Seaside mini-vacation

Over the summer some of our best friends, Michael + Megan, invited us to go on vacation with them to Seaside. They were gifted a week stay at the World Mark Resorts the previous Christmas. We didn't have enough vacation time to go during the week in October so we joined them during the weekend at the tail end of their trip.

We were excited about having the minivan in time for the trip, but the check-engine light came on the Thursday before. I took it for a quick free diagnostic and it was having a cylinder misfire. We knew we didn't have time to get it looked at before leaving, but Ben's parents generously loaned us their Tahoe for the weekend, so we were still able to go!

On Friday when Ben came home from work we loaded up and got on the road as soon as possible. We made a stop about halfway through at Bridgeport Village to eat a picnic style dinner I had packed and let the boys move their legs. They have a great play structure in the center courtyard. We climbed back in the car and headed to Seaside. It seemed like it took forever, it was nearly 8pm when we arrived. 

Once we got there we moved some things around to accommodate our needs in the extra room to get settled. We let the boys stay up late to wind down from their excitement and visited with Michael + Megan. Things got complicated when we went to put the boys to bed because I had packed only half of the baby monitor. Thankfully my techno-guru husband figured out that we could do a FaceTime audio-only call between our phones and mute one so we could hear them but they couldn't hear us. It worked great!

We stayed up late talking and poor Ben had to go in several times to soothe Des back to sleep, but once we went to bed he stayed asleep for a good long while. The next morning the boys came running out to the living room, where we were sleeping on a murphy-bed, wanting to play. We were SO tired. 

After a leisurely morning and a great breakfast made by Michael, we decided to head out to the beach. It was a short walk from our room to the beach access since the entire resort is right on the Seaside Promenade.

{the view from our room and a view of the resort from the beach}

{lots o' selfies}

In addition to half the baby monitor, I also forgot sand toys. So we brought some dishes and big spoons with us instead. They worked well-enough and the boys (all 4 of them) had a blast playing in the sand. It was warm and only slightly breezy, a beautiful day on the Oregon coast. 

We ate a really late lunch after cleaning off all the sand before heading out again. Michael + Megan had planned to take the boys on the carousel by all the shops down the street. Malakai only wanted to ride on the bench so he had to wait a couple rounds, but Desmond went on right away. He looked nervous when it started moving but got more comfortable and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Afterward we walked by the shops and Michael bought a bunch of deep fried desserts that we all tried. The consensus was that they were disgusting. Desmond fell asleep on Ben's shoulder on the walk home, so we let him snooze while we relaxed and thought about dinner.

The boys ate dinner and went to bed a few hours later. We ate a really late dinner and stayed up talking into the night. 

Sunday we woke up to clouds and fog that wouldn't burn off. We relaxed most of the morning. The boys colored, played video games and read. Michael made paper airplanes for Malakai and he was instantly hooked.

{checking out the foggy beach}

We took the boys to the small play area and game room at the resort and then decided to go for a walk on the promenade.

{caught instagramming}

{Michael, Desmond, Megan, Ben, Malakai, + I}

Malakai got sick of walking pretty quickly but we enticed him to go further by pointing out the swing set on the beach. Megan got this adorable picture of us that I just LOVE.

On our walk back Malakai + I found a caterpillar. After Kai tried holding it, Michael set it free.

{the boys LOVED air-hockey, Megan + I keeping each other warm, Kai with his new friend}

We relaxed some more back in our room until dinner. Megan and Michael made some amazing meals  (including Puerto Rican style plantains!) and introduced us to some yummy snacks over the weekend. Megan also read stories to both boys a few times which they loved. She even brought a childhood favorite of her own to share with Malakai called Mr. Pudgins.

After dinner we packed up our circus and headed home, but not before Megan loaded us up with a ton of food to take home with us and the most amazing brownies of all time!

{sunset from our room, back on the road}

We loved every minute of it and count ourselves blessed to have such awesome friends that would invite us to come share in their vacation with them.

Oregon Zoo Road Trip + College Pals Reunion

A couple months back some friends of mine from college and I got to talking about orchestrating a mini "reunion" of sorts. We hadn't all been together since my wedding in 2007 and it felt about time to see each other, meet the kids, and catch up in a more personal way than instagram photos and facebook updates. Portland was the most "central" for all of us and with the kids we decided on a trip to the Oregon Zoo.

