a good time watching Napoleon Dynamite. The boys had never seen it and Nolan especially enjoyed the humor.

Last night in the bunk beds.

Getting silly with the sliding mirrors.

It was a wonderful day as a family. The only problem was that Justin and I both got terrible sunburns on our legs. We had enjoyed the warm sun so much that we had to pay for it the next week.

Oregon Day 6

This morning, we ran out of milk before Justin had a chance to eat breakfast so we headed to The Grateful Bread. He ordered the most beautiful bowl of granola piled high with various fruits. The boys and I got scones. Nolan was pleased to find a scone made with pepper jack cheese, however, he said it wasn't spicy enough.

We headed south toward Lincoln City. While driving, we received news that Bryson would be returning home from his mission two months early because he had a parasite and had been in the hospital in Mexico. It turns out it was much more serious, but I'll get to that in another post. We thought about him and the rest of the family all day long.

In the hills east of Lincoln City, we drove through a long winding forest road to find Drift Creek Falls. It was a fun 1.4 mile hike to a suspension bridge over a rushing waterfall. We were all impressed with the bridge and had to take many pictures. We enjoyed some snacks, Lucy had some mother's milk, and then we headed back. It was another perfect hike. No one complained (it's hard to complain when the weather is so nice) and Lucy slept in the pack on the return trip. 

 The kids all fell asleep in the car so Justin took me to the Lincoln City outlets! It was hard to shop without my wallet, but I managed to find a few things and then go get them with Justin's card. We had dinner at Humble Pie Pizzeria for the best pizza ever. The owner ran the place all by himself (and it was pretty busy even at 4 o'clock) and was quite interesting. A local guy came in and compared him to the soup nazi. We tried to go to the beach and tide pools but it was way too windy that evening in Lincoln City. Here are the boys running away from the windy beach! 

We were all happy to get back to the beach house and relax anyway. We ate some more s'mores Tillamook ice cream and then I took the boys to the beach to watch the sunset. Dad stayed home with Lucy. We missed them though... the sunset was so beautiful! Why didn't I bring the camera?! When we walked back to the beach house, this is what we found. These two were having some snuggle time and Lucy was sleeping with one eye open.

That night the boys chose another movie to watch in bed. They've been taking turns having the top bunk.