I can't believe it's already the middle of June.
I also can't believe I start almost every single blog post with something very similar to that phrase.
So. I don't know how I just skipped over May as we took one of the biggest trips I've ever taken. We went to Oregon! Seriously you guys it was beautiful. So sit tight and get ready for a long one (with lots and lots of pictures). Here we go!
Day 1
So it started off with a flight at 1:00 PM to PDX on May 2nd. Rose did great and slept almost the entire ride. Going through the airport with all our bags was a bit of an adventure. I'm pretty sure we had many many people stare at us as we balanced boxes on top of Rosealynn's stroller and all doubled up with bags in each hand. But we made it through everything with out too many issues.
After we got our rental car packed full with our stuff we started to head South. On our drive down we stopped at Silver Falls State Park and did a couple of quick hikes. It was beautiful and a great start to the trip. In fact one of the waterfalls was probably on my top 5 of places we went to the whole trip. It was huge and you could walk all the way behind it. Gorgeous.
After out quick stop to Silver Falls we continued to Eugene to visit my cousin Edon (hi Edon!) and her fun family. They made us a super yummy dinner and it was so nice to see their home and catch up. We then finished up our drive to Grants Pass where we finally took a break at a nice hotel.
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| Passed. Out. |
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| :) |
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| She woke up with about 20 minutes left of the flight and just wanted to snuggle Papa. |
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| Brad was her favorite person ever the entire trip. It was always PaPa's turn. |
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| Our bags. |
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| Seriously... Traveling with kids can be fun. |
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| Clovers everywhere! Love the green! |
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| Little water fall. Beautiful. |
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| :) |
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| I love this picture so so much. |
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| Love me some Braedon |
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| She always had to hold Brad's hand. So cute. |
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| So pretty. |
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| My favorite Water Fall that you could walk behind. It was HUGE. Hard to tell by the pictures. |
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| Front view. |
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| Playing with rocks. Of course. |
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| Jackson, Rose, and Autumn! |
Day 2
The Redwoods! Starting our trip back North up the coast we first hit the Redwoods. You guys. Why have I not been here before? Just driving through the forest was incredible. The tree's are even more then huge and everything is juts so green. We did some hikes, explored Humboldt Lagoons State Park a bit and other beaches along the way (too many remember all the names!) and drove some more around the amazing Redwoods. We finally ended our day in Harris Beach State Park. We got there pretty late so we didn't have much time to do anything besides set up in our little Yurt, put Rose to bed and play some games.
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| Rose loved the Bear outside our hotel. |
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| Holding PaPa's hand while watching a show. |
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| TREES! |
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| So. Huge. |
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| Rose loved running around free and loved all the trees. |
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| Love these three. :) |
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| I seriously was in love. |
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| That is a big fallen tree... |
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| :) |
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| These two are so cute. |
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| Love. That. Face. |
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| :) |
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| Rose really liked the backpack we got for her. It definitely made all the hiking easier. |
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| GREEN! |
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| Our first beach! I don't even remember the name of it...? |
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| Love how hard the waves crash. |
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| Pointing at the water. (Also - that hair!) |
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| Pistol |
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| My turn at a pistol |
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| Rocks and Papa - what more could a girl need. |
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| Enjoying some chips and salsa on the beach. |
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| Finding more rocks! |
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| So beautiful. |
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| Watching a show on the tablet so we could listen to some music for a change. |
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This is where she took all her naps the entire trip. As long as we gave her
the teddy and blanket and binki she would be out in minutes. She was so amazing
for the entire trip. Can't ask for a better kid. :) |
Day 3
We woke up decently early and packed up our stuff and then explored Harris Beach. I think this was one of my favorite beaches. So many cool rock formations and it was just really beautiful. Our morning started out a bit rainy/misty but it wasn't too bad and gave us an excuse to put Rose's cute little mini mouse rain coat on. It got warmer as the day went on. After spending some time at Harris Beach we then hopped in the car to start out way further north and stopped at any place we wanted while on to our next sleeping destination: Sunset Bay. I think we stopped at Gold Beach, Cape Blanco State Park, and Bandon.
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| Best. Rain jacket ever. |
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| So pretty. |
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| Love his curly hair. :) |
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| Oh her cheeks! |
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| WATER! |
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Had a lot of time climbing all the rocks... then when we got back to the care
we saw a sign asking people to not climb on them. Oops. My bad. |
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| Playing with sticks. |
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| Star fish!! |
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| :) |
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| Handsome man. |
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| Always attempting family photos. Ha. |
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| When you tell your daughter to show you her stick... |
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| Can't remember what this place was called but it was beautiful. Obviously. |
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| Seriously you guys how can you not love his face!? |
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| I have never stood in a windier spot then this spot. It was crazy. |
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Kisses! This was at a port in Bandon I believe. We stopped for some
food at a grab shack. I think it was one of my favorite places we ate at.
