Birthday at the Beach

It always seems we take a trip for Jason's b-day in January, weather it's just Jason and I or the whole family. Prices are lower and it's less crowded, which is, in my opinion always better.

This time we had a two room condo right on the beach and it was a fun trip. It's actually been quite a while since we did a trip with only us four that wasn't visiting family. Not that family isn't a ton of fun to visit, it's just nice to be us four every once an a while.

Since we were going to Seaside we decided to stop off at the cheese factory, because......ummmm cheese is good. And ice cream.
It had been a while since we went to the cheese factory and the boys were in heaven with the array of ice cream flavors they saw behind the counters. But they ended up with the same favorite favs, strawberry for Levi and chocolate for Max.

Once we got to where we were staying we just hung out, did bath time and snuggled in for a movie.

The Saturday we were there was actually sunny, which is pretty rare in Oregon, let alone Oregon in January. Our first stop was the Seaside aquarium, which is always a hit. The boys loved feeding the seals,
looking at the octopus,
the other fishes
making crayon rubbings,
and touching starfish and sea anemones.
Then off we went to the beach.
Free!!!!!
Not quite so cheery.....But he cheered up and they ended up doing a lot of drawing in the sand.
So did dad.Later we decided to get one of those rent by the hour buggies, which is actually pretty hard to drive, especially with two big boys in the front. Sad to say, we didn't even last the full hour, but I think the boys had fun while Jason and I were huffing and puffing around town.
It was a very fun day, we went to the carousel mall got to ride the carousel, look at the fun toy shop, even picked up a fun flying tree squirrel puppet (they have our favorite kind of puppets which we LOVE), his name is Simon.

And we couldn't go to the beach without going to one of their awesome candy shops to pick out a treat and having an elephant ear. All and all a good time.

Since it was Jason's birthday the boys and I headed off to get some supplies for his big surprise. I explained to both of them that we were going to trick him and give him 2 surprises, a fake one that night with some of his favorite root beer as a gift and a oreo shake, which we did. Then the next morning we got up early, blew up lots of balloons to hang from the ceiling, had some of his favorite breakfast foods, cards written up and even a gift card for one of his favorite stores (home depot). I think we fooled him. The boys were actually able to keep the double secret, secret. They still aren't the best at keeping a secret, it's usually doesn't last longer than a couple minutes before they're spilling the beans.

All and all a good day, but by the next morning the sun was gone and it was back to the good ole' Oregon we know and love, though it was a little too windy for the boys liking. Happy Birthday Jason!