Ray Family Vacation...Finally!!!

This last week Gabe and I took our first family vacation with just our little family. We originally had plans to meet up with our old friends in California. So we thought we would drive down a couple days early and spend some time in Seaside, Oregon. Plans fell through with our friends so Gabe and I decided that we should still take our kids to the beach. During our 14 hour drive Gabe and I were wondering what we were thinking exactly...a 2 month old and a 2 year old! Not our brightest moment:) Really it went better than we thought. We left 5 pm on Sunday and drove through the night, reaching Seaside, Oregon around 8:00 in the morning. The kids pretty much slept through the night. On the way back was a different story.

Day One

Seaside Oregon

Easton got his share of time in the sun. Unfortunately he got his first sunburn. Who would of thought you could get a sunburn in 60 degree weather with complete cloud cover? OK maybe everyone knows that, but we didn't even think about it, being as cold as it was! Gabe and I felt so bad. It took about a week to heal and peal!

What do you think of our luxurious ocean view? Yeah I thought the same thing. Right after we checked in, took a nap, I marched down to the front desk and demanded a room change....Ok, I didn't march or demand, but I would have if they didn't do it. They were actually very accommodating! We ended up moving to the 3rd floor with a beautiful view of the ocean!

DAY 2

Newport, Oregon

The next day we spent afternoon traveling down the coast, enjoying the beautiful views and stopping at a few places along the way.

First stop being the Tillamook factory, tasting all the amazing cheeses and of course some of their famous ice cream. It was entertaining to see just how all that amazingness is made.

I think her eyes were bigger than her stomach. She overdid it on the ice cream, which put her in an unnecessary sugar coma!

Around 4 we checked into the Shilo Inn...

only to check out at 4:30.

Can you see why?

This was confirmation number 2 of our hotel snobiness:) I'm sorry but that room creeped me out. Between the 60's wallpaper in the bathroom and the black hair I found on my pillow sent us running to another hotel! We wanted a relaxing vacation and would be spending quite some time in our hotel room. Our children are in bed around 7:30, so we wanted something a little more cozy and a little less scary, if you know what I mean. So I called the front desk and told them that our plans changed and we need to head north. North being 1 hotel to the North:) The Elizabeth Inn with a private balcony, a fire place, an unobstructed ocean view, and complimentary robes offered us the true luxury and comfort that we so desired. It was wonderful and worth every pretty penny!

DAY 3

Sea lion caves

Lunch on the docks

Oregon Coast Aquarium

We spent the next day sight seeing. We drove about an hour south just to see the AMAZING sea lion caves, where hundreds of sea lions gather to rest from the violent waters of the pacific ocean. Well...that was how excited Gabe was to see them. Unfortunately when we got there the lady at the front desk informed us that they were excited that there were 2 lions in the cave that morning. "Excuse me, did you say 2?" YUP 2. She went on to tell us that they were discounting the tickets from $12 to a woppin' $10! "well in that case...count me in!!!" Since we drove all that way we decided to go down. We took an elevator down 208 feet and to our excitement got to see three lions there:) The cave was pretty cool actually but I don't think I would go unless it was sea lion season there.

The funny thing is we headed back to Newport and went to the fishing port to find some lunch and walk around a little bit. The first thing we heard when we got out of our car was the roar of about 100 sea lions. Isn't it ironic? I asked Gabe, "are those sea lions?" and he said, yeah but its just a recording, lol! We walked to the dock and there were 8 in the water, about 10 feet away from us, and then off on these rocks were about 90 more. Totally wished we would have went there first. Oh well, we had a blast looking at everything.

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Can I just say Ashlyn love love loved it! She would go up to the fish tank and when the fish would swim away, she would run after it screaming, "wait wait".

What a cute funny little girl Ashlyn is. Gabe was carrying her around the Aquarium and when he would ask her for kisses she would say no. So he would pout his lip and look to the ground with sad eyes. The compassionate girl that she is, would place her hands on his cheeks and lift up his head say "gabe, gabe," and then give him kisses. That's right she calls him Gabe sometimes. It's pretty funny. She's definitely in the stage of repeating every word you say.

Sweet little Easton was pretty much sleeping through the whole aquarium. What a good little boy he is!

BACK TO THE HOTEL

TIDE POOLS

Brave little girl holding a crab

I don't know what this look is all about!

I totally could have spent another day just to relax but we had to get back for the Ray family camp trip in Jackson Hole, WY! So we stopped by the historical lighthouse on Thursday morning, and then by noon we were on the road back to Rexburg. Ashlyn woke up around 12 and was awake until 4:30 in the morning. We arrived home around 4:45! Of course she would fall asleep 15 min before getting home! Then we slept for a few hours, woke up, did our laundry, and were on the road again for another hour and 45 min drive to WY!