After 2 reschedules and one person having to cancel, the rest of us and our families got together on June 1st. Ben and I decided that if we could swing it, staying over night in Portland the night before would work best. That way we wouldn't have to wake up at 5am to get on the road to meet everyone. While we had a ton of fun staying overnight with our newly-wed friends in their lovely home, we probably would have gotten more sleep at our place. Desmond is very particular when it comes to night-time sleep. He didn't get to bed until 10:30 and was up several times. Malakai had a cot next to our bed and was so stoked that he was out pretty quickly, although that was also 10:30 because he took a nap on the drive up.

Speaking of, our drive up was fairly painless. We borrowed my father-in-law's Tahoe for the storage space. Malakai slept the first half, we stopped and ate a picnic dinner outside of a starbucks and then piled back in. I had purchased Kai the soundtrack to Jake and The Neverland Pirates (which has been newly added to Netflix and he's obsessed) and he listened to that with his 1st pair of headphones for the rest of our drive.

{on our way!}

Desmond was happy to talk to himself for most of the ride. Except for the last 10 minutes of our 2 hour drive he kept yelling "WALK! Please?" -he was so totally done sitting.

We had a great time catching up with Reid + Carina, even though our kids were determined to stay up all night.

{Kai showing his TAG reader to Reid + Carina}

At the zoo Malakai was so excited he could barely contain himself. We tried waiting for our friends before going through the gates but he just couldn't stand it, so we went through and waited at the first exhibit.

{mountain goat, bears, and ducks}

Once Caity and her husband Trevor and their son Roman then Reid and Carina arrived we began to explore the zoo. The guys kept us on track with the maps so we were sure to see everything that was open. (Sadly we didn't see Zebra, Panda bears, Tigers, Gorillas and a few others). 

{{At the farm exhibit, seeing a cougar, getting help to see some livestock from Reid, checking out the Polar bear- who jumped in the water right in front of us!}}

Most of the pictures are of Malakai because Desmond was pretty exhausted. He fell asleep on the 15 minute drive to the zoo and would be skipping his nap to spend the day at there. He was fairly content to graze on his snack and watch the animals from his stroller. I did take him out for the animals that he had to be lifted high to see and to let him run around a bit.

 {Malakai checking out the lion, he claimed it was his favorite.}

At the beginning of the trip Kai had let us know he wanted to see lions and dogs. We thought we might see wolves (we didn't) but unbeknownst to us, there were wild dogs in the exhibit right next to the lions. Sadly, they were asleep so they weren't too exciting. He was still pretty happy about it. 

 There were a LOT of monkeys. Countless types in multiple areas of the zoo. Most of them were pretty fun to watch, Kai got close to a couple and really loved it. Desmond enjoyed saying monkey and pointing from his cozy spot in the stroller.

Malakai also enjoyed this random tunnel thing and both boys LOVED the creepy crocodile. For the entire time we were in there (which wasn't long because it was a muggy indoor rainforest) Des kept saying "a-die-oh" in an effort to say crocodile. I held him close to it, and he giggled with delight.

The bottom left photo of the above collage is Caity, Carina, and myself. The day was going fast and I knew we had to capture a picture of the three of us before it escaped us. I really wish we would have taken one of our whole group together!

My personal favorite was the sea lions. Malakai was enthralled and could have stayed watching them all day. These 2 sea lions, 1 brown and 1 white, were literally swimming the same lap over and over again. Desmond found a group of teenage girls that would giggle every time he danced around...so he didn't even notice the sea lions.

 {Here's Des continuing his dance in front of a fish tank. Then stealing Roman's zoo-issue car/stroller.}

Last but not least was the train ride. We parted ways with Carina + Reid at this point and the rest of us piled into a train car together (again, I wish I had a decent picture of all of us but we were busy holding on to kids who wanted to wiggle around). The train ride is 25 minutes and we rode a real steam engine. Caity + Trevor's son Roman is really in to trains and was even more excited than my kiddos about this experience, it was adorable.

After SIX hours at the zoo we said goodbyes and we piled our stuff and ourselves back into the car. Both boys fell asleep before we even moved from our parking space...which was a problem because our next stop was the Nike Employee store. One of my best friends works in legal at Nike so she put us on the list to shop that day. It was a bit stressful because the boys were crabby but in the end we made out with a cool pair of shoes for Kai (our main goal) and a nice little jacket for me.

After that we found a McMenamins and ate dinner. We decided that now that the kids were happy and full we should let them burn off some energy before putting them in the car for the trip home. We googled and found the nearest park. It ended up being a disaster...Kai ran straight for the field near the play structures only to fall into a hidden swampy mess. He was covered and his bum was saturated. Ben took him to the car to clean up and I took Des to the play ground, but almost immediately encountered a giant shard of glass and called it quits. The kids weren't too happy about the short-lived trip but were tired enough to settle in for the trip home. Des talked to himself for nearly the entire 2 hours and Malakai passed out after zoning on his piratey tunes.

