12 hours in the car...it was worth it! Part 1 of Oregon

When our nephew Jeremy got his mission call, Robbie and I promised that we'd be there for his farewell. Robbie's sister lives out side of Portland in a town called McMinnville. It was an 12 hour drive. As the day came that we were supposed to leave, I would be lying if I didn't say that I was nervous about that time in the car. Before we left, I sat Carson and Nate down and had a little talk with them. It went something like this, "We are going to be in the car for a VERY long time...all day long. We can not have any fighting or yelling or crying or anything that makes me and daddy go crazy while we are driving. We are not stopping very often, so you are going to have to be very patient. " I couldn't believe it...IT WORKED! They were angels. We left about noon and got to Shelley's at 11ish her time.

Our first day there, we took it easy. We went to an air and space museum in McMinnville. Robbie's dad came with us. It was kind of more for adults. The kids liked the first two or three planes...but the rest...they got a little bored. They did have a few things for children. 

They had real air plane seats for people to sit on to rest. I think this was because everyone that was there was OLD! My kiddo's like them though.

This is a diagram of the biggest planed ever build, which was in the museum. The boys liked the "Choo choo" in the bubble more than the real plane. If I look a little frazzled here, it is because I was. The museum was run by all volunteers...nice old IMPATIENT retired people.

The first flying contraption by Leonardo DaVincci...pretty neat

They had a few things for the kids to do at the airplane portion

Keith's favorite airplane...They literally had a hundred planes from all countries.

Then it was on to the space museum. I actually really like this. They had real rockets, satalites and tons of video footage of rockets blasting off. Even after going there, I am not real sure what the difference between a rocket and a spaceship is though.

I am not sure what this really is, but it was BIG. The kids dragged Robbie down countless stairs so that they could see the bottom of it.

Then was the highlight of the museum...the airplane flying toy ride!

The boys loved this...except Logan wasn't too sure about it. They went on it a couple of times after lunch and then a couple more times at the end of our stay. The old man running it was so nice, even after Nathan peed his pants. OOPS! Then the other old man that came to clean it up said two rides was plenty and it was time to get off. WHAT? There were no other kids in line or in the whole building for that matter. Oh, well. So we finished our day at the playground outside. It was really neat with everything shaped like helicopters, planes, or rockets. Somehow, Carson turned it into a pirate ship and had the kids out there calling him captain. They were sad to go, but the promise of cousins waiting was enough to get them to leave.

The Coast

On Saturday morning, we got up bright and early and left for the coast. I had no idea the roads would be so windy and covered with trees. Poor Logan threw up on the way there. We had so much fun at the beach gathering shells and chasing the water. The boys loved the sound of their feet on the wet sand.

Carson holding a shell with the rocks in the background

 There was a tunnel through a big cliff. The boys were a little scared, but loved it!

The other side

It was at this beach that Nate found a crab shell. I had to carry that thing all over creation. They a couple hours later in the car, he broke it all to pieces. Boys!  I love this picture of my cute husband and my baby. Spending time with our little family was so fun. I love creating memories with them. It seems like time goes so fast that if we don't make these opportunities, they don't happen. One reason I love Robbie so much is that these times are just as important to him as they are to the rest of us. He is a good daddy.

We met up with the rest of the family at Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was fun so see where my FAVORITE cheese came from. Nothing says yummy like a good cheese. And to the Wayments, nothing says yummy like good ice cream! It was delish. Before we went, Robbie's parents were telling Carson that the had SO many flavors of icecream and it was SO good. He got big disbelieving eyes and asked, "Do they have chocolate?"

 

Then it was back to the ocean for round two. This beach was neat because there is this giant sand dune. Robbie climbed to the top with some of our nephews. Carson made an attempt.

Carson was more interested in this:

A boat had just come back from fishing. The fisherman offered to show the boys a real live crab! YIKES! They were a little scared!

My favorite picture of the whole day was this one. Two brothers on their tummies playing in the sand and talking. Who knows what they were saying, but they were having so much fun.

While the boys spent all day running around and playing in the sand, Robbie's dad sat in his chair with his cowboy boots on doing leather work and his mom in another chair reading a book. Classic. They are the only people I know who go to Hawaii and never put their swim suit on and the only people who go to the beach and never take their shoes off. By the end of the day, we were exhausted. We had chased these little boys miles.

The funny thing was that it never got old. Running in and running out. We had such a fun day!