Servant of God: January – Traveling to Oregon..!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

January – Traveling to Oregon..!

We made the most of the time we had with Mirko and Natalia during Christmas break. We wanted them to be able to experience various states so we took the time to travel. One of the trips was down to the Oregon coast.

On the way out of town we had to stop by the Clear Water Casino for their all you can eat seafood buffet. The food was delicious though Matthew was bummed that instead of the typical meat all they had for him was turkey. The rest of us enjoyed filling up on seafood.

All you can eat seafood.. YUM

We stopped at various locations along the way to take pictures since the scenery was so beautiful. I loved the fact that we were along the water as the sun was setting and were able to take some beautiful pictures.

Shane and the view...

Family shot along the water...

Mirko and Naty with the sunset..

After checking into the hotel we decided to go shopping at the outlet malls. Shane was super excited to find some Jordan shoes for a great price and used his Christmas money to buy them. Mirko and Natalia also had a blast shopping for shoes and clothes. The only thing that would have made it better is if Natalia knew the sex of the baby and could have bought gender specific clothes. While we finished shopping the guys picked up pizza for dinner and groceries for breakfast and we went back to the hotel to watch a movie.

Boy or Girl...? That is the question...

The next morning we toured around Seaside for awhile before heading further south to Cannon Beach. Matthew wanted to show them the famous rock and one of his favorite locations in the world. I also enjoyed going since I don’t know the last time I had been there (if ever) and Matthew talks about it all the time since he goes to the Men’s Retreat every year.

Matthew making breakfast...

Enjoying it as a family...

Welcome to Seaside...

Cannon Beach... and the famous rock..!

We then continued traveling towards Vancouver Washington… stopping along the way at the old logger’s museum. Thankfully, Mirko and Natalia enjoy learning about historical sites as much as we do. Of course we were racing traffic to get through Portland before it got too bad.

Mirko just loves trains...

Natalia checking out the logging museum

We made it to the hotel with enough time to rest before we met up with my friend Nora and her family for dinner. She is from Argentina and really wanted get to know Natalia and Mirko so I am glad it worked out for us to get together for dinner. It was New Year’s Eve but we didn’t have plans so we spent the night goofing off in the hotel. Mirko, Shane and I were the only ones that were officially awake to toast in the New Year.

Mirko with his seahawks balloon helmet

Visiting with Nora...

The boys goofing off in the hotel...

Matthew came up with the idea to go to Multnomah Falls before heading home so in the morning we packed up and headed out to the Falls. It was a beautiful day and the view was absolutely gorgeous. Natalia said by far it was her favorite part of the trip so far. Since the route took us miles from Multnomah Bible College we stopped by so she could see the campus and then we visited one of my classmates for a couple hours. This first trip was perfect… we all had fun and enjoyed the time together.