Family Night...Make that Family Weekend! :)

Friday, after a fun playdate (Thanks Shawna!) the kids were napping and I was dozing peacfully with the princess when I heard D arrive home from work. About 10 minutes after her arrival she came into the princess' bedroom, noticed I was awake and said "Wanna do something completely irresponsible and go to the beach for the weekend?" Huh? The beach? Weekend? What about studying all day tomorrow? What about the animals?

She explained that the inn where we stayed in August had a room available for Friday and Saturday night. We could throw stuff in the car, be on the road and spend two nights on the coast. We'd come home early Sunday so she could study the afternoon and evening away. She'd call her sister and/or her mom to see if they could tend to the animals.

So - throwing caution to the wind I raced into our room to pull out the luggage and start packing. We were out the door and in the car within the hour! I don't think we've ever packed so quickly before. :)

Traffic wasn't nearly as terrible as we feared given that it was 4pm on a Friday afternoon and we made good time to the coast.

We checked into our room, tossed our luggage on the beds and headed down to town. Things were mostly closed up but it was fun just to walk around and breathe in the fresh sea air. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

We returned to our room and ordered pizza. After we ate, D and the prince headed over to the pool for a swim while I gave the princess her bath. After they returned from the pool we watched a bit of tv and then settled down to sleep.

The princess had a rough night so she and I were up for more than three hours. It drove me nutty to listen to the steady breathing coming from the prince and D. I wanted to be sleeping too! Oh well. I rocked the princess by the window and watched the waves crash on the beach.

Saturday we were out and about early and went to breakfast at my favorite place; Pig'N Pancake. YUMMY!!!! They make the best eggs benedict I've ever tasted.

After that we roamed around town for a while and then headed back to the inn. The prince was given a choice of going over to a neighboring town or playing on the beach - he choose the beach and what a good decision that turned out to be! We had an absolute blast playing the surf, being chased by the waves and watching the prince dance the world's sillest dance. It was the best and the weather was amazing! We both said how crazy it was that we had nicer weather in October than we had experienced in August!

We returned to the room and dumped the prince in the tub - he was sandy from the top of his hair to the bottom of his feet! We all changed into dry and sand free clothes and headed into Cannon Beach to go to our favorite fudge store. (D would like me to add this this isn't *her* favorite fudge store anymore. Her favorite is Great Northwest Candy Store. I really like it too (they have all sorts of candy from my childhood) - especially since I discovered it's owned by a former co-worker and her husband. Sadly, though, they don't carry the divinity nougat I love so much.)

The kids both ended up falling asleep so we parked and tried to rest with them. The prince woke and wanted no part of waiting in the car so he and D took off to the toy stores while I waited in the car for the princess to wake. I ended up falling asleep and the two of us snoozed for about 90 minutes. Ahhhhh!!! :)

When I woke the clouds and fog had rolled in and it was getting downright nippy! Good thing we played on the beach in the morning instead of the afternoon.

We played around in Cannon Beach for a bit, ate a late lunch/early dinner at our favorite place, Bill's Tavern, and then headed back to Seaside.

Sadly, the bumper cars were already closed by the time we were ready to go there but we did get to ride the kiddie train (the kids and I) and play in the arcade (the prince's idea of heaven!). We won lots of tickets and got to trade them in for some fun prizes (my favorite game is a baseball game and I have to say, I'm pretty good at it and tend to win gobs of tickets!).

It was such a great day! We all had so much fun and the prince kept thanking us for everything (Thanks Mama. This is fun!). It was so nice to escape from the stress we call our lives and have some time together as a family.

It was hard to say our good-byes this morning (we tend to say good-bye to everything: the room, the ocean, the sand, the birds, the bumper cars, the arcade, etc) but we were on the road by 10 and home by 11:30.

The unpacking is all but done. The princess is napping, the prince is watching Clifford and D is hard at work studying. It sure doesn't take long to fall back into the same old routine but it sure was great to get away and have a "stolen weekend!"








The rest of the pictures may be viewed by clicking here.