VACATION: JULY 2013!!! (Part 1)

 Every year my husband George goes off to Seattle for an SEO conference for work, and I figured 

that since my grandpa hasn't been doing so well, that we could all try to make a vacation out of it to see him together as a WHOLE family. Surprisingly enough, we pulled it off.

George left for Seattle on Sunday, July 7th. So, we decided that since he'd already be in Seattle that we would just tack the trip onto the end of his work conference. We had family members who lived in Seattle and would be joining us on our trip to pick him up once he was finished and they drove down to where they met us at Rockaway Beach, Oregon! 

We have amazing memories from our childhood of going on vacation and crabbing on the coast. We've all wanted to go back, but it has been so long since we've all gone together. It was practically a miracle!

Driving up, my car consisted of me, Jaelyn and my little sis Gentry. I actually feel really bad for her, as I have extreme anxiety issues on road trips. Lol. But she was awesome and definitely a trooper.

To my surprise, Jaelyn was extremely good in the car. I had no idea what to expect as I have never 

gone too far with her.
A week prior to this trip, I found myself crying in Jae's pediatrician's office scared to make the drive. 

I had concerns about elevation (going through the Blues Mountains) and was scared that she would

 need oxygen or some kind of medical attention.

Yes, I am an overly cautious, concerned mother and freak.

Her pediatrician assured me that "she should be just fine, I just don't want you going to Madagascar or Sri Lanka right now" but that maybe if I had any tanks of oxygen lying around, I should take it.

Yeah, don't have anymore of those... In reply, she gave me a list of great children's hospitals along the drive in case anything happened. Not sure if she was helping me feel better about being paranoid or if she really felt like it was necessary. Either way, she told me to go visit my grandpa and live my life. I felt like I needed that. As stupid as that may sound, I feel like I almost needed permission to be normal again. She did however justify me in being a paranoid freak about Jaelyn. In her words, "as hard and long as you've had to fight for her life, you are entitled to be a bit crazy to keep her." I like that.

As I suspected, driving through the mountains Jae's lips started turning blue. I was a nervous wreck. At that point though, I believe were at the highest and were going to start coming down. Slowly as we made our way down the mountain,  Gentry kept me updated on how Jaelyn looked. Luckily, and quickly, she only got pinker and pinker. I gushed tears of relief and probably drove my sister completely insane.
The scenery was beyond GOREGOUS on the drive up there and Jaelyn was apparently making
herself comfortable!

 We reserved a cute little (BIG actually) beach house where we all stayed in and had only a small walk to the beach. I mean, you could see the ocean from the beach house!

Ahhhhh!!!!  :)

On the way, we pulled over to change Jaelyn's diaper and found the coolest fish hatchery!!! Bonneville Fish Hatchery is what it's called. It was fun and beautiful. Just what everyone needed (in my opinion) to break up the drive. It was right up Jaelyn's alley. She loves any living animal. She ran around waving at all the fish and saying hi. lol. She was one happy girl!

We finally got to the beach house late enough for everyone to just crash. I got to see my awesome husband once again and first thing in the morning we were all at the beach!!

To our dismay, and after Jaelyn gave it a good try; she hated the sand. :(

After a fun day at the beach and exploring the town at night, we went crabbing the next morning!!

We saw seals and one even followed us. So cute! Jaelyn did awesome in the boat. She loved watching the seagulls fly by and also the seal. She would look at the crabs and say, "Aww!" as if they were her babydoll and then look for the seagulls again. Lol.