Oregon in November

Back in November we spent over a week in Oregon with Family.

It was another amazing trip. We all had so much fun catching up with Family and visiting lots of fun new places.

Joe and I took a little side trip without the kids. Only for a few hours, but it was nice to hike down to a beach and enjoy the sunset, Just Us!

We all went to the Beach together. This has become the favorite place to play when we visit Oregon. Somehow we always get amazing weather, even in the middle of winter.

We also made a trip to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and the Air Museum. Very cool!

During November and December the zoo decorates the zoo with millions of lights. Including their train that takes you around to see the light animals displayed. Zoo lights is well worth visiting. The kids loved the train ride! They asked to do it again, but settled for walking to see more lights and sharing an elephant ear with Daddy.

We spent over 4 hours at the Children's Museum. We had only planned on staying an hour or two, but this place was AMAZING! The kids had so much fun we just decided to stay until they ran out of things to do.

Water play, "Fred Meyer shopping center", clay building, trains and cars, Lego land, camping, building a house, veterinary clinic, dress up and stage for acting, Digging in the construction pit, climbing a tree house... the list of activities and play centers goes on and on.

We all had a great time. We only decided to leave after we were all starving and way past needing naps. But despite being hungry and tired there were no tears or complaining. They just played and played for hours.

I will admit the entry fee was expensive, but totally worth the money, as long as you have time to spend a few hours there. And we learned you can bring your own food inside. We will definitely pack a lunch for our next visit.

Another Day was spent visiting the Multnomah Falls. Beautiful!

Isaac's one request for this trip, was to "play at the park across the street" from Grandma and Grandpa's house. So much fun to play outside without layers of snow gear.

This is the sledding trip we did back in Anchorage, before our Thanksgiving Day vacation.

This is what our front drive looked like before the 100 inches of snow fall this winter. Now there are huge piles of snow on either side of the driveway.

Seward Camping and more

The night before our kayaking trip we drove down to Seward and camped overnight with the kids. We have never taken them tent camping before, and we were a little concerned how well they would do sleeping in a tent with no movie to put them to sleep.
We ate dinner and played out by the fire for a little while before bedtime.
The kids had lots of fun and enjoyed their hot dogs and marshmallows.

When it was time for bed, we put them down, said goodnight and didn't hear a sound from them until morning. It was amazingly easy.

I guess we should spend more time in the "great outdoors" before bed.

I on the other hand, could not sleep, at all. I spent half the night trying desperately to sleep and the other half tyring to read my book by the light of my cell phone. I was very glad when 5:30 rolled around and I could get up and get ready for the day.

Jessica, Jared, Grandpa and Auntie Jamie took care of the boys for us while we went on our kayaking trip. After we finished we met them at the park.

The boys had a blast playing on this amazing playground. If you haven't had the chance to go to this park while in Seward, you are missing out. It is great!

After packing up our camp and getting some lunch we decided to hike to Exit Glacier. It was lots of fun, even though we had to carry the kids half the time. They aren't great at long walks yet.

We even crossed the little river to see the glacier close up. When you get that close, it gets windy and cold but it's worth the extra walk.

Here the kids were trying to catch drips of, thousand year old, water on their tongues. Grandpa said they looked "like puppies trying to nurse from their momma". So cute, and funny to watch!

I'm so glad we could have such an Alaska adventure filled weekend!