The Hotchner Family Trio

Oregon Trip-Day 3-Sunday

Sunday at Church

Day three of our trip, was Sunday and as planned, we all went to church to have my sister, Michelle's and Uncle Barry's brand new baby twins blessed. It was awesome to be back in our old church for the day and to see old friends. This is where it all began for Brian and I with joining the Church of Latter Day Saints and is also where we had our daughter, Zoey, blessed just two years ago.

This is Brenna Chanel Lee.

This is Chantrel Megan Lee.

Here are The beautiful new additions to our family!

Here is Brian and my Brother-in-law, Vince kissing the babies heads. They each gave a baby thier blessing that day. What a huge honor it was. Vince actually gave Zoey her baby blessing in 2006 and has had alot of practice. It was Brian's first baby blessing ever and although, he was scared, he gave a beautiful and heartfelt blessing. Good job Brian and Vince and thank you Michelle and Barry for letting us all be a part of your special day.

--It was testimony Sunday that day and both Brian took the opportunity to get up and bare our testimonies. It was such a special experience to be able to testify of my love for the gospel and of how much it has helped shape and change our lives and to be able to say so with my family present. I told my family and parents how much I loved them and how grateful I was for them and I know that thier hearts were touched. It was a beautiful Sabbath day, Seaside reunion.--

To Seaside with the family

After church, since it was our last day with everyone, we decided to go back to the Seaside promenade with my parents and sisters, Lisa and Tiffany, along with thier six kids and my brother, Brett's two kids one more time. Here is how Zoey spent the first half of our afternoon.

This is our angel baby. She is a true life angel with wings and halo, I swear. I have seen her change sadness to smiles and even change a life or two...her Mommy and Daddy's.

This is just one bunch of the beautiful flowers found all around Seaside. Whether it be a potted plant or growing naturally, Oregon is full of color and fresh beauty.

This is my Niece Rhiannon, Tiffany's daughter.

Here are Ryan and Jazmine, my brother, Brett's kids.

Here is our little 'tour guide' group. My Mom and Dad, Sister Lisa and her son, Steven.

Here is Brian pushing the stroller so that I could play photographer.

My husband and the Love of my life, Bri.

"Guess who woke up and just look what Grandma Bowman got you!"

This is downtown Seaside and a traditional sight in the summertime. Brian and I rented one of these once when we lived in Seaside, strapped Zoey to the back in her carseat and peddled three miles to Tillamook head and back. That was a workout!

Here is a family size fun wheel bike. So cute!

"Beep, Beep!" Another fun little thing to do to get around Seaside.

This is a great shot of the Seaside Promenade. It totally reminds me of an old school town, stuck in the 1950's or something. It is so much fun with little tourist shops and old fashioned candy stores. They even make thier own fudge and saltwater taffy from scratch.

This is the infamous Elephant Ear snack bar. They serve these ginormous flat pancakes, (deep fried, of course), drizzled with cinnamon sugar, jam or Brian's favorite, chocolate syrup.

Nana and Zoey waiting patiently.

Dad reaching out to say "It's Okay, Lisa, everything is going to be alright".

Tiffany swirling little Racer around by the finger.

Our happy little family. Yummy!

Cannon Beach

After Seaside, Brian and I decided to go for a drive to see Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock. We didn't get out of the car because we really didn't have enough time...a common theme we heard ourselves repeating throughout our mini four day vacation. But, who's complaining?

It was just as beautiful as I remembered.

Check out this house. How would you like to live there?

Couldn't help snapping a quick shot of the ultra cool rental car Brian scored for us as a free upgrade when they told us all they had left were SUVs. It was a 2009 Toyota Camry. Nice!

Here is a quick shot of Cannon Beach town. Very cute, ritzy and full of fancy art gallerys. When we lived in Seaside, I had plans to try my hand at painting again and then, we were going to try and sell my work from one of the gallerys here.

Lewis and Clark Trail

After Cannon Beach, we decided to drive the Lewis and Clark trail around the back side of Warrenton and into Astoria. Here are the wetlands we saw along the way.

I love this photo...It looks like a painting.

These are my favorite Oregon flower, purple Foxglove.

We even saw some cows and had to pull over to open the door so that Zoey couls look out and see too. She loved this little baby cow.

The Astoria Column

In Astoria we made a quick trip to the top of the mountain to see "the big stick" as we told Zoey, better known as the famous Astoria colomn. There was a guy flying his cool little motorized airplane up on the ridge and we all sat transfixed, watching it fly and dive in the air. Cool hobby.

