and we're back...

We had a great time at my parent's house. We were pretty much busy every single day and crammed in as much as we could. Jenni was so wonderful with our family and we missed her when she had to go back early. The little cousins were sad that she wasn't a "real" cousin. ha ha

The first day we drove out to Tillamook and went to the cheese factory. Since it was a weekend, the packing department wasn't working so we couldn't see that part. sadness. We did enjoy the Tillamook ice cream and cheese samples. My goal on this trip was to eat Tillamook ice cream every day. Sometimes we actually had it twice!! It was so yummy! After that stop, we drove up the coast and stopped at a few surf shops for shirts and stickers :) We stopped at Arcadia beach and let the girls run around for a while. It was a beautiful day but a bit windy. Not the warmer sort of beaches that we're used to, but so fun for the girls. We drove up to Astoria after that to go to the column. I kept asking the girls if they were ready to climb the 144-ish steps to the top, but when we got there the column was closed because they're replacing the steps, not to be opened till July! Argh! oh well! Still had a beautiful view from there. The drive back was really pretty. It was so nice to see green grass and colorful flowers everywhere.