Day 36: Seaside

 Vacation day! 

With each of our 4 kids, Jen and I have booked a hotel stay at the coast within the kid's first few weeks of life. It's a good low-stakes way of getting out of our house and learning to live with baby and take baby new places. It was a bit more difficult to plan this time around as our family is so big, but we managed to book a hotel room with 3 queen beds, so that seems to work OK for the six of us.

It took a lot of work to get us out the door this morning. The kids did a lot of playing video games and not really helping, but they ARE on vacation...

So's Ida. Kickin' back...

chillin' with the Kart

 

or just chillin' in general

Finally, on the road.

The trip itself was uneventful (probably because I slept and Jen drove most of it) We made it to Seaside, Oregon. Our hotel room wasn't ready, so we had pronto pups and cruised the shops on Broadway. 

We checked in and found that either the hotel had messed up our reservation or I had. (I wouldn't put it past me, it's the sort of thing I do, but the front desk also said they have problems with their online reservation system and get this a lot)-- Either way, our 3 night stay is now a 2 night stay, and the hotel is completely booked Thursday night. We decided just to roll with it. Instead of having to pack up and leave early Friday morning, we'll play Thursday evening until we're all done, then head home.

Getting into our room was not without family drama, but nothing seems to be anymore. It's rare that all 3 older kids are helpful and not fighting. 

Those same older kids were united in being really excited about the indoor pool, so once we were settled, I took them. I tried to keep my (flamin' hot) hair out of the water so the color won't fade. We'll see if that conviction lasts all this trip.

We tried a new thing with this trip. Instead of doing the usual pre-trip grocery shopping and packing food, we placed a pickup order at Safeway (including hot fried chicken for dinner). So Jen and Ida went to pick up our food. By the time they were back, we were out of the pool. Dinner was looking out our gorgeous picture window at the beach. After dinner, the kids watched hotel TV. Jen and I went for a lovely evening walk on the Prom. 

 

On the Prom. 

Sunset pictures never capture the majesty. Nice view, though.

Settled in and played some Apples to Apples and Splendor with Edgar and Sabrina. Discovered that a camp chair makes a great improvised bassinet.

Remind me to remark on how Ida is finally gaining weight and is starting to chub up just a bit... but maybe I'll talk about that when we're not on vacation...