Kevin needed to take a marine safety training class down in Newport, OR, so I got the idea that maybe we could make a little family vacation out of it since he would need to get a place to stay anyway. Never would I have guessed that we'd be taking another vacation so soon after our last one nor so close to Christmas, but things just started falling into place! Soon my nephew Stephen and his girlfriend Patti decided to come and my parents got their own condo too, so there was plenty of room for everyone. Unfortunately, my brother and kids backed out at the last minute.
On the way down, we stopped at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. You might recall that my dad and I went in together on a discount deal for a one-year membership at the Seattle Museum of Flight. Well, this membership gets us in free to many other museums too and since our membership will all-too-soon expire, I have been feeling a bit of pressure to get the most out of it and see all that we can! Two of my cousins have similar memberships at another museum and so they were happy to meat us there as they live in the general area. It was great to catch up a bit with Jayne and Alysun. I think our combined 11 kids ages 7 and under running around together made quite a little spectacle. :) Kevin wasn't too interested in hanging out with all the women and children, so he mostly kept his distance and actually got to READ the plaques and signage and LISTEN to volunteers talk about the planes, etc. I gave up on that somewhere after having two kids, but hopefully one day when they get older I'll get to move more slowly through museums again. :) The highlight of the museum for all the kids was the bi-plane ride: a full-size, carnival-type airplane ride that was free! How cool is that? Our cousins had to head to their homes, but we stayed there another couple hours - it was so hard to pull ourselves away!
We continued on to the coast where my parents and Stephen and Patti were already waiting at our condos. My mom made all the meals during this trip, so, even though we did a lot of activities and we were only there two nights, that alone made me be able to have actual downtime and really be able to relax for the first vacation time since the kids were born. We just had a few snacks in our condo and then walked two doors down to my parents' condo to eat each meal. It was so nice! I feel so spoiled now! And my mom even brought a Christmas craft to do with the kids. We also played late-night card games, went swimming in outdoor (heated) pool at night (!!), played ping-pong and pool in the rec room, and still had some time for reading and relaxing! Amazing! (I think I need to bring a cook with me on every future vacation!! :)
I think my favorite picture of the trip was this one:
I was reading by the window (overlooking our beautiful ocean view!), when the kids got out their books and joined me. Jake saw Abby's feet propped up on the coffee table and apparently wanted to be like her but could barely reach the table. And I couldn't believe they all stayed in their positions when I jumped up to grab the camera. It may not be the best quality picture I've ever taken, but I think it will long be a favorite of mine. I love passing on a love for books and reading to my children!
Anyway, on our only full day at the condo, there was hardly any rain with even a few sun breaks, but also an occasional downpour of hail! After breakfast, we bundled up and headed down to the beach. Two days before a huge storm had come through and the ocean was still churning from it, creating tons of foam that dotted the beach and rolled around like tumbleweeds with the gusts of wind. The children were confident it was snow when they first saw it, but soon decided sea foam was pretty fun to play with too!
Our lovely vacation ended all too soon and we headed back home in the rain (and found out it snowed here while we were gone!). This time my mom drove with me and the kids while my dad hung around in Newport waiting for Kevin's class to finish. Wanting to make use of that membership pass again, we stopped for a couple house at OMSI in Portland. Abby, Ben, and Jake LOVED the kids area which is much like a Hand's On Children's Museum, but they also enjoyed the physics/mechanics wing of the museum and were actually able to learn some new things. I hadn't been to OMSI in over a decade so it was pretty fun for me too. Of course, the kids wouldn't stand in one place long enough for me to try out all the cool brain teaser puzzles that I enjoyed so much the previous times I've gone, but we found enough things we could enjoy together. :)
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