So much crab cakes, fish tacos, fish and chips, and clam chowder. Mmmmm. |
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| Kisses! |
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Any statue/carving/whatever of an animal had to have a kiss. Love my
sweet loving little girl. |
Day 4
Day 4 was super busy with lots of stops! Once we woke up we spent the morning exploring Sunset Bay. It was a cute little small beach with some cool tide pools and old sand rock walls filled with fossils and shells. Rose was absolutely in love with all the rocks. Seriously I think they were her favorite part. Though she also loved sticks. And to be fair she loved the Ocean and anytime we saw water whether driving or when we actually set foot on a beach she would yell "Water! Ocean!". It was adorable. After we had our fill at Sunset Bay we went and explored Shore Acres and Shore Acres Botanical Garden. This was another one of my favorites. Being able to climb on the rocks and watch the waves crash into them was so fun. Super pretty. Next down the line was the dunes. I'm not gonna lie I wasn't really thrilled to stop but I am glad that Braedon and Brad wanted to because I ended up enjoying the Dunes. Rose loved it and it was pretty fun running around. We each took turns running down the hills with Rose and she thought it was hilarious. Then we continued up north and made a quick stop at the Sea Lion Caves. Brad was nice enough to treat us all with tickets to go down into the cave. You guys. I can't even explain it. The sound alone was crazy. Hearing all those sea lions growl and bark... incredible. There were hundreds of them all just laying on each other and fighting over the best spots to sleep. Rose wasn't the biggest fan of all the growling but she did think the Sea Lions were pretty cool. After the Sea Lions we continued up to South Beach State Park making a couple of stops at random lookouts on the way. One I really like was called Devils Churn. When the waves build up it shoots the water straight up. We never got a great picture of the big ones but we sat and watched this for quite some time. The sound it made was really cool too. The other little stop we took was in Florence and we hiked up to the light house, unfortunately we got there too late to actually go inside, but it was still cool to see! I wish we had more time to explore Florence. It was really pretty. We finally made it to South Beach just in time to go to bed.
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| The coast is good for her. :) |
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| Heeey an actual decent picture of the three of us! |
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| Anytime there are stairs or a bench Rose has to sit and you also have to "sit there" next to her. |
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| Lots of shoulder rides this trip. |
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| Devils Churn |
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| Sunset Bay |
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| Love this picture. |
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| A girl could get used to this... |
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| The tide pools at Sunset Bay. |
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| Playing with rocks. |
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| Shores Acres State Park |
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| One of my favorite spots. |
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| Fun to climb around. |
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| Before... |
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| After! Love watching the waves! |
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| Loved the color of the rocks. |
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| Shores Acre Botanical Gardens. Really pretty despite it not really being in season. |
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| Can this be my backyard? |
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| Oregon Sand Dunes |
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| Rose loved the sand. But not on her feet. |
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| Loving the freedom. |
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| These two are adorable. Look at that love! |
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| Smoosh face! |
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| Soft kiss. |
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| Running down a dune. Love watching Brad in the background. |
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| ... |
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| The. Best. |
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| My Father in Law is pretty cool. :) |
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| Braedons turn to run down a dune with Rose. |
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| After each run she would say "geeen" aka "again". :) |
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| :) |
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| Showing Rose how to build a sand castle. |
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| On our way back to the car Brad caught a snake. Rose thought it was pretty cool. :) |
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| On our way to the Sea Lion Cave. Look at that view! |
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| Oh just some of the Sea Loins that weren't actually in the cave... |
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| Sea Lion Cave! |
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| So many Sea Lions. |
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| The life. |
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| Devils Churn |
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| So cool! This wasn't even the highest one we saw. |
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| Brad is magic! |
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| Love these two. |
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| :) |
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| I honestly don't even remember where this is at... I think it was just somewhere close to Devil's Churn. |
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| So pretty. |
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| Heceta Light House in Florence. |
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| Love all the views. :) |
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Rose also loved all these little white flowers that grew everywhere in Oregon. She
now has a love for any white flower. :) |
Day 5
We woke up and did a little bit of exploring at South Beach but the majority of our day was spent at the Aquarium. While it was fun and Rose loved it, I didn't like it as much as the one Braedon and I went to in Seattle. Now THAT is an Aquarium. We stopped at one beach in Pacific City for some dinner another little hike up to some really cool rock formations. We then continued on our way to Cape Look Out State Park just in time for the sunset.