 The next day I took out a zoo passport we had printed from a site online (I've pinned it but don't have the energy to find it to link here). Kai was too excited to see the animals to care about this at the zoo, but loved thinking back on what we saw and drawing in the animals that weren't included in the book.

Overall it was a successful trip with our little family. We were so glad to finally get our kids up to the zoo, to see Reid + Carina's house for the first time, and to meet up with Caity and her family who we haven't seen since our wedding nearly 6 years ago! Let's hope it's not that long until we meet again!

celebrating 5 years of wedded bliss

On July 7th Ben + I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It's a small milestone, especially compared to the decades we plan to spend together. We decided to go away for the day/night, making it our first overnighter away from the boys for fun. Our 1st nights away from Kai were spent in the hospital when Desmond made his arrival. This was our very 1st night away from Desmond.

We hadn't done anything to celebrate except a quick dinner here in town since our 1st anniversary. Back in 2008 we spent a weekend at the coast, so we decided to do that again this year. We wanted to check out the River House Inn in Florence because it's right at the end of Old Town, so we could walk everywhere except the beach.

On Saturday morning we got ourselves and our boys ready to go to Mima's house, where we'd drop them off and our car so she could come back to our place for naps and the rest of our time away. Ben stopped for gas in the other car and met me there. I got Kai + Des all settled, chatted with my mom and joked with my dad about forgetting to leave them my car keys (and then I forgot to leave them my car keys...and they had to go to our house to get the other set, sorry guys!).

When we left Ben told me he had called the hotel to see if they do any free upgrades, as some do when they have openings. They don't...but he upgraded our room to the river view one anyway. It was such a lovely surprise!

When we got into town the first thing we did was run out onto the beach. Then we hurried to meet our dear friends, Michael and Megan, for a long overdue lunch in Old Town. We spent some time catching up and resolving to not let so much time go by before we see them again. We couldn't NOT see them while we were there, they live a block away from where we were staying!

Afterwards we checked into our room and I went straight to the balcony to take in our view.

$40 well spent. The other rooms had a view of the parking lot and the walk way. No thanks. 

We had a few hours before our dinner reservations at the Waterfront Depot (where we ate 4 years earlier), so we decided to go for a walk. 

{so blessed that this handsome man is mine}

We still had plenty of time to kill so we watched some HGtv (a channel we love but do not have) and enjoyed the quiet, uninterrupted time to ourselves. 

Once we were ready for dinner, I wanted to take a photo but didn't have the tripod. We tried a number of ways to prop the camera up and ultimately dared to put it on the balcony ledge. I love this photo so much, it's my profile picture on facebook right now, but that version is cropped. Here is the full version, 

This one makes me laugh because you can clearly tell the camera is balanced atop something, and our room is a disaster after on a few hours. We laughed about how "freeing" it was to leave our stuff lying around and not have to worry about one of our kids getting into it. We're wild ones, I tell ya, living on the edge!

We had a fantastic dinner and went for another walk afterwards. Ben suggested we walk along the river, after about 30 feet I got stuck in the mucky sand and we had to climb our way out. It wasn't pleasant at the time, but we were laughing hysterically anyway. 

The next day we slept in (SLEPT IN!!!), and took our time getting up for breakfast. We grabbed coffee and wandered Old Town again. Along the way we picked up prizes for our boys, and my parents as a thank you for enduring a sleepless night. We found some goodies at the dollar store that I was obnoxiously excited about, went to the beach again, had sushi for lunch, and grabbed ice cream at BJ's for the ride home. 

It was so much fun to spend time just the two of us and re-energize ourselves by taking some time away from the kids. Now that we've done it once, I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to do it again although it may be a while. Our boys were so excited to see us and it was such a joy to bring them a little something from our trip. Malakai still calls the magnifying glass that Ben picked out his "surprise". 

Happy Anniversary my love, each and every day as your wife is pure joy. Parenting with you is a dream come true. I love our life together and count myself blessed every moment. 

Portland Oregon in less than 24 hours

{I started this with the intent to publish as soon as it was done. Kai went on a nap strike and so now it is just after bedtime and I'm finally getting back to it}

I'm terrible about blogging on Mondays. On Sunday nights when the weekend is coming to a close, I'd rather just hang with my family after how busy our weekend was (and always are). I don't blog in the mornings because I'm playing with and looking after Malakai, who needs constant close supervision these days.

