NO MATTER WHAT

Strap yourself in. You're in for a long post.

This vacation was like no other. Instead of going to one location as a family, we split up and went to two different locations -- the boys went to stay with Nana and Matt and I went to Oregon. It was so weird, and Matt and I were sick the whole week, but it ended up being a trip I would I love to be able to repeat someday. Minus the sickness, of course.

As you know, Matt and I have been married for 16 years now, and we never got a honeymoon. We were dirt poor, then. I always wanted to make up for that and decided that I would love to rent a small house on the Oregon Coast for a week. Matt was game, of course; he loves the beach. Last summer, while my mama and aunt were visiting, the topic came up. My aunt, being the planner that she is, sprung into action, and had a whole vacation planned for all of us by the time she went home. They blessed us not only by taking the boys for a week, but by also funding the whole thing.

Looking forward to this trip is one of the few things that got me through the winter, especially during the depressing months. I just couldn't wait to get to the beach. We deep-cleaned our house for about a month to make it presentable for a house/pet sitter and it stressed us all out immensely. Eventually, it got to all of us and a week before we were supposed to leave, Rob came down with a cold. Paranoid, I ended up keeping them both home that week, to ensure that Rob healed and Drew didn't catch it. Unfortunately in the process, I started to fall victim two days before leaving. Matt followed suit a couple days after that. But we carried on with our plans -- everything was already set and paid for, after all. I was so mad that we were getting sick, after all the hard work and waiting we did. But we tried to make the best of it and I'm thankful that we still went.

We left the boys at my grandparents' Friday evening, even though their flight wouldn't be leaving until Sunday. Matt and I left the following morning, later than we initially planned, but it still worked out. We had stayed up pretty late the night before, still folding and packing for our trip. Not having to shuffle the boys around made getting out the door fairly easy. We picked up a quick breakfast and got on the road. My goodness, it was amazing having an uninterrupted conversation with my husband -- fancy that! We listened to his favorite podcasts and talked about anything we wanted. We had set Rob up with a working phone, so him and I texted each other throughout the day.

I sent him pictures of our journey along the way, especially when we met up with the Columbia River. He thought the different bridges and dams along the river were pretty cool and we dove into a small history lesson on Lewis and Clark's journey to find the Pacific Ocean. I'm not sure how much he shared with Drew, or if Drew was even interested, but it was fun connecting with Rob. Although I enjoyed the lack of kid chatter, I still missed them. A little.

After we reached the turnoff to head north to the Tri Cities area, it was completely new territory for us. Oregon just got lovelier and lovelier the farther west we went. I can see the draw to live there. Please excuse my crappy phone photos. My nicer photos of the beach are at the end. It's what I had with me at the time. Here you can see Mount Hood ahead of us, draped with a blanket of snow. Beautiful.

We made our first stop for the night in Molalla, Oregon, where my dear friend, Rebecca, lives. I have known Rebecca for about three or four years online; we actually met on Etsy, as we were both sellers that happened to patronize each other's shops. From there, we started connecting over Facebook, sending each other cards and other goodies via mail. As soon as Matt and I decided where we were going for our trip, I contacted Rebecca to ask her if she was at all interested in maybe meeting up, since we would be driving by, anyways. She didn't hesitate in her answer whatsoever. I booked a hotel in her town, not far from where she lives, and we met her and her wonderful family for dinner that evening in their home. I was unsure how things were going to go and I figured if it was uncomfortable, we could just have dinner and be on our way. But we ended up staying way late, chatting and eating delicious food the whole time. They are amazingly kind people and I so wish that we lived closer -- I'd really love to hang out with them more! Hopefully someday we'll get the chance to meet up again. We were so beat that night and really starting to feel cruddy, but it was so worth the visit.

The next morning we got up and grabbed some quick breakfast and headed for the coast. We had a lot of time to kill, as our cabin in Netarts wouldn't be ready until 4pm. So, we took our time. When we made it to Tillamook, we HAD to stop by the creamery and sample the goods there. Ohmygosh. That was some AMAZING ice cream! We wanted to go back to eat at their cafe there, but we ended up getting too sick and just never made it back, unfortunately. Future trip, I hope.

Also in an effort to waste time, we toured the various state parks in the area. This was the drive near Cape Meares. I couldn't help but be in awe of just how lush and green this part of Oregon was! Coming from dry and barren Southern Idaho, I guess it's not a huge surprise. I drank it up, mainly because it reminded me so much of where I grew up in North Idaho.

Finally, we were able to get into our cabin. It was so adorable and the view was unmatched. This was our back deck, where we spent a lot of our time. I mean, the beach is RIGHT THERE!

Oh, this place. My soul felt so at peace, here. I miss it so much.

We were going to go find a burger place my friend suggested, but I started feeling really cruddy and the time spent in the car was really hard on my body. So, we stayed "home" and Matt made us waffles with the most lovely local fruit.

After dinner, we sat on the deck and sipped wine, waiting for sunset. I HAD to get my first beach sunset picture!

The next day, we just kind of sat around and relaxed. Matt sat and attempted to draw and I was crocheting on a blanket. Although I felt like poop, the sun was nice. The sunburn, however, was not. Turns out, the boys had stolen my sunscreen, thinking it was theirs. Sigh.

I've never been at the beach long enough to watch the tide roll in and out. It was fascinating to us to watch the landscape completely change. Being in a bay made this even more interesting, as the waves would only crash far out during the day and then eventually hit our beach at night. I loved sitting there listening to the waves in the evenings. I find it so calming for some reason.

Matt went for several walks along the beach during low tide, finding all sorts of treasures and discoveries, including this huge, intact shell. We're used to finding only shards on the California beach, so it was fun to see one whole. I stayed behind. I was really feeling cruddy at this point and just did a lot of sleeping, trying just to function.

That's when it all went downhill. We spent a whole day just laying on the couch watching TV. We just felt too bad to do much else. Luckily, the weather was bad, so we weren't missing too much. Finally, the day before checkout, we felt well enough to venture into town to have lunch at the local seafood place. We had crabcakes for an appetizer, Matt had a shrimp prawn po' boy, and I had dungeoness crab mac 'n cheese. It was UH-MAZING. All of it. Amazing. Insanely expensive, but totally worth it. Later on, we ordered dessert to go. Bananas foster and a brownie sundae that were also amazing. Maybe I was just happy to have my taste buds back. I don't know. But good eats, nonetheless.

Checkout day was windy and rainy. It matched my mood -- I was finally starting to feel better and I had to leave this beautiful place. We enjoyed our time immensely, but I admit a lot of it was a blur because we were so sick. I was so bummed, I cried. I really hope we can go back.

We drove through Portland, a first for both of us, and found some quick breakfast on the outskirts. I had zero interest in stopping, but Matt, of course, is drawn to big cities and wants to explore someday. He'll have to make that trip alone. After my experience in San Francisco, I'm all big city-ed out.

From there, we drove to Boise and spent the night in a really cool hotel that my aunt booked for us. Our room had two stories and a full kitchen! I have never stayed in a place that fancy before. We crashed that night after ordering a pizza and just laid around watching TV all the next day. We went to go pick up the boys that evening and we all cried when we were reunited. They were full of stories and endless chatter. Our alone time was officially over, but I was so thankful to have them back, safe. The following morning, we got up, checked out, found some quick breakfast, and headed home. Our house/pet sitter did a great job taking care of things -- the animals were alive and the house was still standing. What more could I ask for?

As for the boys' trip, you'll have to forgive me for my lack of detail, as I didn't receive much.

The boys had a blast hanging out with my family. They took their Tinker Crate with them to build with Aunt Janice and picked her brain for all sorts of engineering tidbits. And Drew enjoyed a can of olives, evidently. That kid LOVES olives.

The next morning, they got up early and headed to Boise to catch their very first flight!

Rob snapped this picture on the way there. Yup. Southern Idaho.

When they boarded their flight, they were treated like royalty by Southwest. They even got to sit in the cockpit and meet the pilots! They had a fantastic first flight experience and were fascinated by each and every step of the process.

When they landed in sunny San Diego, they went to lunch and In-N-Out (lucky ducks!) and played mini golf before heading to Nana's house.

The next day, they got to go to Disneyland! It was a huge surprise for them, as we have been keeping the secret from them the whole time. We didn't reveal the secret until we dropped them off at my grandparents' house. They were so stoked! Even for a Monday, it was pretty busy there, of course, but they got to ride most of the rides.

The next couple of days, they just took it easy and went to the beach. Here they are taking the train to Oceanside to eat lunch on the pier and search for seashells. They thought that was pretty neat!

The following day, they got to go to SeaWorld. This was a last minute decision made by Aunt Janice before they left. They seriously had a fun-packed week!

Rob's #1 goal for the trip was to get a selfie with a penguin. (I don't get it, either. He's Rob. lol) Despite not going to the San Diego Wild Animal Park as planned, he lucked out and found some at SeaWorld instead. He even bought a little stuffed penguin as a souvenir, which he named Henry. Life goal met. Happy kid.

Drew, however, is obsessed with dolphins. He even got to take one home! He named him Fin.

They enjoyed another down day, laying around and watching movies at Nana's before their evening flight. They had such an amazing week, but they were also super excited to come home. This time, they flew alone, but Alaska handled them beautifully and we had no issues picking them up from the airport. What a fun experience! This opens the doors for other family to take them, now. Hint, hint.

When we got back to our Boise hotel, we let them stay up and eat popcorn and watch Netflix. They were too pumped to go to sleep at that point. It was a great trip for all of us, despite having two, totally different vacations!

And now for the artsy shots. I only took a handful, unfortunately. Sigh. I miss my beach.