Here is what Astoria looks like from the highest vantage point. That is the bridge leading into Washington across the Colombia River.

Oregon Trip-Day 4-Monday

Our Last Day

On day four, our last day to play, Brian, Zoey and I headed out down along Highway 101, driving along the beautiful scenic Oregon Coast towards Tillamook. This is the famous overlook right before you enter the town of Manzanita. Gorgeous!

Tillamook Blue Heron

We drove into Tillamook to visit the Blue Heron where you can taste all thier delicious jams, dips, mustards and BBQ sauces with little pretzel sticks.

The place is converted from and old barn and is beautiful inside with cheese and wine tasting, as well as, a little deli to eat lunch and a gift shop.

Zoey loved the free taste testing. Our favorite was the sweet, fresh raspberry jam and Brian's was the spicy BBQ sauce and mustards.

I love how everything in Oregon has some history to it and becomes part of the landscaping without looking out of place.

Isn't nature beautiful? There are flowers growing up and out of this old truck...reclaiming it to natures side.

There was also a small petting zoo at the Blue Heron. Here is one of its inhabitants.

Tillamook is so beautiful. It is cow country and has lots of lush green grassy feilds. The sun was shining and everything was just glowing that morning.

Here is the veteran goat of the petting zoo.

"Are you talking to me?"

Here is Zoey's favorite goat. It was a "baaaad" boy and tried to lick her through the gate.

A video of Zoey petting the goat.

Here is a video of Zoey after she runs around the fence in the video above. This is what she finds on the other side...Boy is she in for trouble! If you listen closely, you can hear the groundskeeper finding us and giving us a warning to stay away from the geese because they bite when provoked. Woops, we got caught! He he.

On to the Tillamook Cheese Factory

Next, we went down the street to our other favorite Tillamook tourist spot, The Tillamook Cheese Factory.

We go here every time we visit Oregon for thier great food, gift shop, free "squeaky" cheese and incredible ice cream.

Here is Zoey with her little 'flower child' tiara and 'majic' wand that Mommy had to buy at the gift shop. Zoey loved the cow statues and decided she would climb over the little fence and try and climb up onto the back of the baby cow before I could stop her. Go cowgirl, go!

This is the cool 'glass window' factory where you can stand on the second floor and watch how the cheese is processed, cut into blocks and then, wrapped for shipping. Totally cool.

Here is a cute vidoe of us watching the people cutting cheese at the Cheese Factory.

Tillamook ice cream is the best in the world! My favorite is the black cherry and marionberry pie, I got Zoey the banana split and Brian had the Tillamook mudslide and vanilla.

Time to head to Portland Airport. Here are the Portland bridges and city skyline.

Here we are stuck in Portland traffic. Fun. We were starting to get worried that we wouldn't make our flight in time with returning the rental car and all.

This is Brian with his 'handy-dandy' cellphone that has GPS navagational features that got us through the maze of freeways and to the airport safely.

This is what Zoey did after all the french fries, grilled cheese sandwich and ice cream cone we fed her for lunch at the Cheese Factory.

Here I am still being silly and playing photographer. "Hi!"

Yeah, we made it to the airport in time! Too bad our flight was delayed 2 hours...woops! Ha Ha!

Good thing they had a fun little 'children's play area' with lego table, toys and big screen TV. Here is Zoey kicking it in her car seat watching cartoons.

and what are Mommy and Daddy doing?

Watching cartoons too on Daddy's 'handy-dandy' cell phone!

He gets a free phone upgrade every two years from Verizon with his service plan. This is one of the newest phones out-so cool. I love it because I get his old phone that looks just like this one minus the TV and GPS capabilities. I'm happy.

Here is Zoey who was going stir crazy and decided to climb into the stroller pouch. The Portland Airport was beautiful. It had open skylights all along the ceiling of the terminal, cool little giftshops and food avenues and even had a woman sitting and playing classical music on the piano. It was a really nice, relaxing two hour wait. The airplane ride home was fun for Zoey. Brian made sure she had a window seat this time and I showed her all the houses and cars and rivers in Oregon as we left and then, the Vegas city lights when we arrived back home.

It was such a great trip! We loved seeing everyone and we miss you all already! Thank you Dad and Mom for inviting us all up and letting us invade your beautiful home, for cooking us great BBQ meals, playing tour guide and finding the time to spend with each and every one of us!

Love, The Hotchners