A Roadtrip to Heaven!

Our wheels have stopped turning and we have returned from our family road trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon! Every day was pack full of fun activities in one of the most beautiful settings in the world! Really...and it is only 13 hours away. Did you know that most of the movie Goonies was filmed in Cannon Beach. The house was in Astoria just north of Cannon Beach. The first day we drove to LaGrande, OR ate pizza at a park, swam, and slept. LaGrande is nothing to mention but it was funny that Stella said she wanted to spend our entire vacation there! But that would all change when we made our way up towards Portland the next day. We drove along the waterfall highway and saw some amazing waterfalls. Multnomah Falls were huge and it was kind of like Disneyland there. Lots of different kinds of folk, snacks, and souvenirs. There were several waterfalls along this path. We stopped to visit a few. We then kept the wheels turning towards Cannon Beach. Where we found the most charming town full of flowers, shingled cottages, and of course miles of beautiful beach. We were happy to find our accommodations at the McBee cottages very nice and comfortable. There was one bedroom, a living room (with a pullout bed for the kiddos) a kitchen,and bathroom. It was perfect for our family. We could put Brighton to bed while we stayed up to watch Speed Racer (the old seventies cartoon) and other various movies with the Stella and Miles. The hotel gave us a free movie voucher so we checked out some movies. Miles did not want to stop watching all five hours of the original Speed Racer episodes. In fact we ended up asking the small video store owner if we could buy the video and he said sure for 12.99! Miles was thrilled and carries it around everywhere. After getting settled in we headed to the beach only about 100 yards away!! I couldn't believe how amazing it was. Pictures really can not capture this. We have been on the Northwest coast several times and I am always shocked by its beauty. And I really never got over it the entire time we were there. I would just really try to soak it all up and make an imprint on my brain. After a quick trip to the beach we headed downtown to the local market to stock up and we ate at a seafood grill. Yum! We got all settled in and were ready for a week of beach town partying! The weather is much different there staying between 60 and 75 degrees. It was always warm enough in the afternoon to swim at the ocean but the water was cold!!! You will notice we are wearing jackets often because of the cool ocean breeze. This is my kind of weather. These pictures start with day one at the bottom and the last day at the top. I just don't feel like I could really capture our experience and feelings there. The memories we will keep and smile upon forever! We will definitely go back! Although we try to visit somewhere new whenever we get the chance. Check out the slide show below for more pictures of our adventures!! So our wheels came to a stop in our garage at 10:30 last night...only fourteen hours later. We took four breaks and the kids really did well. Only one serious meltdown for all three kids five minutes before we stopped for dinner. Thank the heavens for DVD players, snacks, coloring books, and little surprise travel gifts! Now it is back to reality. Reality. It is overrated!!!

Here is our pad. Stella is standing by the fireplace. You can see the kitchen in the background and Spencer is on bathroom duty in the background with Miles.

Brighton getting ready for bed in the bedroom of course! He doesn't look very sleepy does he?

Outside the cottages in the courtyard! There were flowers everywhere and lots of my favorite hydrangeas!!

We had a great time roasting (sandy) marshmallows at the beach! A lot of people hang on the beach in the evening making fires. Miles and Stella try to stuff as many marshmallow onto one stick at a time and usually only eat one, if that!
We visited the very old aqarium in Seaside, Or. Spencer is throwing smelly fish into the seals. They would splash and splash us until we fed them.
Getting a feel...for starfish, sea urchins, and other tide pool creatures at the aquarium. Seaside, Or is not half as fantastic as Cannon Beach but interesting to visit!
Here we are at Hug Point State Park spelunking or exploring the caves along the beach. There was also a little waterfall!
If you look real close at this picture you will notice Brighton is covered in sand. The sunscreen made it stick to him and he was rolling all over in the sand. In fact he loved to stick his head in the sand!

Hiking in Ecola State Park. The wilderness around there is lush, like a tropical rain forest. Along this trail were little viewpoints of the ocean. At the top you can see a lighthouse about twelve miles off the shore on a big rock formation. It isn't used anymore and we wondered how they got into it!
We played at Indian Beach below for hours and hours this day! Such a fabulous spot. It is also wear all the surfers go. They are covered head to toe in wet suits! Brrrr.....
Nice view eh? Me and my baby kanga!


Downtown Cannon Beach was full of great art exhibits, kite stores, candy shops, restaurants etc!And so many flowers. My kind of place full of character! One of the candy shops had a place to view the candy making process. We even visited a local farmers market one day. Yummy produce. I bought a big bag of northwest cherries. Our favorite restaurant was called JP's. There was one master chef that cooked within view. We didn't realize it wasn't really a kid restaurant until we were sitting down. But luckily the kids behaved well and the waitress was so cute with them. She was the chef's daughter. She even got chairs so they could watch the chef cook our food. Miles occasionally would crawl on the floor and Brighton squeal for more food but nothing we couldn't handle. We were glad that there was a kitchen in our cottage so we didn't have to eat out all the time. This little alley way was very cute with a kite store at the end where we bought our cool turtle and shark kite! We saw some pretty neat kites like big butterflies and airplanes on the beach! The kite store attendant was a little cranky though. Too many tourists I suppose and ready to close. He actually said shew and shut the doors on some shoppers wandering into his WIDE open doors. It made us laugh!
While in town we bought the kiddos kites and flew them every night. Stella and Miles got quite skilled at this! Check out the beautiful sunset!
Goodbye sun!
Miles just sang and sang as he flew his kite. He is our little movie star. People literally stop, laugh and gawk at him, occasionally taking pictures!!! (I don't know how I feel about this)


This is the famous Haystack rock. We are headed out to see the tide pools when the tide is at a low! It was kind of chilly at this moment on the beach. But the weather was crazy because an hour later we would be running around without jackets. It was a nice change from our 100 degree weather at home!



Posing for the pic!
The tide pools!
Miles is pointing at a purple starfish!




We played and played at the beach everyday. All three were in heaven with this massive sand box!

A man 0n a mission to build sand castles with dad!
Check out Stella. She really is a beach lover. It is fun to watch her soak it all up.
Brighton loves the water. He crawled right in to the ocean and right back out of the cold water to mom for a heat up hug!

I love this picture. Brighton crawled all over the beach as fast as he could. Laughing when I would chase him around. He not only loved the way the sand felt in his toes but his fingers as well!

I actually dropped my camera at this beach. We headed to a nearby park to picnic and then back to the cottage to get ready for the tide pools and let Brighton nap. As I was loading everything up, I noticed the camera was missing. It had been two hours since we had been at the beach!!! Spencer jumped in the car and rushed down there. He looked all over with no luck. He decided to check one more place where I had come up from the beach. As he was looking over the edge, two men asked if he had lost a camera. They had been waiting there and asking everyone! We couldn't believe that we found it. That would have been so sad to lose our pics from the trip! We were definately watched over because there were several prayers said! I am a big picture lady.

Ponytail falls just outside of Portland. Portland is a really cool city with buildings popping out of hundreds of trees! And some massive bridges.




My blue eyed boys. I love Brighton's wings.
Multinomah falls. We hiked to the old bridge seen here and it gave me the creeps! Miles and Stella could have easily slipped through. But is was breathtaking!
Here we are on the bridge holding on tight.
A lookout along our drive just outside Portland. Wow!

And that is a little glimpse into our roadtrip to Heaven and back! I hope you enjoyed the ride!