Oregon Family Vacation

We just got back from our first vacation as a family of four and it couldn't have gone better.  I think it's appropriate to call this vacation, Joe's blast from the past.  Joe lived in Oregon for most of his childhood and had a lot of fun reviving some memories as we explored his old stomping grounds.

The girls did great on the airplane.  Joe and I weren't able to sit side by side on the airplane because there's only enough oxygen masks for one lap child in each row.

When we arrived at our rental car, we were pleasantly surprised to see that we had a shiny blue Mustang waiting for us.  Unfortunately, it wasn't big enough for all of our precious cargo so we had to settle with a Chevy Impala instead.  Major bummer for my hubby.

We spent our first day in Florence, which is a small coastal town.  Joe's dad met us there and Mia had some good bonding time with Grandpa.

This view never gets old.

On our second day in Florence, we went to the Sea Lion caves, (only one sea lion was in the cave) but we still saw several outside by the water.

Naomi was such a trooper on this trip and just went with the flow.  Gosh, I love her.

You can't go to the coast without checking out the beach.  The beach was beautiful but definitely cold and windy.  Mia was excited to find a seashell and had fun playing in the sand.  However, she did not find taking a picture with daddy very fun.

When you're traveling with a toddler, you try to keep them happy so we spent some time at the park. 

But, you also need to keep Mom and Dad happy so we ventured out to some wineries. We met up with one of Joe's old friends and she took us to two of her favorite wineries.  This first one had an amazing view (as you can see).  We got to try 6 different wines as we sat outside, relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. Don't worry, I fed Naomi right before and only took a teeny sip of each.

I think this is the first time we got a picture of the four of us. I love it.

We decided to head to Portland early on our last day so we could see the city before our 3:00 flight.  As we were brainstorming things to do on our 2 hour drive, we decided we would all have the most fun if we did something Mia would enjoy.  We decided to go to the Children's Museum.  It was a blast!  Mia had so much fun taking care of puppies, going grocery shopping, playing in water, playing with a giant light bright and many more things.  However, she did not enjoy taking her picture under the Portland Children's Museum sign!!

Totally random, but hilarious.  Mia loves rain sticks.  She gathered all of the rain sticks in the baby play area, and sat on this bench and held them for what seemed like an eternity. Finally we were able to distract her, so we could play with the other toys.