Seaside {OR} Day 1 Ocean GLORIOUS Ocean

We seriously could not wait to get to the beach! Madilyn and I have been anticipating this moment for so long. Madilyn has been to the beach at least 4 times before, so it made it even more exciting as she knew what she was in for. It was a little chilly, windy, and cloudy the first day, but it didn't get us down. We played in the waves/water anyway and even though it was a little cold, it was easy to get used to.

I love this pic of Cowen! I also love the dramatic clouds. So beautiful.

These 2 had so much fun playing on the beach

The wind caught our stoller at one point and sent it rolling down the beach. Madilyn took off after it to catch it! It was hilarious. Paul helped her catch it and all was well, but it really took a long stroll down the beach by itself.

So amazingly beautiful.

Seaside has swings all along the beach and when Madilyn discovered this, it was pure bliss (for her at least ;) We got a little sick of always having to swing for a little bit, but we did it because Madilyn just loved it so much. Her very favorite things were combined here: swinging and the beach. It made her year I think!

My men! I love Cowen's silly face. He is such a little ham. And how adorable is the beanie hat that he is wearing? He hates wearing brimmed hats, but really loves beanies.

Our first day at the beach was a little chilly, and windy, but we couldn't complain because it is the beach afterall and the feeling you get when you are near the ocean is unmatched. It is truly spiritual and so clarifying for me. Love.

Seaside {OR} Day 1

And we were off to the coast (finally!!!) We were all pretty excited to get to the beach. Madilyn watched her movies on the way (fighting sleep as usual).

I enjoyed all the great old SUV cars that we came across. Here is one :)

and Cowen slept (in the "hammock" as we call this sleep position). This has been one of his favorite sleep positions since day one. It just looks like he is kicking back in a hammock to us. So comfortable.

I loved all the farm stands along the way.

and the bridges

and tunnels. Madilyn really enjoyed the tunnels too. She kept asking if we could go through another one and another one.

Finally we made it to Seaside and our beach house! We loved the cute starfish on all the lamp posts.

and here is our beach house and a little tour for you all.

This is the great room.

and kitchen. I LOVED this kitchen. It was so bright and big. Perfect for cooking. The only problem was there wasn't any place to eat except for the bar/barstools. That made it hard to feed Cowen, as I forgot his highchair (BIG oops).

Here is 1 bedroom

and the master bedroom. So cute, but weird that the box springs were exposed....it kind of bugged me, but then I am completely OCD with decorating. I kept thinking of the things that I would add and change etc. It is just a problem that I have :) The bed was comfortable though and the room was huge. Good thing, because we all slept in this one room. We put one of the mattresses from the other room and put it on the floor for Madilyn. She was comfy there with her "Cars" tent. We put the pack-n-play on the other side for Cowen. It worked out really well. We could put the kiddos to bed and then watch TV and have some beers downstairs without disturbing them.

the master bathroom.

More of the master bedroom. It was 2 story and the light was amazing.

cute backyard with a garden.

the kiddos wasted no time exploring/rearranging the place.

We also went to the beach that evening. More pics to come.

Portland {OR} Day 2

Day 2 in Portland was pretty much spent preparing for the beach house and a little more sightseeing. We hit Trader Joe's (which is a luxury that we don't have here in Utah...boo) and we also went to Costco. It was a beautiful day with rain mixed with sunshine. We really enjoyed the clean air and I didn't have any allergies at all the whole time which was definitely a bonus.

We wanted to stop at Voodoo Donut, but as usual the line was SO long and we just didn't have the energy to keep the kids busy and entertained in a long line so we skipped it this time.

We passed the huge group of food trucks. Sorry for the poor quality photo...I was leaning over Paul and trying to get a good pic while we drove by.

Here's a little better pic of some of the food trucks.

This was right by our hotel. A whole neighborhood of floating houses. This idea is pretty interesting to me and I really wonder what it would be like to live in one of these babies. Some of them were pretty decked out. How neat to be able to just pull your boat right up to your house. I need to look into these a little more and see if anyone rents one out as a vacation home...now that would be a pretty interesting place to stay next time we are in Portland.

Portland {OR} Day 1

It was so great to be in Portland again. I mean, look at this cute city. Love.
We spent our first morning in Portland sightseeing (while the kids napped in the car)

So I may just have a little obsession with photographing bridges...I love them. They fascinate me. You are lucky that I am only sharing 1 pic, as I have a whole lot more ;)

Mt. Hood
I was pretty excited to see Mt. Hood on this trip. It was so cloudy/overcast/rainy last year when we were here that I never got to see it. Amazing.

When the kiddos woke up, they were excited to go to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry)

but first, we needed to have some lunch. We knew we wanted to go to a Brewery, as Oregon has some of the best, so we typed what we thought was the address to our destination, but had 1 number wrong and ended up at this cute house....how cute is the turquoise front door?

and these garage doors? So cute. It was kind of cool that we got a little lost because we got to see a pretty cool neighborhood. Portland is definitely a hard city to navigate, even with GPS.

We finally made it to our destination Widmer Brewery

We didn't waste any time ordering our drinks. A hand crafted root beer for Madilyn and a few different beers for Paul and I to try before making our decision.

YUM..trying some awesome beers.

Cowen colored while we had our beers :)

then we had the absolute best beer cheese soup that I had ever tasted. I seriously had to hold myself back from picking up the bowl and licking it clean :) It was amazing.

Paul and I shared a yummy turkey avocado sandwich with a salad and Madilyn and Cowen shared a grilled cheese and fries.

and Cowen tried his first pickle... and I think he liked it. I tried to get a picture of his cute "sour" face, but the timing was just off. This is as close I could get :)
Cowen also met a little girlfriend that you can see in the background of this picture. He spent a most of the time we were there turning around and trying to get her attention. A little ladies man.

After our lunch, we finally made it to OMSI. The kids absolutely loved it. Especially the sand and water areas for little kiddos. They scooped sand, and played with dinosaurs in the sand pit.

and then suited up to play in the water. They both had to be dragged away from this area!
It was just too much fun playing in the water.

Cowen reminded me of a penguin as he was walking/waddling around in his smock. It was adorable. I was so worried that he would slip in the wet floor, but he managed to make it without any major accidents.

OMSI is so perfect for kids. There are so many hands on exhibits and things to do. We colored with stamps, played in the sand, played in the water, turned propellers, played in balls, sent balls through mazes, shooted balls into the air, had a puppet show (thanks Paul :) I am pretty sure that more than just our kiddos enjoyed the show..haha, built towns out of blocks, grocery shopped, built damns and made streams, saw dinosaur bones, explored Einsteins life, and more.

I love this pic of Madilyn "slipping" Cowen a magnifying glass to play with. He was thrilled and didn't want to give it back!
We got to hit a few more exhibits before the kids were too pooped to go any further. We didn't even get to see 1/2 of the museum, but there is always next time right?

Before the kids hit their limit, we got to see an exhibit on Einstein's life and achievements. It was fascinating and I was wishing that I had more time to explore it and read/see everything. It was great because Cowen was wearing his Paul Frank monkey Einstein shirt that his Auntie Alana got him for his bday. So cute.

Stay tuned for more Portland and then Seaside/Cannon Beach Oregon vacation pics and tales to come.