Back to reality

We just got home from our Spring Break beach trip. It was fun and I am a little bit sad that now I have to be back in real life again. So, to relive the fun (and probably bore you all), I will tell ya what we did!

Wednesday we left here at about noon. Stopped downtown at Portland Pro Photo on the way so that Steve could rent the 2x teleconverter lens that he has been wanting to buy. That was not fun at all! There was nowhere to park, so I dropped him off and circled the block for 40 minutes with the kids whining at me with "I'm hungry!" "Where is Dad?" "Why can't we just go to the frickin' beach?" (That last one was courtesy of Becka). We met Melissa and Josh at McDonalds for lunch and then we were on our way! Rachie had woken up that morning with a cough, so we knew she wasn't feeling well at all, poor thing. She did great in the car though, slept most of the way. We stopped in Tillamook for groceries and cough meds. Funniest thing happened in Fred Meyer...we saw a family from church! Small world, huh?
Got to the beach house around 4:30ish. The kids were really excited to be there finally. They played ping pong and foosball and set up the train set. We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner that night...yum!

By Thursday morning, Rachel had a fever. Poor baby was miserable and slept most of the day away. We hung around the house, Melissa and I took the older kids to play on the beach for a while that afternoon. It was rainy, windy and sometimes hailing, so staying in the house wasn't a horrible thing! Becka's throat started to hurt that afternoon. Ugh! Two grouchy sick girls is a pain! Steve gave Rachie a blessing before bed that night, Becka refused to have one. That night I got pretty much no sleep at all. Rach was up coughing a lot and even threw up a couple of times because of her coughing fits.

Friday morning, I was afraid to see what shape the girls were in. Thankfully, they were feeling better. Rachie didn't have a fever anymore and was feeling a million times better! We spent the day geo-caching and visiting Cannon Beach and Seaside. We splurged and ate lunch at Mo's in Cannon Beach, then went to Seaside for some window shopping. Steve took the bigger kids to the Funland arcade there. They loved it! I hate arcades, and was so ready to leave that loud, obnoxious dingy place! :) We hit the outlet mall there also. Melissa found some fun things, Becka and I just browsed in Claire's for a while, looking at all the fun stuff. I tried to convince her to get her ears pierced, but she wouldn't do it. Her throat was hurting worse by now, so she was a grouch. Melissa took Josh to his mom's house that evening, I went with her so that I could get some throat spray for Becka and also grabbed some sherbet for her, hoping it would help her throat.

Saturday morning we got up, watched conference, did a little tidying up. We eventually left and did a bit more geo-caching, then went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I saw someone I knew there! :) One of my good friends from school's little sister was there with her hubby and baby. It was fun seeing her! Melissa left to get Josh and go home around 1:30, and we went back to the beach house. Steve's parents and Bryce were there, so we had a fun afternoon playing and visiting. We went to the beach again, it was sunny, but cold and windy again. We didn't get to stay very long, I was sad that we only got about an hour and a half total beach time this trip. Hopefully next time, the weather will be better so we can play and enjoy ourselves. Grandma took us to the little arcade in town, so my kids were feeling pretty spoiled, two arcades in two days! Rachel completely melted down as we were finishing up there. Steve was going to go take some sunset pictures, and I had planned on going with him, but had to stay home with Rachel since she was a mess! I got her into her jammies and sat on the rocking chair with her. She was asleep in only a few minutes! She was a tired girl.

Sunday we played and watched conference and went for a walk, and played some more. While we were getting the van packed and ready to go, the kids decided to play in some gross muddy swampy water and get their shoes and jeans all muddy. Worst part was that Rach had on light pink pants and her new pink and beige tennis shoes. Ugh! What a mess!

We left at about 5:00ish. About 15 miles out of Tillamook (and any civilization for a while), Steve realized that our gas light was on. That stressed me out, especially since we had a long way to go through the mountains and home. We ended up ok, got gas in Gales Creek. I felt bad doing it on a Sunday, but it had to be done. Next time I will remember to check the gas gauge on Saturday. I hadn't been driving much, so I wasn't paying attention. Funniest part was that the gas station attendant who pumped our gas asked us if we had been running on fumes, lol! He was surprised at how low we were when he was waiting for the pump to stop. We got home around 7:30, had a quick dinner and went to bed.

I am working on laundry and unpacking today. I have a few errands to run also. Welcome back to regular life! We had fun and feel so thankful and lucky that Grandma and Grandpa let us use their beach house. If we had had to pay for a hotel, we wouldn't have been able to go.