Making memories.

About 4 or 5 months ago Matt came across a great little Living Social getaway.  It sounded perfect.  3 days, 2 nights away in a little beach town, tickets to the aquarium and dining credit to a delicious fish house.  All for a very low price.  We thought it would be the perfect winter getaway and invited his parents to come along for some family time.

Little did we know what we were really in for.

2 days before our trip I came down with my first cold all winter.  We have been very lucky/blessed to have none of us get sick this entire cold and flu season.  But, somehow I developed the most awful sinus congestion and couldn't breathe to save my life. That same day our dog suddenly had an open, oozing wound on his face and we had no clue how it happened.  So, I took some cold medicine and he got the good ol' cone of shame.

We figured it was just a little bump in the road and we'd keep packing away! As we dropped the dog off at the vet to board him for the weekend we explained all of his medication (remember, the oozing wound?) and happily drove away.  Only to get a block and find a red light camera clicking on our car for a reason we still don't understand. So, before we had even gotten to the freeway this trip had suddenly become more expensive. 

The kids were amazing in the 3.5 hour trip down to Oregon.  As long as their tummies were full and sing-a-long music was on, they were happy. We excitedly arrived and saw…..dumping rain. Lots of it. And, a hotel that didn't have a room ready for us for another 4 hours. Hmmm…..

Since we had already eaten lunch and quickly discovered that beach towns pretty much close down in the winter months we did the only logical thing.  Give our kids sugar and video games. 

Let me just say, thank God for the arcade.  Hands down the best $40 we've spent in a long time!

 Besides the crazy loud arcade there was a quiet little carousel across the street (inside a building!). After 2 rides on the carousel the kids were so happy and we were quickly running out of ideas. So….

 we bought them candy!

 And then headed back to the arcade.

 Sometime between the candy and video games we got a funny phone call from my brother telling us the vet had called him and our dog suddenly had tapeworms. I still can't figure out how he got tapeworms in the 4 hours since we had dropped him off but it just added to the excitement of our weekend. Matt got to take a break from playing and discuss the treatment plan (basically just make them all go away!) with the vet tech.  Seriously, could we have anymore bad luck?!?

 Can you tell we spent A LOT of time here?!?

We came across a great hat store too. The funny thing about little beach towns is they have the greatest stores. The kids were such troopers and just went along with us as we wandered around trying to pass some time on a super wet day.

 Finally our rooms were ready!  The kids loved sleeping in a hotel room (2 queen beds meant 1 for Matt and Carter and 1 for me and Lucy). And they loved the indoor pool even more! The fun part about our first night in the hotel was another unexpected moment. Sometime around midnight between Lucy kicking me and Matt snoring we received phone calls from my in-laws' alarm company about an intruder alert.  Are you freaking kidding me?!? That meant waking up my father-in-law, him calling the company and talking to the police which thankfully turned out to be nothing. Other than a restless night of sleep!
We decided to try to stay positive (again) in the morning and despite the continuing dumping sideways rain and 40 mph wind gusts we'd still have fun.
Fun = donuts.

 And an attempt to see the beach.  Which was really just a sand-blowing, foggy, wet dreary mess.  But, a beach, nonetheless.

 Then it was off to the aquarium! We had free tickets and spent quite a bit of time looking and touching all of the fun sea creatures!

We also had a coupon for free seal food. I was excited to get the dry pebbled food that we could throw in the water and was completely grossed out when I instead was handed some dead fish heads.  Yuck!

 We drove out to the Maritime Museum to see some old fishing and Coast Guard boats.  I was a little worried the kids would either 1) be bored or 2) be too loud but they both loved it. It was fun to walk around and teach them about each exhibit.  We even got to tour an old lighthouse boat which was super interesting.

 Carter was convinced this boat would take him to Neverland!

 Admiring the swords. Of course.  :)

 After  a quick lunch break, some swimming at our hotel pool and dinner we ended the day with a special ice cream treat. Well deserved for 2 kids who didn't nap for 3 days and were troopers during the rainiest weekend of our lives.

 The next morning we went out to breakfast and spent the rest of our money at the arcade before heading home.

It wasn't the greatest vacation of our lives. We were tired, a little bored at times, ate not-so-good-for-us food and very very wet. But, it was an adventure! I kept telling myself we are just making memories.  And we definitely did that.