A Road to Tilikum

We got to go to one of my favorite vacation spots ever again this year....the Oregon coast. We loaded up the Sienna with me and my boys, my mom, Claire, Layne, and Micah and had a little road trip to my mom's family reunion. We had a great time. The bummer part of the trip was that because of our Disneyland vacation (in 2 days, yipee!!) Ernie couldn't take off the time to come with us. We really missed him.
Our first stop was Crater Lake. It was SO beautiful! When we got to the lake at the bottom of the hill the boys 'accidentlly' slipped into the water. So they did a little swimming in their underwear, which Ernie was NOT thrilled about, but he managed. The boys even made the two mile hike in and out of there without too much complaining. (Well, while going up the switch back trail, Ernie did need a little encouragement. Luckily Micah had a granola bar and after every 10 steps at first, and eventually a few more, he got a bite. It was a VERY long mile. But he did it. Micah, Claire and I have now faced a new venture, trying to get Ernie to climb a mountain. In the meantime, Caleb skipped his way up the hill, and yes they beat us.)


We then made our way over to the coast. It was so nice to get away from the heat!



We stopped and ate lunch mom style (which means it took a while, and it was of course an adventure) at Nye Beach.


We then headed over to the aquarium in Newport. The boys rememberd it from when The hubby and I took them there last summer and were really excited. They even pet the sharks! They got to watch the sea lions get fed, and that was really funny, they would do all sorts of little tricks when they threw them their food. And they loved the puffins. As we were leaving Caleb found these hats, and he put it on and said "look I'm an annename" So cute! Ernie followed suit, and they had the whole store laughing. (And I'm sure the workers wanted to kick us out!)


We of course had to stop for salt water taffy in Depot Bay, and while we were looking st the ocean, we saw a whale! Ernie spotted it too, which he thought was awesome. (Caleb unfortunately was asleep in the car)
And that my friends was the first leg of the trip, the way to Tilikum. Don't worry you will get to see the actual reunion in Tilikum, and the venture home as well. (I would like to thank little Ernie (I know, I know, he will say "I'm not little" when he read this) for being our photographer. I also would like to thank our mother, for without her venturistic spirit, we wouldn't have seen half the things we got to see. Plus, even though we kind of complained once in a while, and we might have created a coupe and not allowed her to see Roseville and a few other 'must sees', we all had a fabulous time- even without the Redwoods ;)!)