Family Vacation at the Oregon Coast

I knew when we went to San Diego for family reunion in July that Matthew wouldn't be driving down with us. But I thought he'd make the trek back with us. When he called to deeply apologize for abandoning us due to a hectic work schedule for all but three days of the trip, I made him promise that at some point this summer we could spend time together just us. 

Since then, we've been looking at different vacation rentals on the Oregon Coast. We finally picked one solely because it had an amazing view for Matthew, bunk beds for the kids, and wasn't overly expensive for me. We were supposed to go camping the week before, but my niece got married instead, which bumped our excursion to the week after. It maybe wasn't as warm as we would have liked and one of the days rained more often than not, but we were together for one whole week just us as a family. I was in heaven.

The first day we got there too early to check in to our house. We played at the beach for a time, but soon we got hungry and it still wasn't time to check in. The kids aren't big road-trippers so we had to convince them to get back in for the drive to Tillamook for food and, of course, ice cream.

Wednesday was cold and rainy so we decided to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. I've heard good things about it but hadn't ever gone. It was on the more expensive side of adventures, but as a fun vacation splurge I thought it was totally worth it. We saw so many unique sea creatures (like cowfish and sea horses) that I could have watched for hours. We walked in tunnels with sharks and other cool fish swimming around us on all sides. We watched the feeding of sea lions and walked along the estuary. I loved it all even if it meant getting rained on while we were viewing the outdoor exhibits.

The path to the beach was a steep hike complete with basically rappelling down the last bit of rocks to the sand. And because of that, we mostly had it all to ourselves. The kids were on a serious hunt for sand dollars at their grandmother's request, so each day we took LONG walks along the beach looking for treasures. On our last full day there, Matthew and I breathed in the perfectness of the moment.  The day, while wasn't hot, was lovely and sunny. The kids, at a beautiful age of independence mixed with a healthy amount of innocence, were playing happily together in their make-believe world of sand and rocks. The beach had only a small handful of other people making us feel completely isolated in our own little dreamworld. Despite all the stress Matthew is dealing with at work, our lives at that moment in time were utterly peaceful, contented, and perfect.

When we got back home, we immediately went into birthday mode for Chewkie and Matthew was off again on work trips, so I am so thankful we had one week just for our family.