Vacation before our vacation!

Wow! I have seriously been MIA from blogging for a while. We have had an incredible month long break and I am happy to say I was having too much fun to blog! :) Now I need to catch up (and thanks to backdating posts, I can log them from around the right time!). Well to start, we survived finals! It was a pretty miserable couple of weeks for everyone, but boy did we celebrate it being over! Our wonderful friend Melinda had a hotel stay in Newport she couldn't use that she SO sweetly gave to us. So Wednesday afternoon, after Nate's last final, we packed up and headed to the coast! We stayed in a hotel called the Elizabeth Street Inn, which is situated right on the beach. Each room had a fireplace and private balcony that overlooked the ocean - it was heavenly. She had 2 free nights at the hotel, but since we didn't have much time (or a babysitter), we were able to get two conjoining rooms for one night. That way we were able to put the girls to sleep in one room and have a true date night! The whole trip was fantastic. Thursday was unseasonably warm so we were able to run around on the beach, go exploring, see the sea lions and enjoy some long awaited family time. What a wonderful start to a wonderful vacation!

The girls loved playing hide-and-seek in our room. This is one of Kenna's better hiding places. :)

Getting ready to go swimming

The beautiful views from our balcony

Visiting the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

We went on a 'secret adventure' to the beach. It was awesome!
(minus the fact that I stepped in a swamp and had to walk around with a wet shoe and sock for the rest of the day!)

How many people can say they had 55-degree weather on the Oregon coast in December, with the beach all to themselves? Can't get better than that!

The day before our trip, we got together with some friends to make gingerbread houses. The kids were way more interested in eating the candy than decorating the house (to be expected when you're two!), but I let Kenna do it mostly by herself and she did a pretty darn good job!