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| South Beach. Fun beach to play on - not as pretty as the others we saw in my opinion. |
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| Rose playing frisbee with the boys. |
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| She started to catch it! |
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| Throwing it was a bit hard. |
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So. I bet you didn't know that galoshes are absolutely the best cold beach
shoes ever. No water gets in. No sand gets in. I can walk wherever I want. Perfect. |
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| Building some sand forts. |
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| Rose got really excited about the big hole Brad made her. |
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| :) |
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| Cleaning up after playing on the sandy beach. |
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| Nothing like a naked baby! :) |
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| At the aquarium. |
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| She loved all the fishies. |
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| She doesn't even hesitate to touch things. |
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| I loved all the birds! |
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| These tunnels with the sharks were really cool. |
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| Showing Papa the Shark. |
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| Giving the turtle a hug and kiss. |
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Random look out on our drive this day. So pretty. We tried to find a way to that beach,
but we couldn't find an entrance and think it was a private area. |
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| Again with the sticks. |
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| Smiles. :) |
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| Add caption |
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This was the cool rock formations we found. So pretty. Also a death trap for anyone
that is careful. Which is probably why it wasn't a real marked trail... oops? At least there
where no signs this time saying to not climb on the rocks. ;) |
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| Seriously it was amazingly beautiful up there. |
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I finally thought we should take a picture of where we were staying each night. To help
cut costs we rented yurts in each state park we ended in. They weren't fancy, but they
had a heater and beds and flush-able bathrooms always close by. Anytime we pulled into
camp Rose would yell "House!" and run up to the door. Each yurt seriously looked the exact same. |
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Playing with the spatula. We brought a little portable stove and pan and made
breakfast each morning in camp. |
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| Walking to the beach through the camp ground. |
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| Best. Photo bomb. Ever. |
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| Cape Look Out. |
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| I promise it wasn't that cold... I just think Brad really likes his hat. ;) |
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Reading stories before bed time. Rose went down each night like a champ. I was interested
to see how she handled being in one big room, but we would put her down, full lights on, and
she would go right to bed while we stayed up and played games/talked all night. She did so great! |
Day 6
We started off with the Cape Look Out Hike. It was a pretty long one so we got an early start - which Rose did not like. She fell asleep in the backpack about 20 minutes into the hike. Once we got to the end of the hike it was a beautiful view of the ocean. Then came one of my favorite parts of the trip (I seem to be saying that alot) - we visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory! You guys. If you are ever in this part of Oregon you have to go at least get some icecream. We stopped for lunch, had some grilled cheese sandwiches, and some super yummy iceceam. In fact it was so yummy we had to make another stop later that day to get some more. Mmmmmm. :) We then made our way down to Nehalem Bay State Park stopping at a fun lighthouse along the way. Once we got to Nehalem we played in the sand and watched the Sun Set. Rose loved playing in the sand.
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| Really pretty. |
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| Annnd she's passed out. So great. |
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| We helped tip her head forward and shoved a jacket to help it not bob around too much. |
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Loved being right on the edge of this huge peninsula and seeing the ocean directly
below us. It might have freaked Braedon out a bit... ;) |
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| Ha. These two. :) |
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| Group shot! |
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View at the end. So pretty. We were pretty high up too. Also ignore the finger in
the picture. I have so many pictures on this trip with my finger in it. I clearly was
extremely paranoid of dropping my phone.
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| Heaven. So. Good. Mmmmmm. |
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| Rose loved the Ice Cream and actually finally started to say "ice cream". |
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| Mmmmmmmm. |
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| So glad Braedon loves me and knew we needed to add this stop to our itinerary. |
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I can't remember the name of this light house - maybe the Nehalem Light House? We
were actually able to go inside and learn a little bit of the history on it though. Pretty cool. |
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| Nehalem Beach - more playing in the sand. :) |
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| Another beautiful sunset. |
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| The stick his dad beats him with. ;) |
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| Loved playing in the sand. :) |
Day 7
The morning of day 7 we woke up and went and got some breakfast at Bread and Ocean which we had heard some great reviews on. It did not disappoint. We got some yummy cinnamon rolls, an amazing cheesecake strawberry tart thinger, some amazing hot chocolate, yummy bread, and a raspberry pastry. So. Good. After we ate breakfast it really started to rain a lot, but we didn't want that to put a damper (har har) on our fun. So we all put on our rain coats and did some hiking at Oswald West State Park. It was a beautiful area and all the rain made everything look even more green and vibrant. There were a lot of hikes to do in Oswald West State Park so that is what we did the majority of our day - so much fun in all the rain. We finally made our way to Fort Stevens State Park to spend the night.
