A trip with my Moma

The weekend after Quincy's Birthday I took a little trip up to Cashmere, WA to visit my cousin Hanna. She just had a little boy, Oliver. I haven't seen her in years and it was nice to make the trip up there to see her, as well as my Aunt, Uncle, and Halli (her sister).

Since it was just me and my mom we had lots of time to talk in the car and do all the fun girly stuff. Although the drive was a little long for a weekend trip, it was definitely much nicer to make without the kids. Speaking of the kids, they stayed with Tyler. It was his first time alone with both of them for a whole weekend and I think he did a great job taking care of them. He even got them all to church on time. I'm so proud.

Maybe I should leave more often? :)

The two pictures above are from Leavenworth a cute little touristy town nearby. We spent a hot afternoon walking through the shops and visiting my Aunt while she was working in a wine shop.

Thanks mom for letting me take the trip with you. :)

Final Stop: Sand Castle Building.

We couldn't leave the coast without building a sand castle. Even though BOTH our boys fell asleep on the way back to Beverly Beach we woke them up for some more fun.

While Quincy worked hard on BUILDING sand castles, Braxton worked hard on DESTROYING them. It was funny to watch, but frustrating for Quincy...

Of course, as they say "all good things must come to an end" and ours did. We had to strip and wash the boys off before they could get in the car, as they were bathed in sand.

This last picture of Braxton pretty much sums up how we all felt... tired, dirty, and well... just TIRED.

So we packed up and headed home, but not before one last stop (which I don't have pictures from) in Lincoln City where we had lunch at a local place called Jay's Fish and Chips. Tyler enjoyed it and I couldn't wait to just sleep in the car.

We all slept, except for Tyler of course, for the 2 hour car ride home. I would say our camping beach trip was an overall success!

Fourth Stop: OSU Marine Science Center

After our breakfast, even though the boys were a little tired... we couldn't leave without seeing some real sea life. Fortunate for us the OSU Marine Science Center is "free" (donations only).

The boys really liked looking at all the different sea life and they even have touch pools for the kids to feel differnet sea life.

Braxton, loved these... as you can see from the picture above where he's trying to JUMP IN!

He got to touch sea anenomes, sea urchins, and star fish.

They were so colorful!

Although Braxton was practically swimming with the sea life, Quincy refused to put his hands in and was content to observe.

He did enjoy the fish in the tank above, who rather resmebled some celebrity fish named Nemo and Dory. :) After we had soaked in enough sea life... we headed out for our next stop.

The morning after....

The morning after our awful night of "sleep" we 'woke up' at 7:45AM... did we ever really sleep?? I dunno. However, we weren't going to let a little thing like lack of sleep stop us from having fun! No sir.

So we headed on a walk out to the beach. The Beverly Beach State park is on the east side of 101 and you walk under this bridge to get out to the beach. It was so pretty that morning.

Aren't those 3 boys cute?

Quincy was really insistent that he find some sea shells... so he looked hard. Unfortunately at almost 8:00AM all the good ones are usually gone. He did find a few good ones though.

Hunting for more sea shells.

Okay, let me preface the picture below by saying that BEFORE we even left for the beach that Quincy REALLY wanted to find a start fish. We kindly reminded him that he MIGHT not be able to find one, especially a whole one, but he remained optimistic. While we walked along the beach that morning and found sea glass, cool colored rocks, little sea shells, or pieces of cool ones and we resigned that he might not get that star fish he was hoping for. However, after walking about 1/4 mile and just as we were about to turn back Tyler spotted one! A whole starfish. Quincy was so exited. I was not excited that it was still moving (barely). We stuck him in the bucket and headed back.

After washing the shells, getting dressed, and packing up our campsite we headed out to eat breakfast in Newport at a breakfast place called Pig N Pancake. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep,or that I didn't have to make it, or the fact that I had been cold for so long, but THAT breakfast was the best I've had in SUCH a long time.

And I must say, the boys had fun coloring on their menus and the table (Braxton), the waitress was great, the food was delivered promptly, and most importantly tasted delicious!

I got waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, and a side of bacon and eggs.

Tyler, who was feeling adventurous since we were at the coast, got a crab omlette, hashbrowns, and sour dough toast. I acutally had some... and it was quite tasty!

And the fun didn't stop there...

Night time...

After we were full from dinner we came back to our campsite to get cozy in our jammies...

