A Manzanita Weekend

Scott, Molly and I took off from Seattle on Thursday night after dinner for a long weekend at the Oregon Coast. We decided to divide the long drive by leaving at Molly's bedtime in the hopes that she'd sleep most of the drive down and wouldn't get antsy stuck in her car seat for 5 hours. 

It worked out pretty well, except for the part where we were delayed in leaving for half an hour because I lost my keys in my purse. Scott is so patient with me. He carefully looked through the car, checked the house, calmly asked me if the keys could be in my purse. I screamed, "THEY ARE LOST! GONE!" and ran frantically about while throwing things in the air. I checked my purse for the third time and magically found them. So we quickly dashed to the car and left. Molly slept almost all the way to Astoria where we stopped for the night. The only drawback to our plan was that once we were up in the hotel room, she decided to rampage for an hour. We finally got her back to sleep around 12:30 a.m. 

In the morning, we ate breakfast at this tiny place called, The Columbian Cafe. I had a delicious chicken sausage hash while Scott enjoyed a veggie omelet and Molly dined on a cheese omelet. We sat right in front of the stove and watched the cook make our meals. It was so good! We then headed down the coast to Manzanita while Molly took her nap. 

Molly was still asleep by the time we got to Manzanita so we decided to keep driving down to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. My Great Grandmother's brother used to work there. I remember visiting when I was about 9 and watching him work on the factory floor. I wanted Molly to see some of the magic. Unfortunately I started feeling faint and clammy. I took my blood sugar and found out it was 62! At 65, I'm supposed to take a glucose tablet and lie down. I calmly took a tablet and told Scott that I needed Ice Cream, STAT! We headed in, roamed around a bit and then got some delicious ice cream. It was seriously good and made me feel a lot better. Once I had some sugar in my system, I was able to show Molly around and tell her a few stories about how cheese is in our blood! 

We then headed back to Mazanita to check into our house rental and meet up with my parents who also came down for the weekend. After getting ourselves situated, we headed out for dinner. The restaurant across the street had a 45 minute wait! We ended up ordering take-out. While we were waiting for it, we headed down to the beach so Molly could roll around in the sand. 

After dinner, we struggled to get Molly to go to sleep. In fact, nighttime sleep was a struggle all weekend! She didn't usually collapse until closer to 11 p.m. every night which was frankly exhausting for all of us. On Saturday night, I actually put her to bed in her Pack 'n' Play with the kindle fire and an Elmo video and said, Fine! Watch this all night! Mommy and Daddy are going to sleep. When I woke up at 4 a.m. to go to the bathroom, I found her curled up in her bed, clutching the kindle fire. Solid parenting! But at least she finally went to sleep. 

When Saturday morning rolled around and we all slowly woke up, we headed down to the beach again for Muttzanita! Molly loooooves dogs and the beach so Muttzanita was the perfect festivity for her. There were hundreds of dogs and so much sand. Molly was able to pet quite a few dogs and ran around on the beach with them. It was wonderful to watch. 

After a fun morning, we headed back to the house for nap-time. Scott went out to find lunch for us and I sat down to read books with Molly. At some point, she disappeared from the room. I asked my Dad if he had seen her and he said, Nope! I went on the hunt. I found her in the bedroom, in the Pack 'n' Play. She said, Nigh! Nigh! Mama and laid down. I took that hint and closed the bedroom door. My Dad and I sat in the living room, shaking our heads in amazement. If only Molly had done that with her night time sleep! 

After nap, Scott, Molly and I headed up to Cannon Beach for dinner. Molly conned us into getting her an Elmo lunchbox. We might have a bit of an Elmo obsession going on. 

The next morning, Scott's family came to visit. They all live along various points on the Oregon Coast. It was great catching up with all of them. Molly especially loved playing with her cousin Anna. She wore Anna out at one point! 

After everyone left, I spent some serious time knitting on the couch while Molly napped. Scott headed out for a walk on the beach and took some amazing photos. Later that evening, we headed back to Cannon Beach for dinner at The Lumberyard Rotisserie and Grill. Molly's dinner came with a side of the most amazing applesauce I've ever had. I'm emailing the chef to see if he'll share his recipe because it is SOOOOOOOOO good!

Monday was our last day at the beach and after a huge breakfast, we gathered our stuff and slowly headed home. None of us wanted to let go of our beach feeling. We had a nice drive home where Molly slept most of the way. 

We're already looking forward to returning next year with a fourth family member. I hope Chicken Nugget holds still for some family portraits, unlike her older sister.