So here it is nap time, and although Malakai is not yet sleeping, I am updating around here. It's helping me stay out of his room when I hear him kicking the crib or unzipping his jammies. I keep thinking that if I let him be, he'll fall asleep as usual. I have a scary thought in the back of my head that he might be thinking he's done with naps. Please no.

So anyway, our weekend. Ben was asked if he'd like to accompany our church's youth up to Portland for Generation Unleashed, which takes place at our parent church (the church that planted ours). While at first he thought he'd have to decline because of work, he was able to work it out to go up for Friday night's last session, and the two final sessions on Saturday morning.

I was planning on staying home, but when he mentioned he might have his own hotel room, I thought it would be fun to tag along. We found out on Thursday that Kai and I would for sure be able to tag along. I had already made plans for Friday with my sister-in-law Kristi, my aunt (who is more like a sister) Sarah, and my high school bestie, Lindsey.

Ben came home from work and we were already packed up to go. So we loaded up and headed out. I had prepared for Malakai's first wakeful 2 hour car ride with a no-spill snack bowl, a cup with a straw, new board books, and an AquaDoodle drawing pad. That day he only napped for 45 minutes and passed out on our ride up for about 90 minutes. I won't complain.

Since Ben was already arriving to GU late, he dropped us off to check in at the hotel and headed to the church. The girls met up with me and we headed to dinner at Chevy's, a tex-mex style restaurant that was a block from the hotel. Since Ben had the car, and the carseat, it was perfect. Malakai was not the biggest fan of sitting some more and was not the easiest to tame for dinner. When we headed back to the hotel Lindsey took her sweet little dog Chloe out of the car and smuggled her up to my room in her jacket.

Chloe chased Malakai all over the room, he was giggling non-stop which meant all four of us girls were doing the same. Then I made sure we got a photo of all of us together. I propped the camera on the tv and set the timer. Chloe and Kai even looked at the camera!

{Lindsey, Chloe, me, Kristi, Malakai, Sarah}

Kristi stayed a little after Linds + Sarah had to go. Malakai was acting sleepy, he kept saying "nuh-night" and laying down on the big bed.

{Kristi captured this photo, Kai looks so big!}

Despite playing bedtime, Malakai would not go to bed for me. I tried for over an hour before daddy came to the hotel and had the little guy out within ten minutes. He is so stuck to the daddy bedtime routine. Although, he just doesn't do well away from home. 

The next morning we rolled out of bed and dropped Ben off at GU and went to meet Carina at Coava Coffee (after I got lost), which I had read about on Today's Letters just last week. The atmosphere was interesting and unique, the coffee was delicious. One of the owners made my coffee, how often does that happen at other coffee shops? If I could afford the expense, I'd be sold on their Kone filter.

{the dirty drill press was Malakai's favorite}

{what's that?!}

Then we were off to downtown to do some browsing at the new H&M (I'd never been) and a few other places. Eugene's Gap Kids store shutdown a few years ago, so I had to pop into the one there and was glad I did. I got Kai some cutie jeans and a long sleeve button-up shirt for just $13. 

After a good visit it was time to load up Malakai in the car with his lunch and I headed over to pick up Ben. Once he finished his sandwich, Kai was out for the entire 2 hour drive home. 

It went by incredibly fast, but I'm so glad we were able to go. 

Birthday Weekend Part 3: Road Trip!

On Sunday of Malakai's Birthday weekend we had a wedding to go to for a friend of mine from college + work. We didn't have any more "birthday" activities, but I'm including this post in the series as it was all part of the busiest weekend of our lives so far.

 {Remember this post about her gorgeous Bridal Shower?}

It has actually been a lot of fun to have Malakai's birthday and her wedding fall on the same weekend. We've been counting down to "our big weekend" together since they set their wedding date.

That morning we got a slow start. Mostly because we thought that we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, but according to google maps, we had a 2 and a half hour drive! So we bumped up our departure time by a half hour. We realized this at about 11:30am and needed to get out the door by 12:30pm! Needless to say, we didn't really get on the road til closer to 1pm. We even had to wake up Malakai from his nap. He was so sleepy I thought he'd just drift back to sleep. Instead, he just quietly sat there, looking a bit spacey for the most part. He was happy, and that's all I cared about!

