Jenica and the whole famn damily

our last two days of vacation were spent driving. they were supposed to be 7 hour days, but of course with children, they were each 10 hour days. the kids were happy, they watched a lot of movies and ate massive amounts of licorice.

the hubs was content, driving is something that he really does love to do. it was just me, a nervous ball of energy that was going crazy with my thoughts and getting extremely frustrated by all of the Oregonian drivers. haha.

we stopped in corvallis for lunch, which was a really cool college type town. not exactly the type of people that are used to a plethora of little people.

along the way we stopped at a dam. we watched the fish ladders and were blown away by the massive amounts of water flooding out and the energy that water can create.

this is G's dam dance in her backward pants.

if i learned one thing on this trip, it's that i'm very connected to the earth, to dirt, to solid ground. i'm not a big fan of water; i'm amazed by it... from a distance. but as our vacation drew to a close my anxiety began to rise. each new bridge we passed over i began to worry about. it sounds so silly and paranoid now, but i began to imagine what would happen if an earthquake struck while we were on the bridge, what would happen to our little family... a deep sense of dread and awe came over me as i contemplated the sheer force that water is. you trickle a drop into your hand, it's nothing. you shower in gallons and come out feeling refreshed. but when water moves, everything moves.

the last night of our trip was spent in baker city, oregon. we stayed at the geiser grand hotel which was nothing short of coooool. although by this stage of the trip, G was pretty well past her prime; she was reduced to a slobbery, weepy, mess for most of our stay.

and then we drove and drove again for another ten hours. being the aggressive driver than i am (even though i was mostly just a passenger!) i was extremely happy when we crossed the utah state line. ah, sweet bliss. word to the wise: NEXT time we only drive for 4 hours a day... well, what mapquest says is four hours.

to see the whole trip in order click for days 1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10-11.

if we could do the vacation over again, we would change these last few days. we LOVED the beach at lincoln city and we both regret not just staying there for the remainder of our trip. it was perfectly kid friendly. i thought what i wanted out of the oregon coast was the craggy, rocky beach with tide pools. so we compromised by staying two nights in lincoln city (a FLAT beach) and 2 nights in seal rock. but we found seal rock to be completely un-nerving. the waves crashing up on the rocks is beautiful from afar, but with four little kids... it was scary! we never were really that close to the waves and we only went out at low tide, but the hubs and i were still really uncomfortable at seal rock.

lincoln city on the other hand, was a dream. our guesthouse was steps from the beach, had a hot tub overlooking the ocean, was equipped with a set of bunk-beds; it was completely comfortable in every way. we loved, loved, loved every minute of it. plenty of time for wadding in the ocean, flying kites, hot-tubing, eating yummy foods, taking mid-day naps, experiencing the whole relaxing vacation feel we were yearning for. *sigh* it was just perfect!