Last week we were able to join some great friends of ours, and their families, on a beach vacation in Pacific City, Oregon. It was MUCH needed and full of fun, laughs, and MANY, MANY good memories.
This pic was supposed to be the guys...but you can see that Lauren wanted to be one of the guys.
I forgot my camera the next day when we went to the Aquarium in Newport Bay, and it was also one of the coolest days too so I was super bummed. We went to the aqaurium with the Rawlings', Harper's, and Stevie and Anna. When we got there, I thought Clayton was acting really strange, but he was also amped to get to the "scuba" show and was adament about us not being late to it. Whatever..the guys wants to see the scuba show. So we walk around for a little bit and check things out. We saw a sea otter that was playing with himself...literally (and then we saw a sign that read that the sea otters were overly aggressive right now due to high hormone levels...go figure!), we let the kids play in the area where they could touch sea urchins and clams and stuff, we see the jellyfish and the HUGE crabs, the alligators and alligator turtles, we stand up in a fish tank, and check out the mighty python. Karson's telling us he wants to go see the sharks...actually he tells us over and over again...so we go to the shark area. It's a big shark tank that you can walk through and you can see above you and below you and if you stare up for too long you get dizzy and almost fall over (at least that's what happened to me). We snap a few pics of the kids all lined up and I see Clayton bugging one of the workers about something and he looks stressed. It's all just a little wierd for me and I start thinking something's up...just not sure what. FINALLY, we go sit in this room (a half hour before the show starts) and we magically get front row seats to the scuba show. The kids are all sitting on the floor in front of a HUGE window and eventually the whole crew is in the room and the show starts. Harper's asking all sorts of stupid questions, the announcer lady is talking on a microphone with the main diver, and they are talking about the STUPIDEST stuff. The kids are so bored they are getting up off the floor RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DIVER and trying to leave the room. Clayton busts out his camera and Ashley busts out the camcorder and I look at Travis and say "something wierd is happening." He laughs at me and rolls his eyes. The divers dissapear to the bottom of the tank and the announcer lady reassures us that this is normal. Next thing you know, the divers come back up holding a sign that reads "Anna, will you marry me?". OMG!! Sweetest thing ever! But I think even Anna was so bored from the stupid show and wasn't really paying attention and Stevie has to tell her to read the sign. Priceless. Kai (Stevie's niece) says "why is that guy asking Anna to marry him?" while I'm cracking up and crying at the same time. It was amazingly amazing. Good job Stevie!!
We met up at the Harper's house and hit the road bright and early on our first day. We made a pit stop at Multnomah Falls, which was amazing, and snapped a few pics of our crew.
This pic was supposed to be the guys...but you can see that Lauren wanted to be one of the guys.
We made our way through the ugly traffic in Portland, found the LIQUOR STORE! (thank God...and Lauren kept calling it the liquorice store), and down the windy roads outside the city that dropped us into Tillamook. The familair smell of dairy cows and their stench hit me like a ton of bricks and I was ready to vomit. YUCK!! Another 20 miles or so out of Tillamook and we were there...BEAUTIFUL Pacific City.
We got the keys to our place and checked it out, then made a stop at the house where all of our friends were staying, then went back to our place to un-pack. Since we decided at the last minute to go on the trip we had to get our own place. It turned out to be perfect for us...a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and two bedrooms with Queen size beds. The house everyone else stayed in was a mansion compared to ours. It was on the beach, had 5 bedrooms, 2 floors, a HUGE living room downstairs with a ping pong table and a mural of the beach on the wall as if you were looking out the window upstairs. It was gorgeous!
When we got back to the "mansion" to hang out, the kids were more than ready to hit the water. They quickly found out it was COLD and decided to play in the tide pools which were much warmer. Here are a few pics of Lauren and Karson Rawlings (Clayton and Nickie's 4 year old) playing on the beach.
I forgot my camera the next day when we went to the Aquarium in Newport Bay, and it was also one of the coolest days too so I was super bummed. We went to the aqaurium with the Rawlings', Harper's, and Stevie and Anna. When we got there, I thought Clayton was acting really strange, but he was also amped to get to the "scuba" show and was adament about us not being late to it. Whatever..the guys wants to see the scuba show. So we walk around for a little bit and check things out. We saw a sea otter that was playing with himself...literally (and then we saw a sign that read that the sea otters were overly aggressive right now due to high hormone levels...go figure!), we let the kids play in the area where they could touch sea urchins and clams and stuff, we see the jellyfish and the HUGE crabs, the alligators and alligator turtles, we stand up in a fish tank, and check out the mighty python. Karson's telling us he wants to go see the sharks...actually he tells us over and over again...so we go to the shark area. It's a big shark tank that you can walk through and you can see above you and below you and if you stare up for too long you get dizzy and almost fall over (at least that's what happened to me). We snap a few pics of the kids all lined up and I see Clayton bugging one of the workers about something and he looks stressed. It's all just a little wierd for me and I start thinking something's up...just not sure what. FINALLY, we go sit in this room (a half hour before the show starts) and we magically get front row seats to the scuba show. The kids are all sitting on the floor in front of a HUGE window and eventually the whole crew is in the room and the show starts. Harper's asking all sorts of stupid questions, the announcer lady is talking on a microphone with the main diver, and they are talking about the STUPIDEST stuff. The kids are so bored they are getting up off the floor RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DIVER and trying to leave the room. Clayton busts out his camera and Ashley busts out the camcorder and I look at Travis and say "something wierd is happening." He laughs at me and rolls his eyes. The divers dissapear to the bottom of the tank and the announcer lady reassures us that this is normal. Next thing you know, the divers come back up holding a sign that reads "Anna, will you marry me?". OMG!! Sweetest thing ever! But I think even Anna was so bored from the stupid show and wasn't really paying attention and Stevie has to tell her to read the sign. Priceless. Kai (Stevie's niece) says "why is that guy asking Anna to marry him?" while I'm cracking up and crying at the same time. It was amazingly amazing. Good job Stevie!!
