Oregon, Day 4

Day four of our Oregon trip was a packed day! We woke up and went to this little breakfast place next door to the inn which was average. I'm pretty sure it was all home made and nothing was really frozen which is a plus.

After that we made our way to our Dunes tour! We used Sandland Adventures. There is a couple of other private ones but my Mom saw that there were better ratings for this one. There are 2 options. A more intense one which is an hour and you go on the beach and a less intense one that is a half hour. Naturally we chose the more intense one and honestly unless you are reallly scared of these type of things which I totally understand, not making fun of you... do the more intense one. It wasn't that bad, we went faster and also got to drive on the beach. It was pretty fun but prepare to have sand like everywhere. I had sand in my pants haha.

After this we left for Newport. When we got there we went to the Aquarium which was pretty average. I've been to the Vancouver Aquarium many times so this one was kind of the same. The one highlight in this one for me was the bird sanctuary that we could actually walk in and the tanks that we could walk under. That was pretty cool as well.

I had to take a picture of Princess Peach..... haha

After the aquarium we checked into our hotel. We stayed at Value Inn and Suites at Yaquina Bay. This hotel was pretty standard but the one thing that I was not impressed with was the internet did not work at all! I was away from my hubby to be and I wanted to talk to him at night and when I talked to reception, the girl didn't even know what she was doing in trying to make it work. I wanted to go back there and fix it myself but alas that would be innapropriate. We went to dinner at this more expensive restaurant which was good. I tried to look on the map for the restaurant but I don't even know what the name was sorry. Newport also had a really cute old part of town which I love. After we went back to the hotel and chilled out and that was the end of our day.

Day 5 and 6 don't have any pictures to it so I'm going to do both those entries together next time. I didn't do my weekly Pinterest finds because I am so behind in posts and things keep happening that I want to share but once I am all caught up I will get that going again :)

Oregon, Day 3

Ok so day 3 of our trip. It is taking me forever to do this because I started school so I've been kind of pre-occupied but .. I did warn you! We woke up and packed to leave Seaside. As my Mom was checking out I snapped a picture of the view from the lobby of the Seashore Inn.

We then started our journey to drive down the coast to Florence. We did not stop in Lincoln City on the way down because as my Mom's travel book predicted ... there was a lot of traffic. I felt like I was driving into Vancouver during rush hour... or maybe my Mom felt it more because I kind of just slept... So on the way we stopped at places to take pictures and such ....

My Mom wanted to stop at this winery called Blue Heron. Well it wasn't just a windery. They had lots of stuff there! Including cheeeeese. I love cheese but I didn't get any. I got some raspberry jam though. Yumm..... Also to note my Mom did buy some wine but she didn't enjoy it as much as her "B.C. wine" as she puts it. So heads up - apparently wine from the Okanagon is better. I'm not a wine drinker myself though so I couldn't say. 

We went across this bridge and it was quite eerie because of all the fog! Not to mention I hate bridges.... This fog was at 4 pm by the way. That is something we noticed about the coast. It got foggy very early in the day

One place that we for sure wanteded to stop at was the Sea Lion Caves

Notice the fog .. yikes haha. We had to take this elevator down to the cave. There was a sign saying that we are doing this at our own risk and basically if there is an earthquake and you get crushed in the cave it isn't their problem. I was not impressed .... I hated that elevator.

All in all, the Sea Lion cave was a 5 minute attraction that cost money. We got to see, we got to smell and we left. I wouldn't say don't go because it is a very cool attraction as that cave is completely natural and very cool but don't expect to have a guided tour or anything.

When we got to Florence, we checked in that the Lighthouse Inn which was so cute!! I didn't take pictures and I don't even know why! I would show you the website but it seriously doesn't do it justice. It has so much character. No breakfast though but the internet was a normal speed ...

After we were all checked in, we went into the old part of Florence which was really cute. I'm a sucker for old architecture and all that. The restaurant we ate at was this Italian place called Restobar. It was very good and another cute little place.

