Summer vacation!

We started our summer vacation last Tuesday..loading up the camper and ready to head down the Oregon coast. The weather forecast showed some rain, but a little sun too. But as we started our journey, it was as if a dark cloud was following us! It rained every single one of the 10 days we were gone, but we did get to see some sun, and the rain didn't make the trip unbearable. Thank goodness for our camper, because if we were in a tent, I would have given up and come home!

Our first stop was the Ape Caves, caves formed by lava flow near Mt. St. Helen's. The cave was cool, but Ben hated every minute we were in it because it was too dark and too tall. Whatever that means..
That night we decided to stay at a motel since it was raining pretty hard and it was late by the time we decided to stop. We chose a motel 6 for it's cheapness. It was THE hardest, most uncomfortable bed we have ever slept on. Richard said we probably would have had a better night on the box spring!

The next morning, it wasn't raining and we were hopeful. The kids did really well during our two hour drive to Ft Stevens State park. It was a nice camp ground, but it rained both days. We did manage to check out the old military post and museum, which was cool and we all liked. The camp ground itself was very well maintained, but there were tons of mosquitoes. Our neighbors told us that keeping cheap mouth wash in a spray bottle is a good way to ward them off.. We'll have to try it some time!

On our way out of Ft Stevens we stopped for the day in Seaside, OR. It's a super cute little town near the ocean and had one of the nicer, sandier beaches..though it was quite windy and misty, so we didn't really get to spend a lot of time there. We had some delicious pizza for lunch and Evey got to ride the bumper cars with Daddy. Ben didn't want to. He said they were just too bumpy.

From Seaside we headed to South Beach. Here we got almost a full day of sun, and really enjoyed the beach. Ben and Evey found many good rocks and shells to bring home to add to their collection. (Which is growing quite huge on the front porch..) Addy loved playing in the sand, but didn't enjoy it much after her clothes got soaked. Most of our trip the temp hung around 58-60 degrees. The South Beach camp ground was really nice, and had a lot of little squirrels that liked to come right up on the table and eat out of your hand. The kids got a kick out of that. We were also super close to the bathroom, which was nice for this 27 week pregnant mommy!


After South Beach we headed to Honeyman State Park. We highly recommend this, especially if you own four wheelers or other ATV type stuff. The sand dunes are huge and long (47 miles!) and the kids had a blast there. They have a fresh water lake, with paddle boats and salamanders and snails to catch (and release of course). This was our favorite stop, and we would have stayed longer if we could! When we first arrived they gave us a campsite that was near the bathroom, but totally covered by trees, very small, and on a hill. Both of us were really sad, so we drove around to see what else they had. We found a loop that had mostly flat and open sites, close to a bathroom, and near a playground. So we went back to the office and they had just one site open for a 3 day period. It was the biggest and best campsite we saw and we felt so blessed to have the last one, especially since our trip hadn't gone as smoothly as we'd hoped. (With all that rain, and setting up and taking down the camper in wet weather..stressful!)
We had fairly decent weather after our first night too, which was really nice. The kids had a large parking lot to ride their bikes and the bugs were minimal.

After Honeyman, we drove all the way to Portland to visit the Multnomah falls. It was beautiful, and then we headed home.

Overall it was a great trip, and we took lots of pictures (all of which are on face book). And the kids didn't mind the rain. We didn't really either until it was time to move the wet camper to the next location. That just gets old...

Anyway...with our vacation over, and the summer coming to an end, we decided to sell the camper. I listed it on Craigslist last night around midnight and this morning we had 5 people interested. One woman sent a text at 6am and asked to please be the first to look at it. She was and they bought it. We are thankful it wasn't a headache for us.

We truly are blessed. I just can't say it enough. God has been so good to us!