The White House: Lincoln City! and the Rest of Spring Break

I have no idea why we haven't been to Lincoln City before. We heard awesome things about it, but I suppose we just thought it was too much of a drive away - about 30 more minutes than the drive to Tillamook....which we have been to four times!! We finally decided to branch out and see some new sights though since we were entertaining family. We were VERY pleasantly surprised at how cool of a place Lincoln City was. Our good friends, the Listers, had all the sweet spots mapped out for us - so we followed their good taste and visited most of the places they suggested. It was a gorgeous day, we found some cool places, and Ross did really well on the whole day trip - so a win-win-win! I just love winning. Don't you? :)

We first went directly down to the tide pools...literally. You could park on the beach - it was great! However - the tide was coming in so we didn't get a lot of looking in - and it was pretty windy - typical though for Oregon. :)

I love how Ross looks in this picture with my cute parents. I think he wanted to get down and crawl around.

Such a pretty view - lots of people fly kites on the beach here.

We were trying to find a place to eat lunch and drove up and down the 101 about twelve times it seems finding out one was closed or the wait was too long. In the middle of finding lunch we stopped at the Glass Blowing shop to see what all the hullabaloo was about - and we were quite impressed - so much so that we came back later.

So we had decided to eat at a place called Tiki's and was driving down the road. When we found it, we realized it looked like a nice little hippie joint - which my dad just loves ;) - there were a couple of other places to eat right next to it. I tried to convince everyone to go to it's neighbor called Eleanor's Undertow that was all pink and had a very naked mermaid in front - okay - as a joke! But across from it was a fun place that had a dock right out to the ocean with a great view called...

There were seagulls everywhere so you half felt like you should run for cover so you wouldn't get pooped on, but it was fun nonetheless.

Fun parents - I miss them!! I was trying to get my dad to smile...

This is what he did...

Now we got a smile!

So the twelve times we went up and down 101 we kept passing a giant Santa that had "Christmas Store" written under it and another place with "Chocolate" written on the window - so obviously being with this lady - you've got to stop!

Okay - craving addiction met. ;)

The Christmas store that was filled to the brim with ornaments! Any kind you could think of!

So we were so impressed with the glass blowing my parents let us have a try. This was the dipped of the rod into the melted glass - 2200 degrees!

Rolling it onto the colored glass we wanted.

Back to the oven - we were back here a bunch of times. I figured I wouldn't post 7 more pictures of going back to the oven. ;)

Twisting the glass up to spiral the colors.

Now Steve got to pinch it with pliers to give it some texture.

Some more rolling

Cooling

Here's the blowing part. Steve barely even blew in it and the ball got huge really quick!

Pinching it off.

Then you just tap the rod for it to break off!

Putting on the glass stand.

And vuala! It just has to cool!

Super fun. Tim was quite the guide! Thanks mom and dad!

Of course we had to go here. "Get candy. Get candy. Get candy."

They had an entire bacon section!! Bacon soap, toothpicks, wallets, air fresheners, chapstick...

Soda

Bacon lollipops

Even mints! We decided NOT to get any of them and just go for the taffy the store was popular for. ;) They had the flavors birthday cake, strawberry cheesecake, and loads of others - super yummy.

Towards the end of the day we just looked in some tourist shops and Steve found his pirate look alike! ;)

We had so much fun in Lincoln City - it's a definite redo. Afterwards my dad was a saint and babysat Ross for us while Steve, my mom, and I went to the posh movie theatre Cinetopia I had gotten tickets for from a Groupon to see Hunger Games. We totally loved it! We weren't let down. Nothing like a good movie.
The next day we let Ross actually have a nap for once and then looked around McMenamins Grand Lodge and had lunch. My mom and dad got Ross some new shoes since he's grown out of his other ones he would only wear half the time anyway since he feels the innate need to twist or rub them off his feet whenever they are put on! His new shoes are super cute though and will definitely come in handy when he starts walking around outside. Right now he's actually practicing standing on his own - he's got up to 10 seconds so far. He'll raise his eyebrows and get wide eyes with his arms raised and then do a growl shout as he willingly collapses to the floor...he thinks it's a game when we try to practice with him. ;)
Afterwards we took my parents to the airport and said goodby for a 6 weeks when I will go to Utah for my brother Dallas and Janae's wedding. We were sad to see them go. It was a great time!!
After all the events we had a little detoxing time at home while we did massive laundry loads, shopping, and some cleaning. We heard from our friends, the Vosses, that they had seen the musical Wicked a few nights before and loved it. Tickets were fairly cheap too with lots of seats left....the memory of the time I could have seen Wicked right before my mission came flooding back to me along with all the regret of not having seen it! One of my best friends and roommates from college had offered me a free ticket to see it in Colorado. All I had to do was help pay for gas and whatever else I wanted to get in order to go. Like a complete fool - well not completely - I decided I shouldn't go and save the money for my mission - totally not a bad thought - but seriously - it was a killer deal. Anyway - 7 years later - I've finally seen it. Steve and I decided it was our Happy Easter present. I was completely blown away. I laughed my guts out, got chills from all the incredible voices, and loved every bit of the storyline. Wicked is a DEFINITE must see. Steve loved it too. He even came home and bought the Defying Gravity song off of itunes the next day. We've had it in our heads ever since. Although the performance we went to blew the recorded version out of the water.
Yesterday and today we've enjoyed Conference. We set up chairs to barricade Ross into the living room where he played with toys and was entranced with the fact that we had the TV on while he was awake for once. He loved listening to the Tabernacle Choir. We've felt really rejuvenated listening to our Prophet and Apostles speak with a renewed desire to follow our Savior. General Conference always seems to come at the right time. I had been praying for more direction as a mother and wife, and so many talks just filled my soul. I love how the Spirit does that.
Now we're rebooting for getting back to the norm with Steve at school. We've had a great break though and enjoyed all the time and people we could spend it with. Love it!