Manic Monday ~ the family vacation continues

 Our last day in the hotel the guys took advantage of their sleeping in time.

This works for me, because I get the whole bed to myself.

We had decided since we were in Tillamook, we needed to visit the cheese factory and get some ice cream.

We tossed around the idea of morning swimming, but since we had been up until almost 1:00AM and slept in, it didn't look like we would have enough time before check out.

We quickly got up at 9AM-ish to get down to breakfast which promptly stops serving at 10.

Puffy eyed and VERY tired we ate our hotel eggs, bagels, and yogurt. There is an upside to tired kids. If you get them in just the right spot they are just docile and quiet. Sometimes too tired can come off as cranky and whiny, but if its just right it is just simply quiet.
That was our morning at breakfast.

After eating we made our way to the room to pack up and head out to this day's adventure...

Here is the traditional picture in front of the Cheese factory!

I can't believe looking  back over these photos how big the boys have gotten.

 *Side note*

August had also decided this trip that WOODY was his best friend.

That WOODY needed to go everywhere he did and eat everything he did. So, of course Woody is front and center in our family photos.

 Bray is the best 10 year old photographer I know. He just inspires us to be our best selves...

 I love how the need to touch everything takes forever to "grow" out of us.

Here is Mitchel running his hand along these bushes as we walk in and I look to see August doing the same thing...ahh.

What does it say when the 14 and 4 year old are acting the same?

Upon entry to the cheese factory you are met with a sign informing you that this is a self guided tour.
If you are still confused you can just follow the masses of people moving up the stairs to the observation platforms...almost like a moving herd of cattle.
(Sorry...couldn't help myself)

 August was so subdued. I think it is from being up soooooo late, and then being woken up!

 (ya thinK?!?) For the most part he took his time and looked at a lot of the pictures and artifacts.

 August is a lot like me. As in, he has NO real interest to see how cheese is made and packaged. Maybe if we got to go down and help in the process, sure we would be interested. However, standing behind glass at some weird sort of human-zoo watching cheese being packaged? NOT our idea of fun. Daddy on the other hand is fascinated and narrates the various steps to the older two. August and I go around looking at pictures and relics of the "old days". We also take little breaks so Woody can rest.

 Here is the second best thing about the Cheese FActorY...

All the samples. I try cheeses we would never really buy. That part is a lot of fun.

Especially for the boys. Who think that squeaky cheese is really going to squeak in their mouths.

Brent loves this too! He always takes a TON of cheese.

 See what I mean?

The guy loves his cheese.

And as if the cheese samples weren't enough, we have to further indulge in dairy splendor with the best ice cream!

Brent and I both tried some hazelnut salted caramel ice cream that was AMAZING.

The boys were pretty excited to pick out something new.

 Here are those Monkeys. Each trying to eat their ice cream before it melts...

And this picture below was taken right before he pushed the whole scoop onto the floor.

Lucky for him Daddy is amazing and shared the rest of his with August. (I think it was all that cheese he ate earlier)

 Can you believe that kid is eligible for his permit next year???

Crazy talk.

 Next to the hotel was a miniature golf course, but not just any miniature golf course, one on REAL green (grass - ya know in golf terms) Anyways. Brent really wanted to try it out, but there was only ONE of our children that would have the patience and desire to do 18 holes on real grass with no fancy windmills or things egging you on.

I could tell how bad Brent wanted to take Mitch to do this (since it was one of the things he brought up when we booked the hotel) I was happy to take Bray and August to do something else while those two had their special time on the course...

I just feel bad at how many times Brent had to ask, "are you sure?"

It made me feel like I must be an extremely moody and temperamental individual for him to think he needed to confirm soo many times that I was IN FACT "Cool" with it.

 To kill some of that time, I decided to take the boys to a place right up the road that claimed to be a mini cheese factory-like experience. Cheese and wine tasting and you can look at animals. Well, it turned out to be a little too small for these boys. It was full of, how should I describe them...fancy people. Politely eating the samples and sipping the wine. I come in with Thing 1 and Thing 2. There was glass everywhere, and August was only running on 8-9hrs of sleep. So, needless to say we did one very quick lap and high tailed it right out of there.

Outside was much more our speed. There were other animals to stare and bond with.

Like this "chicken" here. August had fun looking at all of them. He talks to animals like they are his best friend and should understand everything that he says. It is cute when they do not listen and come eat the pieces of straw from his hand. He sounds so disappointed.

It's Donkey.
Like in Shrek.
August must have told me that about 30x
I can't tell which animal he enjoyed seeing the most...

 After petting and conversing with everything in the barnyard we still had to kill 45mins.
Thank goodness for McDonalds indoor play areas.

I bought us a round of chocolate milk and I sat while they played.

Finally Daddy called us and said they only had one more hole left.

 We arrived just in time to watch them finish off the last hole.

It is so neat watching Mitch develop a competitive side.

He has always been so lackadaisical about everything, but now he is beginning to care.

 We decided from the golf course to NOT go back to the beach. We decided to head to the casino for lunch. The boys love the casino, because they get an all you can eat buffet with a-ton of sea food.

We arrived at the casino about 30 minutes between their lunch and dinner times. We had to stand in line. When we got there we were 3rd in line. By the time the buffet was going to open it was over 20 people deep. Brent had went to the bathroom and left me in line with the boys and NO tickets.
So, we ended up having to wait til the end of the line because it moved too quickly and he moved too slow...haha! All the boys had fallen asleep on the way to the casino. They had now entered the cranky stage of tiredness. I have to say I was right there with them.
Good thing as soon as we got crab legs we were all smiles.

From the casino we headed home.
A nice 3hr drive...
Brent stopped in Salem and got us all surprise ice cream while I tried to use a wireless network to update some music playlists for the drive home. Sometimes technology is awesome sauce.

We got stopped in "night paving" construction right outside of Prineville.
Brent and I love dropping into the city and seeing all of the lights.
We were sooo ready to feel our own mattress.

My poor crab charm go lost this trip. I guess it is appropriate that I lost it at the coast, versus anywhere else.

We tried hard to keep our convictions to actually do things and experience things around us versus sitting at home. We knew Tuesday would be challenging because we were tired and it is so easy to say, "let's just snuggle and watch movies".

We had to psych ourselves up for what Tuesday would bring!