For Spring break the first week of April, our family took a trip to the Oregon Coast. I have been so slammed I haven't had a chance to post yet! We originally planned to do the entire coast and end at the Redwood National Forest, but instead decided to just do the half top of the coast so we had more time in each place.
We drove from Cache Valley to Boise and then to the top of the Coast in Astoria. The drive there was so beautiful! Following along the Columbia River.
There are so many beautiful bridges along the coast! Love them!
We pretty much just drove through the town (where the "Goonies" house was), ate some dinner and then headed to our first destination which was Seaside. We stayed in Seaside for 3 nights in a cute tiny little studio room complete with a mini kitchen.
The kids enjoying a movie night at the hotel
We spent almost a day at Ecola State Park. We couldn't get over how thick in forestland Oregon is! Starting with the ferns all over the ground to the tall thick pine trees. It's crazy!
Indian Beach and Cannon Beach in the distance. Absolutely gorgeous!
Can you tell it was super windy?
My handsome boys
This girl was refusing to be in pictures! So this was her disguise lol
We climbed over some heavy lumber and trekked across a little stream to get down to the beach at the park and spent the afternoon digging and exploring. And its a good thing because it was one of the only sunny days we had all week! :)
The beaches go on forever! That little black speck on the left of this picture is Hailey
Then we took a little drive over to Cannon Beach and Haystack rock. They had some fun tidepools but it was high tide so we just explored a little. Scott got his feet and shoes completely soaked when he tried to get around the tide pools without stepping in the water. Seriously a very funny thing to watch he practically ONLY stepped in the water and never touched land and he was tiptoeing around saying "Oh! Ooops! Ahh!" it was so comical
We also walked through the little town of Cannon beach and they had some super cute shops and stores that were really fun to look at and explore.
We spent a whole day exploring the Seaside town and beach.
Hailey, Ari and I found probably over 25 sand dollars. 15 of them perfectly in tact. The trick is that you have to go into the water under the waves before the seagulls get to them. Dad told us they like the peck the middles out. Seemed to work and we scored some really pretty sand dollars!
Don't let the pictures fool you! Kevin and I had our winter coats on WITH blankets sitting in our chairs freezing. I don't know how our kids love the cold so much!
We had fun looking through the shops and the kids bought a few trinkets including a kite to go fly on the beach. We also ate some fish and chips at Toms of course which was super yummy!
And because Scott still can't eat icecream we can't walk by a place that sells gelato and not stop ;)
Lewis and Clark Statue
After three nights in Seaside and exploring all the surrounding towns, we headed on the road again south to go to our next hotel which was in Newport.
We stopped along the way to several cute towns and of course stopped for samples and snacks at Tillamoock cheese factory :)
And also spent several hours trying to get around construction to see another lighthouse. We finally arrived only to have the trail blocked off for "tree cutting" Nice of them to update their website and phone line to let people know. Arg!
Then I dragged the family along a crazy route to some really awesome hike I found on the internet that I wanted to do! lol
Enter Drift Creek Falls
I don't know if you can see Hailey's mustache...this girl is a crack up
Ari is my little hiking trooper. All of them really! Minus Jay. He complained a lot.
Not to fear though- he did find an awesome salamander friend
Reminds you of Ferngully or something right? It's so crazy. Pictures do not give this place justice of just how green it is!
So I told the kids I had an awesome surprise for them but didn't say what because Arianna is severely afraid of heights.
It was this suspension bridge! How cool is it! It spanned 240 feet across overlooking the 65 foot waterfall
The older three kids were quite a ways ahead of us coming back because Jay was struggling. So when our paths were parallel I took this picture of Ari across the way and we called it the "Where's Ari" photo. (She's wearing pink)
It was soooo much fun and only lightly sprinkled. It was super muddy though so needless to say we didn't get to wear those shoes again through the week. Good thing we brought extras!
We finally made it to Newport and were greeted with another beautiful bridge. I love bridges. Can you tell?
The next day we went to see the Yaquina Head lighthouse which was, you guessed it, closed for another week. Seriously?
We explored their little visitors center for a bit and watched the movie on the history of the lighthouse
Then drove to some more neighboring towns. We ate lunch at Depoe Bay which happens to be the smallest harbor in the world! Lots and lots more rain. Pretty much it rained the whole time :)
We took the fun Otter Crest Loop which landed us at a place they call "Devils Punchbowl" Kevin was mad it wasn't filled with water but I thought it was pretty cool to see through it.
Even cooler than that was the squirrels in the parking area! They were hilarious and very friendly. The kids had a blast playing with them. (Until they think squirrels here are that friendly and get nipped!)
We went back over to Yaquina Head Lighthouse because it was low tide. We got there at the best time down to Cobble Beach where they are known for their starfish. It was super windy and rainy but we thought it was worth it to see the tidepools so the kids got on their ponchos and away we went :)
Jay is pointing to the orange one
Scott counted them and I think we found over 20 starfish! Coolest thing ever!
The cobble rocks were pretty awesome too.
We got to spend some time in the Historic District in Newport. We looked through some of the shops there and got to see the sea lions too. They were very vocal.
All I have to say is I'm glad we saw these towards the end of the trip because the kids spent the remainder of the trip mimicking the sound they made. And Jay's impression wasn't quite as good as the others it sounded more like he was dry heaving. Which is kind of embarrassing in public.
We got up the last day to head back on the road for home. I did some research and found a fun outlet mall that happened to have a build a bear! So that was kind of the fun end cap of the trip. I'm sorry to admit that Hailey is my only kid who has ever done a build the bear. Deprived kids, I know. lol
It was so cute and fun to see how excited they were. (I am horrible at keeping secrets so I think I told them a few days before)
I also had to apologize to Scott for me waiting so long to take him to his first build a bear!
We got another hotel along the route back to Utah, but not before stopping in Portland for a bite to eat. We were driving along the Columbia River and kept seeing all the beautiful waterfalls, so we decided to take another detour.
If you look close you might be able to see Kevin and Scott on the bridge
I'm so glad we were able to see all the different falls! If we were just 20 minutes later it would have been too dark to see them.
What a fun trip this was! I LOVE these guys so much! There's absolutely nothing I love more than Kevin and these kids of mine. And it was just a dream to get to spend every day together for a week.
I had to post some fun selfies in the car. Just to get an idea we drove over 2,000 miles and were in the car for over 36 hours together.
The start of the trip
Having fun with the selfie stick
Ari's little note she wrote in her seat
We don't have a dvd player and the kids don't each have their own electronic devices either. Just mine and Scotts to pass around. Which means lots of time looking outside at all the cool stuff!
I love Jay's cute little face when we saw this rainbow :)
And of course lots of this! I think Scott was the only one that made it the whole 36 hours without taking 1 nap! Crazy Kid!
Our favorite things about our Oregon Trip:
Dad: Fun exploring a new place and the hike
Mom: Spending quality time together, the suspension bridge and the starfish
Scott: "All of it, but especially the beach and the hike"
Hailey: "Playing on the beach and finding all the sand dollars"
Arianna: "When we saw the 20 sea stars!"
Jay: "When we want on the hike and saw the waterfall, that was my favorite"
