"It doesn't matter where you're going. It is who you have beside you."

That could not have been truer about this trip. I was just so happy to be getting to travel and spend time with family it didn't much matter where we went. However, I'm sure glad that our somewhere was the Oregon coast because the trip my mother in law planned was incredible!

As soon as school got out last Wednesday we threw our stuff in the car and headed out to Christopher's parents. We squished everything we could into the trunk of their car and headed out to IF for Zach and Kodi. Then, squished in some more and off to Salt Lake we went! Tyson and Maddy met us there and we got a few hours of sleep in before heading in to the airport early Thursday morning. The plane ride was actually quite fun because these cute kiddos were experiencing it all for the first time and were beyond excited. :)

As soon as we got off the plane in Portland though our REAL adventure began. We spent the next 5 days traveling all together in this beauty!

8 adults, 1 teenager and 2 kiddos. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty skeptical when I first heard this was the plan but I kid you not, it was a BLAST! It was just so nice to be all together instead of having to take shifts or be separated. And honestly it was just as comfortable as any other car!

This doesn't even show the back 2 rows! 

Anyways, we hit the ground running and headed straight over the bridge of the gods to some awesome smaller waterfalls before hitting the big kahuna Multonmah Falls. It was pretty stellar! So much natural beauty!

That night (and the next) we stayed in an awesome vacation rental that was right on the beach. It was  perfect for us and so convenient because we could all gather together each night before bed. I think Friday might have been my favorite day. But honestly it's really too hard to choose just one favorite! Friday we took a quick walk on the beach before loading up and heading out to Tillamook. We went to the cheese factory there (where I walked out with fudge :p) which was super neat!

Then went to an awesome little naval air station museum where they had loads of neat and historic air crafts in the old naval air station that housed blimps used for submarine reconnaissance. Super interesting to look around.

 From there it was just a quick jaunt up the road to see Munson Falls which was again... gorgeous! (Are you sick of that word yet ;) )

After that beautiful little nature walk we headed to Cape Kiwanda where we spent a few minutes chasing/getting chased by the waves before having a really nice lunch at the Pelican Bay Brewery while still enjoying the spectacular view.

  


















After lunch we headed back toward the beach house and made another one of my favorite stops. Cape Mearnes was absolutely amazing and had a cute little light house and lots perfect little sitting spots. All I wanted was to have like a half a day to just sit there and read a book.

Saturday was a lot more driving, a lot quicker stops and a lot of beauty! We hopped over to cannon beach where we saw the famous Goonies rock/island thingy. It was fun hopping around in the rocky shallows with my cute new rainboots!

Next we drove all the way down to right near the border to a place called Brookings in order to see the redwoods. We stopped at tillamook again to grab some snacks then were off until we hit devils punch bowl. Then, we saw some sea lions in Newport. And after that we saw devil's churn before stopping for the night.

Sunday was another favorite day because we got to walk along gorgeous Endert's beach and check out some neat tide pools. It was nice to spend so much time out of the van stretching our legs!

After the nice long search for star fish we headed back up the hill to our van and drove a little further (into CA!!) to visit the national redwood forest. I've been surrounded by redwoods all my life but this stop did not disappoint! It was awesome and I could have just stared for days at all the green beauty around us. These trees are HUGE guys! and oh so... you guessed it... gorgeous!

Monday was a little less exciting because we had decided to drive halfway back to the airport after the redwoods Sunday night to make it easier to be back in time to turn in the van. So we basically just woke up and got going on the drive with quite the side job of trying to get it cleaned. But eventually we wound up at the Portland temple which was a nice surprise treat! And we had a yummy dinner all together before the plane ride home.

I seriously couldn't be more disappointed that we had to come home! We had such a great time sharing each other's company all week. There was no fighting at all, just tons of laughing and joking and laughing some more. All in all it was pretty dang amazing and I hope we get to do something similar again in the future because I sure lucked out in the in law department and we just have way too much fun when we get together! Thanks again Todd and Jenn for treating us to such a spectacular, amazing time. Can't thank you enough!