Oregon Coast and 4th of July

We recently returned home from our Oregon Coast trip. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of driving, and not so warm. I think the highest temperature we hit while there was 67 degrees. We went with my parents and sister Kristie and her family and sister Camille. It is amazing how long it takes for a rest stop with 14 people, 7 of which are little kids. Each stop was probably a half an hour and we had to stop A LOT with all those little kids drinking up water and soda and one big mama pregnant lady (yeah that's me) who need to frequent the bathroom. We left Friday morning and went as far as Tahoe the first night. The eight hour trek from here to there took 12 hours. That should have been our first clue of how the trip would be. It was not a bad drive though and we stopped at the Salt Flats to play and pick up "treasures". The kids thought is was great. We of course took turns trading around in cars because the cousins always want to be together. I crocheted the edge of a burp rag for Kamden on the way there. We arrived around midnight in Tahoe, and set up our tent trailer, and got Mom and Dad's trailer all situated as well. Kris and Grin, and Millie shared their trailer with Kris and Grin sleeping in the back of their Armada. We loved Tahoe and are hoping to go back and stay a little longer next time. The weather was awesome and sunny and warm and the kids really enjoyed playing in the freezing cold lake while all the less temperate adults enjoyed watching them from the side and throwing a few rocks in. I put my feet in a little and had to get out before hypothermia set in. HEHE. Then on our way to The Redwood National Forest. A trek that should again have taken about 7 hours and actually took 12. We drove through beautiful countryside and on the most winding rode I have ever been on. Poor Millie got sick, and we stopped for quite a while at a rest stop, made dinner in the trailer and tried to feel better before heading on. We arrived at our next stop around midnight again. When Camille and I reserved the campsites, we had to reserve sites 15-25 miles further than we had planned. I recommend planning a little earlier than the week before, but they were all great. We also reserved them as close to the bathrooms as possible, for obvious middle of the night reasons, again due to pregnancy. However the redwoods bathroom, right by our camp, was out of order and you had to walk quite a ways to the next one. We had lots of weird little things like that on this trip. We awoke the next morning to an awesome surprise. The trees were HUGE and we were sleeping under the canopy of the them in what is best described as the rain forest. It was so neat!! After breakfast and showers (that you had to pay for, not noted on their list of amenities online) we headed off for Florence or actually Newport where we would stay for a couple of days. The drive through the Redwoods was fantastic! So beautiful! We also walked through a redwood tree. We stopped along the way to play in the freezing ocean and wind and pick up shells and see Sea life on rocks. The kids were soaked up to their waist and had to ride the rest of the way like that. HWY 101 is a slow road! Ok, the seed limit is not so bad but people in Oregon are very slow, and all of the scenery gazers makes for a 3 hour trip to take 6. Every time we drove it took twice as long as it should have. Newport was wonderful. We could walk to the Beach, and the bathrooms were close, and open (well except for the gas leak which made us have to walk quite a distance for our shower the next morning, but they fixed them by the next morning). And we arrived in enough time to have dinner that night. We really had fun camping and love our little trailer, with hot water and a furnace and fridge it is the only way to camp. The next day we went back down the coast to visit the sea lion caves. We did not go in. It would have cost our family $75 to ride down and elevator to see sea lions for a moment. Soooo not worth it. We watched them swimming in the ocean over the railing for a while and then left. We then toured Heceta Light house. It was about a 1 mile walk through the beautiful woods to get there. We all thought it was so awesome to go inside and see the working light house. The kids even really enjoyed it, even though all they wanted to do was get back to the ocean. We also got to go into the caretakers home, that has now been turned into a bed and breakfast. It was really fun and fascinating. My feet hurt at the end though and I wish I would have worn other shoes than flip flops, this body is carrying to much weight to go hiking in flip flops. The kids then found more shells and played in the ocean at the bottom of the lighthouse getting drenched and freezing cold again. (after this I kept a change of clothes in the car for them but never did need it) We ate lunch there. We then headed back up the coast and stopped at a couple more lighthouses and turn outs. Then went back to camp where Millie and the older kids went down to the beach again to play while we made dinner. The next day we headed up the coast again to Seaside, staying at Fort Stephens State Park. We stopped in Tillamook at the Cheese Factory which was fun, but other than that just enjoyed the scenery. We were in a bit of a hurry because we needed to get Camille to the airport in Portland. She needed to teach a class the next morning and so needed to go home. Unfortunately she did not make it. All in all the day turned out to be 15 hours in the car to which the kids did