Oregon Day 2

On the second day we woke up, had the breakfast our hotel provided us and stopped off at the outlet malls in Seaside. Now I have to say, my Mom got a good haul but I picked up only 3 things. It was clear the demographic of this outlet was for older people. Not really any stores I shop at. I picked up a nice sweater from Nike and some bandeaus that actually fit me. Shocker. I have this issue because I need to wear a small but a small doesn't fit. This will probably make sense to most women.

We then drove down to Cannon Beach to see the Haystack Rocks.When you get really close to them, you REALLY see how big they were. The sand was also really nice and white and the beach had freee parking. I didn't go in the water though as it is the Pacific ocean which is really rough and it was kind of chilly outside so I didn't want to test how cold the water was.

After we left Cannon Beach, we went back to the hotel to clean up and then ventured out for dinner. We decided to go to this place called Pig'n'Pancake. I love pancakes so I was quite intrigued. I thought they must have tons of different flavoured pancakes. We went there, got seated and no one came to talk to us ever. We were waiting for about 15 minutes. I also had a clear view of the kitchen where the waitresses were in the back. At the very least a hostess could have asked us if we wanted anything to drink. So we got up and left. I hate doing this because I don't want to seem like that person but there comes a point where it is a bit ridiculous. So we tried Norma's again but it was extremely busy and by this time my Mom was hungry so we went somewhere else. The place we went to, I don't remember the name but it was one of the seafood places. So from our experience in Seaside....

Pig'n'Pancake - horrible service, don't bother (at the Seaside location)
Norma's - must be good because every night there was a ginormous wait line.
Seafood restaurants - good food, good service
Seashore Inn - good hotel, good service but not the Hilton by any means.

Oregon Trip, Day 1

Before I begin you may have noticed a new look! Hope you like it because I sure do. I started with making my own banner and let me say, I am not creative in the way of coming up with something on a blank canvis. Anyway, after some intense frustration with photoshop and a little bit of help from the hubby-to-be, I finally came to a result that I liked :)

Ok so now onto the business. I've always heard the Oregon Coast is very beautiful and my Mom always wanted to go so we figured, before I move back east, we should make a trip to see it because I probably won't do this after I move. Brandyn was originally going to come but since we went camping, as a typical guy, he figured out after he decided to come that he probably can't afford to take 2 weeks off practically back to back plus he wanted to make sure he could take the week off at Christmas because we are going to my Dad's.

So it was a mother daughter trip. Everyday, I'm going to write a little entry updating on each day of our trip and also reviews for anybody else who may want to go on an adventure :)

Our first day was mostly driving. My Mom wanted to take the bridge that goes into Astoria but somehow we missed the turnoff to that highway and ended up going another way. So anyway we arrived at Astoria, saw the bridge anyway and just took a picture. It was mostly a drive by to see it.
It's a cute town but there wasn't much to do so we weren't staying there.

We then continued our drive to Seaside where we would be staying for 2 nights at the Seashore Inn on the Beach. The hotel wasn't the 4 seasons by any means but it was perfectly acceptable. Our room was clean, it didn't smell, tv worked, towels, bed. I'm not picky. It was right on the beach but it also had a pool and hot tub which I didn't go in. I like to stay out of over-chlorified waters to protect my skin haha. The only thing was that the wi-fi was pretty slow. It was hard for me to watch netflix or really do anything like talk to my man! I survived though.

After we got there we went for a walk down the main strip looking at the little shops. There was a really cool shop that had lots of old collectable stuff like I Love Lucy and Coca-Cola. Neat stuff there. We got reccomended to go to Norma's for dinner but you definitely have to get there early. The food must be good because both nights there was a line. We went to this other restaurant - I have no clue the name but it was very good service and food. Beware of "market priced" items because it can be expensive haha!

So that was day one of our trip. Day 2 continues with us going down to Cannon Beach and seeing the famous haystack rocks!

