Sunday day-cay

Life is busy. This last week it seemed like I hardly saw Jonathan at all. With church callings (for both of us), ATRA, and work sometimes I don't actually see my husband until we are are ready to call it a day and go to bed. Now I know lots of people live like this...but I'm just not used to it. I MUST have my all-of-us-together time. It refuels my motivation to carry on as a stay-at-home mom- doing the same routine stuff day after day. Of course I LOVE my job and feel incredibly blessed to be the caretaker to these two sweet kiddos, but it does get mundane at times.

On Friday after Jonathan got home from work, he packed up his overnight bag and headed out. He was asked to take the teachers and priests of the ward fishing early Saturday morning. He spent the night with the bishop in a trailer, which I think is kinda funny...but anyway I spent that night alone with the kids. We tried to make the best of it but I was really missing him. Then on Saturday, he came home much later than expected and we had just enough time to go pick some blueberries- which were harder to find this time as the season for blueberries is ending. It was super hot so we stopped for ice-cream cones on our way home. It was a perfect evening, and I wasn't ready to end our weekend there.

(yes, these pictures are ALL from instagram. It's so much easier taking pics with my phone than lugging my huge camera around. I love having an iphone!)

Sundays are so hard, and truth be told I dread Sunday every week. I won't go into those details right now...but I really didn't want to spend that day wrestling grumpy, tired kids in the hallways of church.

We decided to take a family day-cation. I found a sub for my class and planned out our day. I gotta say I am so glad that we did this...it was really nice to not be stressed for one Sunday and just relax and enjoy being a family together. And no we don't make it a habit to skip church. In fact since we've lived here in Oregon a year and a half ago I don't think we've missed a single Sunday (if we had a sick child one of us would still go to Sacrament).

The plan was to drive north along the coast and stop at a few beaches. We packed a ton of food and snacks so we wouldn't have to buy anything and filled up on gas the night before.

One of my favorite things about living here is that the coast is only an hour and a half away. Our first destination was a 2 hour drive to Pacific City, and even though at 10 am. it was pretty cold and windy and foggy- the beach was beautiful. Lots of people were there walking along the shore and exploring the tide pools and little caves.

 

I tried taking off C's shoes at one point so she could feel the sand in her toes, and she screamed. haha...she was terrified of the sand touching her feet and did not like it all.

As we were traveling to our next destination we came upon the darling town of Tillamook. If you've ever eaten Tillamook cheese or ice-cream--this is where it came from! I said to Jonathan, "How fun would it be to go to the cheese factory?" and he said, "yeah...but it might not even be open on Sunday, and if it is probably costs a lot, and I don't know where it is..." This is how our marriage is sometimes, haha. I always want to go do spontaneous things and he gets skeptic, but usually rolls with it anyway :) Well it just so happened that the Tillamook Cheese Factory was right off the road we were on, and about 5 minutes after I made my comment we saw it. I got super excited and we pulled in to see what the deal was. It was VERY busy and admission was free! We caved in a little and got ice-cream cones, which we all devoured very quickly..haha. It was so cool to see the people in the factory slicing and packaging the cheese. Talmage kept saying, "Look! He's cutting the cheese!" and people would chuckle behind us. At the end of the tour you could sample all the different kinds of cheese they make. This place was just adorable and I hope we can go back again someday!

Since the drive to our last stop was a few more hours, Charlotte was able to take a good long nap. We drove along the coast the entire way, through lots of sleepy little coastal towns and windy forested roads. At one point we just had to pull off and take in the scenery. There is nothing more beautiful than the Oregon Coast on a clear sunny day!

 

We arrived at Cannon Beach around 2 pm. This beach was COMPLETELY different than the other. The sun was out, the sand was soft and warm, and the scenery was all blue water and blue skies. My heart skipped a few beats as we walked up to the shore. It was GORGEOUS. We set up our tent shade thingy and from our spot we could see the ever popular Haystack Rock in the distance.

Charlotte finally warmed up to the sand and we couldn't get her out of that stuff. Talmage was the same way, and those two could have played in that sand all day!

 We ended our day by walking to Haystack and exploring the tide pools there. These kids were in heaven...but it was pretty windy too and they started to shiver. Our cue to go! haha.

As we were walking back to the car, I had Charlotte on my chest nearly asleep. Talmage had heavy eyelids and was a little disoriented, asking where us where the ocean was. I love it when we play so hard that they are so exhausted. As soon as we began our drive home they were OUT.

Now we are home and recovering from minor sunburns (I brought a ton of sunscreen but we were having so much fun of course that I forgot to use it...oops).

Ahh. What a perfect day!! We can't wait to get back on the beach!