really great. We should have known but it took us three hours to get in to Portland, only about an 80 mile drive. In fact, we sat 15 miles from the airport for 1 hour. We went into the airport to see what we could do but there was nothing and no way for her to get home by 8am the next morning. So she came back with us to finish out the trip. It was too bad and I felt really sad for her. We had sandwiches in the airport parking garage because we were starving, having really only had a big hunk of ice cream at the cheese factory for lunch. Then we ventured another half hour down the road to visit Bob's sister Nancy in Tigard. It was fun to see them, it has been about 5-6 years since we saw her last. We got to meet her two littlest girls and introduce the cousins and see their cute house. It was fun visiting with them. It was about 10pm when we left there and then had to drive back 2 1/2 hours to the coast getting there very late again. The next morning we woke up to a ticket on our car. Turns out the JR. Ranger that had checked us in the night before put us in the wrong campsite. So we had to move. We really didn't want to take everything down so we only folded up what we had to in order to get the trailer hitched back on and then the kids rode in the trailer while we drove really slow to the other site. The new site was a lot prettier, but also had a lot of mosquito's. The campground is huge, with over 700 sites. It think they said it was the third largest in the country. It was fun though. That day we went to Cannon Beach and played. We wanted to look at the tide pools but were really there at high tide. The adults (except for Bob and Grin, who kept the kids from being washed out to sea) sat bundled up in hoodies on the beach warming our toes in the sand. It was cold even though the sun was shining. The kids however went swimming in the ice water ocean for the longest time, even the little ones completely enjoyed themselves until they were frozen and hungry. I had brought some kites the kids had gotten free at the fair, and in researching the trip they said they have kite festivals and everything. So, the kids had the best time flying their kites. They did this for the longest time. The kites fly so perfectly on the beach there. It was amazing, and not like flying a kite at home at all. They had so much fun. Then we went into the tourist town of Seaside, where we tried fried Twinkies, fried oreos, and fried milky way, and had corn dogs. It was yummy. We walked down the promenade and visited the Seaside Aquarium. The kids really enjoyed this and were able to feed the sea lions and play with star fish and sea anemones, and watch other fish and an octopus. Then we went back to camp for dinner. The next day we went back into seaside for some sweatshirts (they were closed the night before) visited ship wreck beach and Astoria. This was the only Really rainy day we had and it poured. We had the best fish and chips after a long search for crab, in Astoria from a little boat on land. It was funny and made us nervous to eat there but was in the end really great. We drove through the rain all along the Columbia River to Plymouth WA, and our last campsite. When we got there the seat cushions in the trailer were soaked from the rain. It had been pouring into the trailer as we drove because we could not get the seal down as well as it should go because I insisted on taking the feather bed to sleep on. Which I slept on really great the whole week, but made the trailer a little to high. We aired it out and dried everything when we got home. Luckily none of the bedding was wet. Again we arrived at camp very late. The next day we headed for home. We stopped in Pendelton to visit the woolen mills, and stopped in a grocery store parking lot for lunch. I picked some daisy's and foxglove, after watching tons of it growing wild and beautiful along the rodes for days. We also saw beautiful hydrangeas and calla Lily's all along the way, and plenty of berry bushes. I just wish the berries would have been ripe to we could pick them. We also did not get to pick any blueberries. Wrong time of year I guess. The trip home took about 14 hours, even though it was really supposed to be a 9 hour drive. Crazy! But we made it home about midnight and fell into bed. We had a great trip.
Saturday was Jaxon's Baptism, so we got up and ready for that and went to it. It was really neat. I love to watch them get Baptized but especially your family. It was so awesome! We went to their house for dinner and hung out for a while. We thought we would go to the fireworks in Kaysville but we were all SO tired at that point. Sunday we went to church. I have to do sharing time this month, and then watched "A Capitol Fourth" on TV. That was really fun to watch. Monday we spent the holiday by going to the Layton parade, not a bad parade but it only lasted for a half hour. So short. Then the kids slip and slided in the backyard and had a water fight while Bob and I relaxed in our fabulous patio chairs. Then the family came over for a BBQ and we went to Layton's fireworks. They were awesome and there were SO many people there. I have never seen it that busy. I think all of Davis County was there. It was a great 4th weekend. I did so great on our trip, but since being home the sciatic nerves have been killing. I think I prefer to be on vacation when this pregnant, at least your mind is occupied by other things, but hopefully people don't laugh to hard when they see me "waddling"by. HEHE. We hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday as well.