Weddding Dresss

Alright so exciting news. My dress came in beginning of August. I am not going to show pictures though because as much as I want to, I want to keep it a surprise more! I was contemplating showing you the picture of me wearing the dress and veil and cropping it out but I don't want to give Brandyn any hint of what I might look like and he looks at my blog as well (I saw he bookmarked it on his computer... my biggest fan! ... or maybe he wants to see what I write about him... ;) )

Anyway, when I tried my dress on it fit me PERFECT. No alteratins needed. See I have a major hour glass thing going on. When we did the measurements she said my waist was a size 0 but my bust area was a size 6. So she ordered a 2 because the designer creates some seam allowance so we can pull in and let out if we need to. Well I actually don't have to do anything. Somehow the size two fits perfect around my bust, just a tad tight but she said it will give a bit. It was fine by me as long as it stays on!
All I need to do is cut and bustle (Brandyn doesn't know what bustling is so I revealed nothing to him just now HAHA). I just have to maintain this figure for the next oh ... year and 8 months or so but it'll be fine. Having to alter it a bit won't be a huge deal but ...

No alterations = more money saved!

I'm game.

I also bought my veil but I forgot my $25 gift card that I got when I bought my dress so I bought it on layaway and paid half and still have yet to go back to pick it up but that's ok. My dress is hanging up at my Mom's house though and that is very exciting :) I want the wedding to be NOW haha


So anyway because there is no visual stimulation to this post I'll give you something ....

Weekly Pinterest Finds

I feel like my blog has become about pinterest and I have so much to share. I will have to do another entry after this to stay caught up. I start school this week again so who knows if I will be able to keep up... even with these weekly posts that I've committed myself to but I will try my best.

... not to mention it doesn't help I'm too busy reading other people's blogs to update my own. Oops..

I loveee Disney. I have disney stuffed animals and my favourite vacation destination is DisneyWorld/Land. This pin, I just found today and for me, it is the mother of all things on pinterest.

Links to watch every single Disney movie made up to 2008 (which is fine by me because they start sucking after that time.) Here it is.

Well there is no explanation for this. Who doesn't want to learn this and make their presents pretty?

Found here

How to make a cupcake bouquet

I have never seen these before but when I saw it on pinterest I thought, how cute and easy = D

Tag Shaped Stamps

I really want to do this on the envelopes for the wedding. 

I pin way more than this but I'm not going to cloud this blog with pinterest haha there is a button on the side bar that will take you to my pinterest and you can follow me to get more of what I find if you like! I also have some wedding updates that I've been excited to share so I will do that soon.

Pinterest FAIL

Say it isn't so :( .... but to make myself feel better I must say that it wasn't a craft... or a DIY...

It was filed under "Excellent Tips and Tricks"

and it didn't work..


I found this little tippity trick on pinterest saying that if you soak your painted finger nails in cold water it will dry it.... it will also remove all the messyness you have created on your fingers.

 Source

Now, I won't lie to you. I'm not the best nail polish painter in the world. I make a serious mess. But I thought well I'm going to try this ... and then I really didn't care because I thought well it will remove it for me! Gold.

 "Ooooerrr I think it's working"

 "Ohh noo that looks foobard"

So there you have it. That did not work. Although I'm thinking to try it one more time with just colder water because while it was cold, it wasn't freeeezing cold. And yes that is the nail polish color. Gosh Black Passion. I got it at Shoppers Drug Mart. Not sure if Gosh sells anywhere else but thought it looked neat because it had this metallic look to it and my other black nail polish sucked.

On another note, I've been thinking and having my 365 day picture in one big post like that... well that's a lot of pictures. So in time I am going to work on adding drop down menus (I don't even remember how I put those tabs up there in the first place unfortunately. I played around and voila it happened.) I figure I can do one for each month and then everything will be more organized for the people who want to view the pictures.

Ta ta!