oregon coast birthday vacation

Alright!  Here are the pics from my trip.  First day: Burgerville for lunch with an Oregon raspberry shake!

Our hotel room in Lincoln City was great!  The hotel was really nice, the beds were fantasically comfy, and everything was clean.

Don't ever follow this sign.  It's not a beach.  And it's dumb.

Kristy took me to Fogarty Creek which is where we ended up spending the most beach time.

While we were sitting at Fogerty I saw a whale spout!  And we're pretty sure we saw a seal.

Blackberry bushes were everywhere.  Kind of sad it wasn't quite blackberry season yet so I could sneak a few.

Looking down at Fogarty from farther up the road.

Kristy's cocoon.  She was so comfy she didn't even hear the alarm go off Saturday morning.  Twice!

Tillamook cheese factory!  It's not as cool as I remember it being from when I was younger, but the cheese and ice cream were still as delicious!

They changed the name of my favorite ice cream flavor.  Used to be Brown Cow, now it's Udderly Chocolate.  It was so good we went back again on Tuesday and got a cone as we drove through on our way up north!

In "The Loaf" :)

Slight detour as Kristy looked up directions on her phone for our next stop.

Eating cheese curds!

We decided to take the "Three Capes Scenic Way" on the way back from Tillamook.  First stop: Cape Meares and the Octopus Tree.

After Cape Meares we went back to our hotel, but first stopped at the grocery store to by food for Sunday and find some birthday cake for me!  Our search turned out to be more complicated than originally thought.  The first store we went to didn't have any cake.  What?!  So we had to go to another one and finally found some.  When we were back in our room Kristy found a couple videos on YouTube of NSYNC singing "Happy Birthday" and played them for me.  This is why we're besties!  :)

Sunday we went to Sacrament Meeting in Lincoln City, then rented a couple movies from Redbox (We Bought A Zoo, Real Steel, and War Horse) and just stayed in our room veggies, watching movies, and reading--basically all the things we usually do when we're together!

Monday we headed down south to Newport.  First stop of the day was Cape Foulweather.

Devil's Punchbowl--which we basically found by accident.  We were trying to find it by following the signs, but got lost.  We ended up following some signs to a winery and ended up at the punchbowl.  Go figure!?

Spazzy Puffin at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  We saw all the animals, but the sea otters were my favorite.  I love them!

This fish was giving everyone the stink-eye.  Not really sure why.  He just woke up crabby, I guess.

Spider Crabs = terrifying.

We ate at Mo's at the Historic Bayfront in Newport.  I had their famous clam chowder (which was delicious) and Kristy had the halibut sandwich.

Then we shared a piece of marionberry cobbler which was THE BEST THING OF MY LIFE!  I would go back JUST for a piece of this cobbler.  Seriously!  It was like Oregon in a bowl!

The restaurant looked right out onto the harbor where all the deep sea fishing boats left from and docked at. A couple boats came in as we were finishing, so we went out to watch them cleaning the fish.

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Back at Fogarty Creek.  Kristy made a "sandman."

Digging for agates.

Why yes, we did buy $32 worth of salt water taffy!  It was awesome!

Tuesday we checked out and decided to drive up north to Seaside and Astoria just for the heck of it.

Our matching nail polish from our pedicures on Friday morning.

The bridge between Oregon and Washington in Astoria.  Driving into town we decided we wanted to go up to Longbeach just because!

But first, we stopped at The Aster Column.  Random, but cool, and a great view!

Beard's Hollow

Northhead Lighthouse in Washington

Cape Disappointment, Washington

Kristy's new friend at the Fort Canby store in the Lewis and Clark National Park.

On the Washington side of the bridge.  I love how it disappears into the fog.  Very mysterious...

And that's all I took!  As stated previously, it was a GREAT trip.  I can't think of a better way to spend my 30th birthday than with my best friend and in a place I love.  Not sure how I'm going to top this next year, but I'm going to think of something...

would you like some taffy?

I'm home!  The coast was amazing and I had a fantastic birthday vacation!  Photos are coming, I promise.  The last week has been awesome--just what I needed to help transition into my 30's.   I laughed more than I have in a long time.  I ate some delicious food and got a little sugar drunk (yes, sugar drunk) on taffy, fudge, and Tillamook ice cream.  I visited lots of lighthouses, drove two map folds worth of the Oregon and Washington coast, and saw a whale spout out in the ocean!  I even got a little sunburned.  All in all it was a GREAT vacation!  I'm only sad it had to come to an end...

some favorites

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Dinner:

Later I will be making some:

And here are a couple of my favorite songs at the moment:

the big ball fiasco of 2012

Yesterday was the 4th of July.  Independence Day, or as our family will now refer to it: The Big Ball Fiasco of 2012.  (Or maybe that's just what I will be referring to it as now...)  Why am I now referring to as The Big Ball Fiasco?  I will explain in a moment.

Because it was America's birthday, I got the day off work and I have to say: I really like having a day off in the middle of the week and I am now looking into how I can get that to happen all the time...

Here's what we did yesterday:

Faith started working on a T-shirt quilt.  She cut up several that she had and then we went to Goodwill and found a few other ones with logos/pictures that meant something to her.  It's going to be an awesome blanket and I'm kind of jealous.

Steven, Julia, and J.R. started a game of Lord of the Rings Risk.  I'm not sure who won, or even if the game was finished, but it looked like they were having fun.

Barbara, John, and Esther played for a little bit with Grandma's kitties (stuffed animal cats she made several years ago that have a lot of doll furniture, clothes, and other fun stuff to play with).

The Grill Master at work.  In my opinion, you can't have a proper 4th of July without hot dogs.

  

The spread: hot dogs, pizza, BBQ chicken (not pictured), deviled eggs, potato chips, tortilla chips, veggies, and lemonade.  Yummy!

Firework time!!  Barbara didn't really like all the noise and was understandably skittish around the sparks and explosions after her burn injury a few weeks ago (side note: you can see the bandage in this picture on her right hand.  Her hand is healing slowly but is still really tender and hurts her a lot when the bandage has to be changed, but the doctor says it's healing and she is working on being able to bend her fingers more and more each day).

Sparklers are always fun.  John LOVED all the fireworks.  I think we created a pyromaniac last night!  He helped J.R. and Steven set up each firework and then would run back to the car exclaiming, "This is gonna be awesome!" after each one.  Funny kid!!

Now.  Here is the part where I explain why I've started calling it The Big Ball Fiasco of 2012.  J.R. bought the below pack of fireworks, not knowing what exactly they did.  So...he lit one and we were ALL surprised.  Why?

Because it went a little something like this:

Looks awesome.  And it was.  Except: J.R. didn't put it far enough out in the street and it basically blew up RIGHT next to where we were all standing.  We all screamed.  Julia literally jumped off the truck hood and onto me, and Barbara freaked out.  After we all calmed down we did a few more tamed ones and then did the other two Big Balls.  Over all it was a great day!  Happy Birthday America!!

i have a problem

national hot dog month

I recently discovered that July is National Hot Dog month.  I think this finally explains why I love hot dogs so much.

This is one of my favorite pictures.  It was taken Christmas 2003 while on our family cruise.  As much as I wanted to, however, I did not eat all those hot dogs...