Warning! Be prepared for Picture overload!
I have been looking forward to this trip for over 6 months. I love Oregon! Nate and I lived in Oregon for about 2.5 years as newly weds and loved it! It was a very nostalgic trip. It felt a little bit like going home. We took our kids to all the places we used to go when we were newly married. It was kind of a weird feeling to go back to the places that Nate and I had hung out at as newly weds, but now with a completely different family and life than we had back then. We started out our trip in the Columbia River Gorge (Seriously, it is so gorgeous there if you ever go to the Portland area you have to stop and check it out.) We went on several fun hikes. I must say the kids kept up pretty well. Especially Lincoln who can sometimes be a little bit wussy about walking for a long time. We spent a good half a day just hiking around and enjoying the beautiful scenery of the gorge. Other than a few slightly treacherous parts on the trails and way too many bathroom stops (it is hard to keep the kids hydrated and hiking) we had a great time enjoying the gorge. After the gorge we headed into Hillsboro and crashed for a few hours before heading out to a local park (the same park Nate and I used to go to when we were first married for the 4th) to watch the 4th of July fireworks. By this time it was close to 10:00 pm, Lily was napless, and we had pushed the kids hard. Lily had a complete melt down on the walk to the park. She sat down several times in a crowd of probably a thousand people, and completely refused to walk any farther and refused to be carried there was absolutely nothing on this planet that would make her happy. Fortunately once the fireworks started she was completely mesmerized and was happy for the rest of the event. The next day we headed to the Oregon coast. We had perfect weather it was sunny and in the 70's, which on the Oregon coast you can't get much better weather than that. The kids were so excited to go to the beach. Nate and I warned them that the water would not be very warm and that they would probably not want to get much more than their feet wet. I honestly thought that the warning about how cold the water is would keep the kids from getting very wet (they hate to be cold), so we went to the beach in pants. That was a big mistake. After being there for only about five minutes both boys were soaked up to their waist. And about five minutes after that Lincolns bottom half was completely covered in sand. Lily was not very interested in going down by the water. The moment we got to the beach all she wanted to do was play in the sand. She actually sat in one spot (which is amazing all by itself) and played in the sand for about an hour. While at the coast we explored some tide pools and the kids got excited about finding star fish, crabs, and sea anemones. But the highlight of what they discovered were shark teeth. Before we headed out on this trip Nate asked the kids what they were most excited about and Carson said he was excited about finding shark teeth. Well, after hearing that Nate felt that the trip would not be complete unless the kids found some shark teeth on the beach. And miraculously we ended up on a beach where each boy found exactly the same amount of shark teeth (thanks to Nate and Amazon). The boys were so excited about their discoveries and it was one of the highlights of the trip for them. We did have one mishap while at the coast that may have made Lily develop a life long fear of the ocean. While Nate was helping Carson look at something at the tide pools he set Lily down. Well, just as he set Lily down the tide started to come in and she got scarred and started to run away from the water. And unfortunately for her she ran right into a tide pool that put her in water up to her neck. All the onlookers gasped and were horrified I am sure they thought that she was about to drown. Nate rescued her shortly after this unfortunate turn of events, but she didn't recover for the rest of the trip. After that if we took her even close to the water she would scream "I no like it" and could not be consoled. Luckily, she still loved the sand and that kept her occupied during most of our beach time. We also took the kids down to the Tillamook Cheese factory. That was a hit, ice cream always is with my kids. After our time at the coast we headed back to the Portland area where we spent a day looking at the crazy wares and people at the Portland Saturdays market and at the Portland zoo. It was a busy trip. We played hard, ate way too much ice cream, and stayed up way too late(the kids usually didn't get to bed until 11 pm.) Despite all the long hours and busy days, and the work that goes with any long trip with kids we had a terrific time and a very memorable trip.
