Mommy Brain

We’re home! We slept in our own beds last night, but I still feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. Why is having fun on vacation so exhausting?

I’m just going to hit the high points for you all – but if you want more detailed info, I think Natalie is busy posting a play-by-play on her blog.

On Sunday (was it really only a week ago?), we got up at 3:30, escorted still sleeping children into the van, and headed off. We stopped for breakfast, and later stopped at Bonneville Dam and the fish hatchery there, where the kids saw Herman the Sturgeon – easily the biggest fish I’ve ever seen. Here are the kids at the hatchery – that’s my latte Nan is holding:

That night, we had dinner at Kevin’s brother Bob’s house, visiting with him and his wife Kathy and Kevin’s mom Marlene.

Off to the Oregon Zoo the next morning. Here is Noah watching the sea lions:

Then we drove to Tillamook to see the cheese factory. Turns out there’s not really much to see anymore. Kevin remembers that when he visited as a boy, you could watch the mill being piped in, the huge vats of churning milk becoming cheese, etc. Everything is enclosed now – so we basically saw big vats doing nothing, then big blocks of cheese being cut. I am having a hard time living that down, since I was the one to insisti we take the detour through Tillamook – educational and all that. They did have wonderful ice cream, though. I think Kevin was mainly miffed because after walking through the zoo, I got in the van and slept for the hour and a half to Tillamook, while he had to fight to stay awake and drive.

After checking into our hotel in Lincoln City, we headed down to the beach for the kids’ first look at the ocean. Yep, first time at the ocean. They’ve been to Puget Sound before, but it’s not really the same thing.

While there, the kids got a lesson on determining the sex of a crab from a crab fisherman:

The forecast was for rain on Tuesday, so we decided that would be the best day to do our indoor activities. We headed south to Depoe Bay, where we watched a gray whale feeding – so incredibly cool. No full body views, but one snout, one tail, and lots of his back as he dove.

Further south to Newport and the aquarium, where Kevin got some wonderful pics. Here are some Dory fish:

A seahorse:

The kids inside one of the aquarium viewing tanks:

And inside the jaws of a great white shark:

After driving back to Lincoln City, we left Daddy alone in the hotel to upload pics to his laptop, and went to see Wall-E – which is absolutely wonderful, by the way.

On Wednesday, we spent our first full day at the beach. Here’s the guy who took all these wonderful pics:

Here’s some serious sand castle building:

Brrrrrr, that water is cold:

Getting braver:

And, down she goes:

We had a wonderful dinner that night at The Flying Dutchman, with a stop off to see the Devil’s Punchbowl:

Another full day at the beach on Thursday, which caused this:

Thursday evening, Nan and I saw Mamma Mia!, and that was what the boys looked like when we got home.

Friday morning, I took off for some Mommy alone time, and found Robert’s Bookshop. (Watch for a future post on my finds.)

After lunch, we played Mini-Golf and the boys used the batting cages at Putt ‘n’ Bat.

Saturday morning, we got up at 3:30 am again, and drove to Post Falls, Idaho, to make a short appearance at my grandmother’s 80th birthday party. I saw cousins I haven’t seen in 20-some years, which reminds me how old I am.

We finally arrived home last night, exhausted but thoroughly convinced that we had a fabulous time. No mishaps, no car trouble, no injuries (other than the very-sunburned tops of my feet), and no sickness. It couldn’t have been better.

Oh, one little change would have made me completely happy. This sign greeted me every time I walked into our hotel lobby:

There is additional beverages and waffles in the room across the hall.

Professionally printed, no less!

I’ll leave you with some pictures of the views we enjoyed while we were gone.

For scads more pics, visit Kevin’s page, and click on Vacation Pics on the lefthand sidebar.