Once we got to the church, it was 3:10pm, and the wedding was supposed to start at 3:30pm. I wanted to get Kai's diaper changed, dress shirt + shoes on before we went into the sanctuary. I headed to the women's restroom- NO CHANGING TABLE! I just about panicked. I went back to the front of the church, asked one of the lovely girls at the guestbook table if she knew where I could find one and she pointed me to the nursery. SAVED! It was also nice because the nursery had a tinted window into the sanctuary. Ben + I agreed that if Kai had a meltdown during the ceremony he'd take him in there so I could enjoy the wedding.

He babbled a few times and when he got really loud Ben took him out into the foyer, but no meltdowns! This was his 2nd wedding, but the first was when he was only 2 months old. He did such a good job! The ceremony was beautiful and I was so happy for Krista + Matt!

The reception was in the fellowship hall which was attached to the nursery, so nice + convenient. 

Malakai met another college friend of ours who lives in California now. Whitney was a bridesmaid in the wedding. There were two other times she was supposed to meet Kai but her trips got cancelled, she was so excited to finally get to see him in person!

Later Malakai couldn't decide which bridesmaid he wanted to hang out with...so he chose both!

The reception was very casual. Just eating, visiting, toasts, + cake cutting.

{lovely centerpieces}

 Malakai cruised around a bit and we made sure he got some time outside as well.

One of my best friends, Carina, was really helpful to have around when we needed an extra set of hands. She's a very fun "auntie"! She also took this next photo for us. LOVE it!

This was the first time we stayed for the entire reception since Ben and I have been together. We are so glad we didn't miss the send-off. When Matt + Krista got through all the people and bubbles, there was no getaway car!

After a few very confusing minutes, someone drove it around front. Every wedding has to have a fun story like that!

It was after 6:30pm so we got Kai in his PJ's to make him more comfy for our long drive back. He passed out before we even made our first turn towards home and slept the whole way!

Ben + I enjoyed each other's company and the sunset all the way down I-5

We got home just after 9:30pm and settled down as our crazy weekend finally came to a close. 

Now this week we've been trying out a new schedule with watching Henry. It's been interesting as the last 3 days Malakai hasn't taken very good naps. He either wakes up to early or won't go to sleep before we leave, and always refuses to nap while we're there. Thankfully he's fallen asleep on the way home and stayed that way for me to transfer him from car seat to crib. Luckily, this schedule will only be going for the next few weeks!

Vacations

This morning I grabbed a pink mug from my shelves (yes, plural) of coffee cups and was reminded of a family vacation. The mug is from Disneyland, pink with all the princesses on it. What's funny to me about how cutsie that sounds is that I was 23 when I bought it. It was my first time to Disneyland...

and I went with my family...in an RV.

When I was younger we couldn't afford family vacations to fancy or far off places. We always camped on the Oregon coast which just happens to be a winding 60 minute drive from home. When I was in Middle School we started going to a nearby theme park that had a few rides, mini golf and a water slide. I preferred the gusty beaches.

Once when I was 13 we actually went to Oahu with my grandpa for a family reunion. See, my dad was adopted so while my grandpa was Chinese + Hawaiian we are not. So naturally the reunion was taking place on the island where he grew up. We were only able to afford it because he and his sister were paying for quite a bit of it.

{yes I'm posting a picture of me from 1996}

So nearly ten years later when my family had decided to make the 14 hour drive (that turned into 24 hours) in a rental RV down to Anaheim I was all for it. Even though I had just garnered a ridiculous self-inflicted head injury. Maybe I'll share that story another time.

{March 2005, an RV ride down the 5 will make you crazy}

There was the typical arguments and drama, but all in all it was a good time.

{March 2005, California Adventure}

My next vacation didn't come along until my honeymoon in July of 2007. Ben and I were determined to go somewhere exciting and new. While a lot of our peers were going to the same gusty Oregon beaches after their weddings, we decided to go to Honolulu Hawaii. Ben had never been and I was excited to see some familiar places as well as experience more things with my new husband.

I'm glad I took the time and saved the money to vacation in my early twenties. I haven't been on a vacation since our honeymoon. There hasn't been enough time or money since then. We were invited to Disneyworld with my inlaws last summer but those plans were cancelled when I got pregnant with Malakai. Ben and I are homebodies for sure, but it feels that we are about due for a getaway, one that won't probably happen for at least a few more years. I guess that's what made me reflect on vacations past. It'll be fun to save for future vacations and be creative about where we'd like to go that is kid friendly.

For now I'll enjoy planning for Malakai's 1st birthday and camping at those familiar beaches with our extended family.

What was your favorite vacation? Where do you hope to go on your next one?