Vacation 2010 Recap

So, I know I've neglected my blog for awhile, but I had good reason. We had a vacation planned. While the vacation was a secret only from the kids, I didn't want to put it on the world wide web for fear of all my crazy stalkers out there....haha. No seriously, this vacation took up the majority of my thoughts and life for the last few weeks so I decided to avoid speaking at all. Lucky Joel, right?

The trip we had planned was a family Road Trip. We waited until the last day of school on Friday to tell the kids. They were excited, but oddly enough they were more excited about the fact that we were leaving on MONDAY - in just 3 days.

We left bright and early Monday morning. Before coffee. Before we even got the eye boogers out.

Our original plan was to hit Mount St. Helens first, but it was pretty overcast and visibility was really limited, so we decided to completely reverse our trip, which put a huge damper on my directions, which I now had to read backwards, but may as well have thrown them right out the window. So our last stop, was now our first stop - The Oregon Zoo in Portland. I'm actually glad we did this first because I think on the way back we would have been way too tired and cranky. The kids enjoyed the zoo a lot. So did Joel and I. The animal exhibits were fantastic. By the end of the zoo we were all so hungry I thought lions were chasing us. Our tummys were rumbling! They had a nice little restaurant in the zoo, so we ate there. The first of many meals eaten out. Dylan ordered a plain bacon cheeseburger, which had mayo on it. I thought he was served a fried tarantula theway he freaked about it. We made him eat it anyway. He actually enjoyed it - not that he'll order mayo anytime soon.

After the zoo we headed straight for Seaside, where our condo was. The condo was magnificent. It was literally like staying in someone else's apartment for a few days. We had a dishwasher and a refrigerator and a washer and dryer and everything. The kids had to share a queen bed, but they had their own bedroom and bathroom and TV. We let them have the master bedroom. The sleeping arrangements went really well the first two nights. We let them stay up until 10:00 and then watch TV until they fell asleep, which was usually about 15 minutes. They both slept all night and woke up between 7:00 and 7:30. The last night....well....things got bad. Maddie didn't sleep well, which kept Dylan up. She tossed and turned a lot and kicked and hit and whined in her sleep. He was so angry in the morning. Funny thing is that neither of them woke me up for it, so I was oblivious until this morning. The only meals we ate in our condo was breakfast, which always consisted of instant oatmeal or donuts. This morning we had run out of options and had microwave popcorn. I was feeling too lazy to walk down the street to the donut shop. From our balcony we could see the ocean a little, but we could more so see the white trash neighbors next door. They were trashy in the trashiest sense of the word. I wish I could explain it better so that you could really grasp it. It was really nice having a washer and dryer. We could wash and dry our clothes and rewear them. If I had known that, I would have packed less clothes haha. We had a swimming pool. I didn't take any pictures of that because it was really humid in that room and I was terrified of ruining my camera. Maddie really was grasping the swimming thing. She was going underwater and everything. I was impressed. I had forgot my swimsuit at home so I went to buy a new one and the only one in my size was a bikini. Yikes. I haven't been able to wear a bikini since......well....never. I think it might even be illegal. Whoever thought to make a bikini over the size of 8 was clearly smoking crack of some kind. I got it anyway (it was only $9.99). I figured once I had burned the eyeballs of those around me I could burn the bikini. It was an uncomfortable experience for everyone around me when I wore that thing. My kids were horrified that I would even consider wearing it, let alone when I actually did. Funny thing is, it was the most comfortable swimsuit I've ever worn. I think it's because after the first five minutes I realized that the whole "suck and tuck" routine that I usually do when where a swimsuit was a moot point with this one because there was literally nowhere to hide. So there I was in all my glory. Eventually my children got over their complete and utter embarrassment at mom in a bikini and were happy that I got to swim with them. We got Maddie some arm floaties and taught her how to swim, well sort of. She did swim "a little" but every time she really was starting to get the hang of it....she'd bail on it. She wore goggles for the first time in her life and learned how to go underwater.

Okay, so onto the next adventure. Tuesday morning we got up and headed to Tillamook, Oregon, home of the best cheese and ice cream EVER....but not much else. We got to go on a little tour of how they make the cheese. Maddie said as she was watching the cheese (she herself could eat a pound of this a day if we let her, which we clearly do not) "someone hold me up, cause I think I'm gonna pass out." They're lucky they had a window barrier between us and them cause she would have attacked the workers. It was weird. It was like watching oompa loompas, only bigger and not orange faced. I was certain they were gonna sing and dance. We got to sample the various cheeses. I noticed Maddie had handfuls and I think she was planning on bringing some home, but I had to make her eat it there. Melted cheese in the truck....ew. They had an ice cream shop where we each got our favorite Tillamook Ice Cream on a waffle cone. Maddie got cookie dough; Joel and I got chocolate peanut butter; Dylan got chocolate chip mint. They were delicious. Way more so than at home. It was the experience.

