Our Long Beach Babymoon

I have to start this post by saying I use to think a babymoon was a super silly idea, but after taking one I will admit they're wonderful and every expecting couple so make time for. For Scott and I, the idea of a babymoon became appealing when we hadn't had a weekend away, just the two of us in almost a year. And that it wouldn't ever just be the "two of us" again so why not use the excuse to get away!

We wanted to go someplace we hadn't been before but was close enough for just one night away from home. After much deliberation we landed on Long Beach! If you haven't been, you should plan a weekend there now.

Scott and I also hadn't spent much time in Astoria, so we decided we'd take the long way to Long Beach and make a pit stop for some lunch and sight seeing. Note to any other folks like myself who aren't big fans of bridges... The Astoria bridge is SUPER long, like miles long. It made me a bit nervous both times we crossed over, but it really is beautiful.

Once in Astoria we used our handy Urban Spoon app and ended up at Bridgewater Bistro for lunch and a great view. A BLT for me and a burger with cajun fries for Scott filled our tummies and fueled us for a walk along the water.

We visited the Goonies house, the elementary school featured on Kindergarten Cop, and stopped at the marina to visit some vocal (and smelly) sea lions.

After all of our exploring it was time to head towards Long Beach!

We stayed at a super eco-friendly, modern yet rustic place called Adrift and would highly recommend it. They have bikes available for free use, fun games, movies, fresh hot cocoa and coffee and cold beer, all right in the lobby. Plus, they're super doggy friendly so we'll be going back with Lucy in the new future! Here's a few pics of our room:

The view wasn't too bad either!

Adrift is walking distance from town (even if you're pregnant) and even closer to the boardwalk, discovery trail and beach front. They also have a restaurant in the hotel (Pickled Fish) with live music, great food, fun beer and a phenomenal weekend brunch. I still dream about this oatmeal...

The little town of Long Beach seriously has something fun for everyone. Every place seemed to be dog friendly, there's a big arcade, go-karts, horses, mopeds, miniature golf, and great shops. We enjoyed a chocolate cookie from a little bakery, then overindulged a bit more with a scoop of ice cream from Scoopers (who can say no to 64 + flavors?). I could've easily sampled 10 different types but I tried to practice a bit of self control. As you can see, my hubby gets pretty happy whenever he gets ice cream!

After lots of walking around town we headed back to the room to relax. After a nice nap, we started getting ready when I quickly realized I had forgot the string for my dress that makes it look more like a maternity dress and less like a moo-moo. I was super bummed and started thinking of what I could possibly use to gather the dress, when I looked down and noticed Scott's shoelaces were black (the color I needed). Off they came and around my dress they went. It worked great and no one even noticed!

The highlight of our trip was definitely our dinner at The Depot Restaurant in Seaview (thanks again for the recommendation Megan!), a super small and quaint restaurant with the sweetest owners who treated us like family.

We made reservations for the Chefs table and got watch the Chef and Sous Chef work their magic.

I ordered the Southern Comfort Pork served with yam mashers and jalapeno cream corn and Scott opted for the Rib-eye. We both savored every bite of our meals and couldn't believe how good it was. The Depot is seriously a hidden gem, if you leave town without having dinner there you're missing out.

Blue cheese drizzled with balsamic reduction = delicious.

Seriously I'm drooling just looking at those pics... Aren't you?!

The rest of the weekend was lots of beach walking, laying around in the hotel doing a lot of nothing and talking a lot about the next few months to come and how excited we are for Baby Girl Slusser to join our family. This weekend was just what we needed before a busy Summer and before becoming a family of three!

This more accurately sums us up.. Total goofs

Slusser Adventures: Montana

Last month Scott and I went on a 12 hour road trip adventure to Bozeman Montana to celebrate our niece Mikayla's 16th birthday. We greatly enjoyed spending time with the family and while it may seem shocking, we loved the road trip. It was so much fun spending time with Scott, just he and I and miles upon miles of Interstate 90.

Our trip started on a Thursday afternoon. I got off work and we hit the road to our first pit stop, Coeur d'Alene. Not much excitement here other than a quick dinner, McDonalds ice cream cones and then to bed so we could get an early start on the road.

Friday morning we got up, grabbed coffee (a definite must) and hit the road. We were on a mission to get to Bozeman! The scenery going through Lake Coeur d'Alene was incredible. We hit it on a foggy, fall morning and it was like something out of a movie! There as hours and miles to go so we killed time but talking about childhood memories, dancing like goofballs to Taylor Swift songs and just enjoying the drive.

Then, this happened...

I've seen hundreds of those "scenic pull off" signs and have never really stopped but always wondered how scenic they really are. Well we decided to do just that and take a small break, stretch our legs and have a mini adventure. We skipped rocks in the river, hiked up a rocky mountainside and made a memories we won't forget.  Most importantly though, we learned that sometimes you have to stray from the plan and be spontaneous. I am such a planner with every day life that stopping and just enjoying a moment "unplanned" was much needed.

You guys may not know this, but my husband is a kick butt rock skipper!

This giant boulder was so cool, smooth like glass and bright red!

View from the top of our hike.

We even found a cave with ashes and remnants of a fire. Apparently we weren't the only spontaneous ones at the "scenic pull off"

Finally, after a few more hours and a quick drive-thru style lunch we made our way to Scott's sister's home. We have 12 total nieces and nephews, and 8 of them were there so you can imagine the ambush that happened when we arrived! They were excited to start the fun weekend ahead, as were we.

There was go-kart races, family dinners, party set up, kick-ball in the dark, horse riding, rodeo games and lots of memories made.

Our nephew Trace, the goofball.

Sunset over Big Sky

 The road trip home was made in one day and minimal stops, we couldn't wait to get home to our pup and our bed! One of the few stops we did make was in Ellensburg, where we picked up 60 pounds of fresh honeycrisp apples. Seriously still dreaming about how delicious those were. Wish Ellensburg wasn't two hours away!