Monday, May 2, 2011

Escape to Florence

No, not Florence, Italy. Although that would have been a wonderful vacation as well! We live about an hour away from Florence, on the Oregon coast. We desperately needed to get out of the house and make some happy memories, so we threw caution to the wind, disregarded the fact that we have no income, and went on a little vacation. It was a short trip. We left on the 19th and came home on the 20th, but it was wonderful! We’ve NEVER gone on vacation just for the heck of it before. NEVER! We travel to visit family a lot but this was our first real vacation.

The ocean was beautiful and blue.

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We got the Florence before we could check in to the hotel, so we drove out to the Sea Lion Caves.

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This, ladies and gentlemen (are there actually any gentlemen reading my blog?!), is the world’s largest sea lion cave. Can you see them? The rocks are covered. Nathan wasn’t too sure about all the “dinosaurs” and I wasn’t too sure about the smell, but overall, it was pretty cool!

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Some nice girls took a family picture for us.

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This is the view from our hotel room! Amazing!

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Room service is just getting younger and younger these days.

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We had some lunch on the balcony, then spent the afternoon on the beach, despite the crazy wind.

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Happy Birthday Alex!

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It was sunny and beautiful, but remember, we’re in Oregon, so it was also freakishly cold.

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The hotel

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Living in the lap of luxury in his queen-sized bed.

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The hotel had an indoor pool with a kids area that we decided to take advantage of. Apparently we were the only ones, which is fine by me because the less people that see me in a bathing suit, the better!

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Nathan was timid at first . . .

 

but after a while we had a hard time keeping up with him so he wouldn’t just jump in and drown.

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When we got back to the hotel, Nathan got right down to business making some phone calls. This was his absolute favorite thing on the trip! Ryan really likes this picture because you can see Nathan’s shoes and pants discarded in the background. He says it looks like Nathan came home from a long day at work, got comfortable, grabbed a binky, and started talking on the phone.

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Our room had a full kitchen so Ryan made us a yummy dinner- complete with easy mac for Nathan.

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The sun is in my eyes, but the point is- we had ice cream!

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Speaking of the sun, we spent the evening watching it set and it was so beautiful! We took a ton of pictures. Here’s a few:

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I must really be a Northwest girl, because I thought the ocean was the most beautiful early the next morning when everything was gray and wet.

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We took one last trip outside (it was way too cold to go close to the water) before we drove home.

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Look, Mom! Birds! (He keeps calling me Mom, not mommy or mama. What the heck?! I’m not ready to be Mom!)

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This was such a healing trip for us. The hotel was totally quiet and empty and the ocean was relaxing and it was just what we needed!

8 comments:

Mrs Abbott said...

How lovely! So glad that you guys could go and do that! Makes me want to do that as well! Great idea!

Fox and Amy said...

Heather--those are awesome pictures! I think the best trips are those that aren't super planned, too. Nathan is such a cutie!

trishaz said...

How relaxing - it sounds like a lot to do in just a day, but it also sounds unplanned and perfect for spur-of-the-moment vacationing. You all look so happy and cute!!!

Jennifer Epperson said...

Looking at your blog makes me wish I could see Nathan (of course you and Ryan as well). Loved the room service picture as well as the discarded pants and shoes!

Michael said...

I do in fact read your blog...anyways I hope I count as a gentleman. It's interesting, I think that Nathan looked a lot like Ryan when he was born. Then I thought he began to look more like you. Now I think he's beginning to look more like Ryan again. Oh yeah, Happy Anniversary!

trishaz said...

Your blog is an online journal complete with pictures. Hopefully you can save it forever. Maybe there is a way to print it out like a book? I love reading your descriptions - you are a great writer Heather!

Unknown said...

Neat! What a neat trip and glad it was healing for you - you do look like you were shining more at the end of the trip (: happy thoughts still coming your way! xoxo

Unknown said...

P.S. There are sites that make your blogs into book s- I have not done one before but just google it (: