Newport Wine & Seafood Festival & Night Sledding

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Hope you had a fabulous weekend!  Our's was fantastic!   It started with Thursday when I was able to stay home from work and go work in two of my kiddo's classroom's.  One of my benefits at work is that they grant us 40 hours a year of paid volunteer work.  They encourage all employees to get out into our communities and volunteer.  I love it.  So, I choose to use my volunteer hours by working at some of my kid's schools, since I have four kids in 3 different school in the district.  It works out nicely, that I can be involved in their classrooms.

Friday, the hubs and I took off for a great weekend at the coast.  Our lovely cousins volunteered to not only take care of our four kids but also to puppy-sit our two dogs, for the whole weekend.  Bless them!   They took they kids up to Mt. Hood and did a little night sledding.  The kids jabbered our ears off about the sledding from the minute we picked them, to even last night at dinner.  We are extremely blessed to have The Mister's family so close to us, not only in location, but also in our relationships.
 

We have never been to the Newport Seafood - Wine Festival before; we were invited by some friends of ours (you'll see them pop up on the blog a lot during the summer, I'm sure of it.)  We drove down to the coast, and it was miserable.  The rain was just dumping buckets outside.  We didn't care.  We were together for a little getaway, and besides, we are Oregonians a little rain has never hurt anyone. 

 Our friend's had about 16 people in their group. 

 We caravaned down to the festival and walked around the tents.  There were different winery's and vendors, and crafts, and a little bit of everything. 

 

The following night we had a H U G E, and I mean HUGE feast at the house.  There was so much deliciousness there, I can't even begin to explain it all.  There was this amazing marinated flank steak, steamer clams cooked in a buttery garlic sauce, oysters, steamed asparagus, homemade will real crab crab cakes, a cod fish with this creamy sauce, fresh crabs, a lobster bisque, ceviche dip with tortilla chips, smoked salmon, and I just know that I'm forgetting something, but I wish I was eating that right now. 

To say we stuffed ourselves was an understatement, I may have eaten more than Thanksgiving dinner.

 

We stuck around the beach town of Lincoln City on Sunday.  We never get to just hang out with the two of us, so it was nice to just walk to town and check out the little stores, and walk down to the beach.   The day was simply gorgeous.  Always seems to be that way when you are heading home...doesn't it?  It was so nice to just be a couple, not a referee to fighting kids (obviously not mine, mine are perfect...riiigghhtt!), to just stick around, relax, hang out, hold hands, and talk and be on a date.

 

It was also nice to come home.  Be a family unit again.   We just snuggled up on the two couches and watched America's Funniest Home Video's...giggled and ate pizza on Sunday.  Kids were tuckered out and so were we.   That's the best way to end a weekend.