The boys were anxious to help their dad make a fire so we could toast marshmallows.

Braxton was thoroughly involved in helping with the kindling and wood chips.

A few pictures of the woods by our campsite... really pretty area.

Me and my Quincy bear.

Tyler trying to keep Braxton away from the fire.

The boys really did love their camping chair... which even came equipped with two cup holders.

Our cozy warm fire... too bad it couldn't go all night to keep us warm.

The boys got glow sticks at night and LOVED playing with them. We dubbed their glow stick dance party the 'campsite rave'.

For some reason this picture below is Tyler's favorite picture of these two. I suppose it's because it captures their trouble personalities... and fortells what we'd be in for later that night. Hmmmm ....

There's still more...

Third Stop: Beverly Beach State Park

After driving another 8 minutes or so... we reached the State Park where we were going to be camping overnight. We decided we would set up our tents and get everything settled before going to dinner.

The boys were very happy to see their tent set up outside...

(I'll skip forward a little to tell you about that night... don't worry I'll finish the rest of our trip after- but I wanted to write about it while you were looking at these pictures) See that nice cozy looking bed on a queen size air mattress? This was supposed to be where TYLER and I slept.

See this cozy looking little tent with sleeping bags and little beds made up?? THIS is where the boys were supposed to be sleeping. Let me tell you how it actually went down that night. We put the boys down for bed around 9:00PM. They were good and tired after a days worth of playing. Braxton protested sleep for about a whole minute before he passed out. Quincy went right to sleep as well. We thought (Key Word THOUGHT) we were in the clear for our first time sleeping in a tent. Tyler and I went to sleep about 11:00PM. Let me tell you... it was cold that night. In fact, while I was packing our things I said to Tyler 'Are you sure this comforter and sheet will be enough?' Oh yes! was his reply. NO. I was FREEZING that night!!

After trying to get warm snuggled up with Tyler I started to doze off and then I had that sudden urge to pee. Ugh! There is nothing worse than having to pee in the middle of the night, especially when it's SO cold. Although this state park had restrooms, I didn't want to walk that far and settled for squatting in a bush close by. (So much fun!) I made my potty trip quick because my teeth were chattering. When I got back in our bed I heard Braxton cry.

Drat! We thought that he would sleep through the night. Well, we couldn't be 'those' camping neighbors who let their kid "cry it out" ... so of course we brought him in our tent. Bad idea. At least for our sakes. Braxton once in our tent settled down, but proceeded to root around our bed and all over us. As a result he was not sleeping, I was not sleeping... no one was sleeping... except for Quincy.

At this point we have no concept of time, since Tyler's phone is off and we're in a dark wooded campsite. I'm guessing at 3 or 4:00AM I finally conceded that I needed to bring Braxton's mummy sleeping bag in our tent so I could at least be warm! Tyler had B on his side and the two of them had pushed me up against the side of the tent and on the VERY edge of the air mattress. I'm pretty sure I only slept with 1/4 of my pillow too. Tyler later told me that at one point he thought B was finally asleep on his chest when suddenly B let out a huge fart. He then lifted his head, looked at Tyler, smiled, and laughed. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep... maybe. Poor Tyler. He got even less!

Who would have thought that a face so innocent could cause so much trouble!

Oh, a side note about the kids camping chairs... We have one kid camping chair, but needed one for B. Kids' camping chairs are a minimum price of $10.00 at Walmart. I didn't want to pay that much and was determined to find a chair for Braxton at a thrift store for less. The monday before we left for the beach we went to DI and found that chair. It was only $6.00! And in great condition. Although the chairs are connected, we didn't mind. I felt it was a great deal.

After setting up our campsite... we headed south 10 minutes to Newport. There we had dinner at a place called The Fish Peddlers Market. It's right off the docks and they bring fresh fish and shrimp in from the boats. You can even watch them clean the shrimp from the inside dining area, but I didn't take part in observing that. We ordered Rockfish and Chips... of course it was delicious and fresh! :)

I don't know how those employees can stand all that fishy smell... it's pretty pungent! I suppose you get used to it after a while? Yuck.

When we finished dinner we walked along the docks... the boys loved looking at boats. Tyler and I even saw a sea lion, but the boys missed it.

Soaking in the sea life.... aren't they cute?

The cutest couple. :)

Our happy camper doesn't want to smile...

We all had a wonderful time eating and walking the docks... but eventually it was time to go back to our 'home away from home'.