Spring Break Surftides

School breaks overwhelm me.  Heck, being a mom overwhelms me.  The school-days routine helps make the weekdays manageable. 

September through June- manageable. 

July, August and various holidays- mama freak-out. 

Rather than celebrate those days on the calendar that declare No School, as I did when I was a student myself, I take a deep breath and let out an exhausted sigh and wonder If I can't send the kids to school, what the heck are we going to do all day? 

Just short of having a panic attack at the thought of trying to simultaneously entertain Teenage Joe and The Littles (gosh, that sounds like a bad band, or a bad cartoon) for a full week, I made a plan: Road trip to somewhere new.

Devon had long ago requested a couple of extra days off at my polite request to HELP ME!! keep the kids busy during spring break, so together as a family, in a Griswold vacation fashion, we hit the road, destination Oregon Coast.

Our first night was spent in Eugene, visiting Molly and Aaron, and working in some "hairapy" from my sister/stylist.  Love that girl!

 

Though it was great fun hanging out in Eugene, the kids were very anxious to get to our hotel in Lincoln City.  I insisted that we do a bit of tourism, so our first stop on the coast was the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, OR, "World's Largest Sea Cave".

It was pretty cold and windy up on the cliff.  We made our way down to an elevator that took us down 208 feet to the cave.

And there they are- about 200 sea lions.  The cave was huge, and there were more sea lions than I could even manage to fit into a photograph.  Max and Lucy were a bit scared, and Joe thought it smelled bad.  We looked around for a short while and then said, "Welp, cross it off the list.  We've now seen the world's largest sea cave!"

Next stop- Surftides Lincoln City.  This hotel is right on the beach, has an indoor pool and hot tub, and the cutest décor, like, right out of Pinterest.  We quickly made it our home.

The sea was calling to me...  The beach makes me very happy.  It makes my kids happy too, until one of them falls into the water (Lucy) and one of them has very cold feet (Max).

I could totally handle living on the beach.  Having the ocean as my view... and ordering pizza delivery and watching a Mariners game in pajamas.  Ah yes!

Day Two- look who else loves the beach!

We took a break for lunch and outlet shopping, but then we were back for more...



Joe went in the ocean!  Brrrrrrr!

 

Okay, okay, enough pictures of the lovely beach. 

But, really, it was such a great getaway, and, for the most part, we all got along!  For the most part.  In fact, Lucy even shared that she wishes that we lived in a hotel, so that we could all sleep in the same room, beside each other, forever.  Awww!  At the same time, I was feeling very grateful that we don't live in a hotel.... 

 

One more tourist stop on the way home.  The Tillamook Cheese Factory.  A little peek into the factory, a little lunch in the cafe, and some Tillamook ice cream that felt really special until I remembered that we can buy Tillamook ice cream at any store.  Oh well.  When in Tillamook, eat the cheese and ice cream! 

 

 

Spring break is almost over and school is almost back in session, and I think it is safe to say that I survived without a panic attack and that we successfully entertained Teenage Joe and The Littles.  We made some family memories and have a zillion beach pictures to savor those memories...  I am high-fiving myself!