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| Rose was totally diggin' the cinnamon rolls. |
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| So was I. :) |
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| Loved all the mist and rain! |
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| Ha! |
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| Hiking in the rain! |
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| Seriously. Best shoes for the trip. |
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| Don't mind my glowing skin... |
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| These two. |
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| So. Much. Rain. |
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| Rose all bundled and protected in her pack! |
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Can we all just agree that Brad's outfit is amazing? I called him trashbag man the rest
of the trip. |
Day 8
We spent most of our day exploring Fort Stevens - seeing the old battery's and bunkers. It was really cool and a bit creepy to see all the abandoned buildings and huge old guns and such. I love old history places like that though so it was a lot of fun. We then got some yummy fish and chips at the Bow Picker in Astoria and then the rest of the day was spending driving away from the coast (sniff sniff) and going inland to Hood River. We stopped at a Thai and Sushi place that Brad knew of in Troutdale Oregon and it was amazing. So amazing that we went back the next day... and the next. We then went to Brad's brother's condo where we would be staying for the next couple of days.
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| Sometimes you are super excited in the morning. |
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| Old boat. |
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| Forst Stevens. |
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| Sushi. So. Good. |
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| Mmmmmmm. Since when do I like sushi? So weird. So good. |
Day 9-10
The next day and a half we spent exploring Hood River which has some AMAZING hikes and waterfalls. It was so much fun and each waterfall was beautiful. We also made a stop and had some lunch (some take out soup from the Thai place) at the Vista House which has an amazing view of the river. Our last day we Braedon asked what I wanted to do for lunch for Mothers Day, and of course I decided on more sushi. Seriously you guys it was so good. We then made a quick stop at the Bonneville Dam and saw some fish (which Rose loved) and then made our way to a spot where we could get some wifi so we could Skype with Chantelle before we had to make our way to the airport. It was so fun to talk to her and Rose was SO sad when she had to say goodbye.
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| Love this shot. |
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| My Mothers Day Sushi. Mmmm. |
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| Chillin' in her backpack. |
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Anytime I wore the backpack she would lean her head into mine and
squeeze my neck and go "Ahhhhh". *Heart melts* |
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| Another great photobomb. |
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| Another hug. :) |
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| Rose called the clovers flowers. |
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| Eating lunch at the Vista House. |
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| She loves her daddy. :) |
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| I love this picture. :) |
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| The Vista House |
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| View from the Vista House. |
Other Random Tidbits
I felt like Rose learned so much on this trip and grew up a lot. Plus we just had some pretty funny random moments. Listed below are a few that I don't want to forget:
- Rose trying to say the word "Lap". She really wanted to say it right so she will try really hard and end up saying "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyAP". Adorable.
- Rose suddenly fell in love with the movie Monster Inc while on this trip. We could be out in the middle of a hike and she would suddenly (and very sweetly) say "Monsters!?" cause she wanted to watch the show again. If we told her we couldn't watch it she would cock one shoulder up and tilt her head and with this little smile say in a voice that made it near impossible to say "Monsters" again.
- Rose also got on this kick where she got really excited about cows. She would "moooooo" and then quietly while shaking her head whisper "cows" then repeat. She did this for 5 minutes once.
- I never knew that the word "Papa" could be said in so many different ways... but it can. From sounding British to overly excited she would always grab his attention.
- Out of no where Rose would shake her head and point her finger at you and say "Naughty!".
- She finally started to say the world Applesauce. Most of the time it sounded like "Ass Sauce" but we got the point. ;)
- A lot of times when she saw the ocean she would make the "wooooosh" sound to sound like the waves.
- Rose started growling at people. I know it sounds weird but it's pretty funny. She loved to growl at Brad and he would pretend to be scared and she'd laugh for days.
- While we were at the Tillamook Factory Braedon came and put some little cups of ketchup on the table. Rose looked at them and quickly said "No, no, no, no... SPICY".
- We discovered that for whatever reason everything seems to be closed in Oregon on Tuesdays. Weird? Random. Yes.
All in all it was a great trip and I would love to go back some day. It was so much fun and I loved having some time off with my family and being able to have Brad along.