After Tillamook, we headed up to Cannon Beach, Oregon to see Haystack Rock and play on the beach. Joel and Dylan brought a frisbee, but it was a little windy for that. Other than the wind, it was a gorgeous day. By the time we got back we had time to swim again, take a walk around Seaside, have dinner and play in the arcade a bit.

The next day was what we called "Seaside Day." It was also our last full day there. We went to the Family Fun Center, which we had drove past several times on our way in and out of town. We were hoping it was open because we had never seen anyone there. They had Mini-Golf, Go-Karts, and Bumper Boats. In the end, we opted out of the bumper boats because nobody really wanted to get wet. Well, the kids did, but we didn't want them to so that overruled. We played Mini-Golf and then went on the Go-Karts twice. I think we could have done the G0-Karts all day long. Dylan could drive himself, Maddie rode with me the first time and Joel the second. The whole time she was with me she kept screaming "FASTER GO FASTER!!!" The first time around Dylan was going too slow and he was all over the place and keeping me from passing him. The 2nd time around he got a little more daring. It was a blast.

We hit the arcade AGAIN. We hit this little shop where they dipped twinkies and other coma-inducing items like bacon and nutter butters and marshmallows and candy bars. Dylan had a chocolate banana dipped twinkie. Maddie had a giant chocolate dipped marshmallow. I had a peanut butter dipped twinkie. They were good but OMG were they sweet.

That night after dinner we decided to watch the sunset on the beach. It had been overcast most of the day, but the clouds were breaking on the coast and it showed itself to be a beautiful evening. We brought some towels and some popcorn. It was beautiful but the clouds seemed to settle on the horizon just before the sun did. It wasn't as beautiful as we had hoped, but it was a good experience. How often do you get to watch the sunset over the pacific ocean with your family? Never in our case.

Food is an important thing in our house so it deserves it's own paragraph. As I said earlier, we ate breakfast at the condo every day. It didn't make a lot of sense to eat out because Joel and I do not eat breakfast and Maddie and Dylan would rather eat instant oatmeal or a bowl of cereal than something at a restaurant. On our first night there we hit Pizza Hut - ohh yea, we're fancy people. We don't have a lot of those up here and Joel and I love Pizza Hut, and our kids love pizza. This was our first indication that Maddie was going to take full advantage of her vacation appetite. She ate four pieces of pizza and two breadsticks that night. She out ate us ALL. It was delicious pizza too.

The next day for lunch we ate at a little diner in Cannon Beach. I had a cobb salad, Joel had a club sandwich, Maddie had spaghetti, Dylan had fish and chips. Every one of us completely devoured our meals. Maddie's plate of spaghetti was just about the biggest I had seen and it came off the kids menu! She ate it all! That night for dinner we ate at a place called Pig'N Pancake, which was a cute little diner with pretty good food, except - poor Maddie: she ordered a french toast off the kids menu and it was one piece. As you recall, she brought her vacation appetite with her. One piece of french toast was not going to cut it for her. Luckily when we got home we had leftover pizza from the day before, which she devoured. The next day was of course, our last full day. We ate at Pizza Hut for lunch - they had an awesome all you can eat buffet. I got Maddie her first piece of pizza and she sat down and looked at it and said "how many pieces can I have?" I said "It's all you can eat." She started crying - which threw me for a major loop. Turns out she thought "all you can eat" meant "THAT is ALL you can eat - and no more." LMAO Once I explained to her the true meaning, she was unstoppable.

For dinner we ate at Bigfoots, which we had been eyeballing all week. I was thirsty when we got there. On normal days I drink either strawberry lemonade, Diet Coke (mostly), or water (rarely) all day long. On vacation, we rarely had time for a stop at a drinking fountain, so by the time we sat down for meals, I was THIRSTY. I drank three Sierra Mists before our dinner came. Yes, three. So, my prime rib was floating atop a sea of mist. Nice. I wasn't feeling so hot after that one.

That night was our last night in Seaside so we decided to head to the beach and watch the sunset. We didn't get to see anything fantastic, but it was a good bonding experience for sure.

The next day we took off early for home. Our first (and only) stop on the way back was Mount St. Helens. What a breathtaking site that was. The kids enjoyed it too and the history of it was interesting for them. Dylan knew quite a bit about it and was able to fill Maddie in.

Anyway, we're home. A lot of driving. A lot of fun. A LOT of good memories. We witnessed a gnarly bike crash. The sound of this guy hitting the pavement was one that nightmares are made of. People watching was one of the best parts of the trip. We saw a guy with his pants so far down his butt that you could see 75% of his butt. Disgusting! These are the things the kids will never forget, lol.

Not two minutes after we got home Maddie's nose started to run. I wondered aloud why she had a runny nose and she said "cause I got car sick." Doesn't quite work that way. Dylan on the other hand, was car sick. He threw up as soon as we got home. Thank God he waited that long.

I had a LOT of pictures that I uploaded into two albums on Facebook. That's the best you're gonna get. I changed the privacy setting on these two albums temporarily so that if you don't have a Facebook or you're not on my list you can still see the pictures, I think.

Album Number 1

Album Number 2