Road Trip To Portland

This year we really wanted to take a trip for Spring break.  One last trip with just three kids, and I am not so far along in this pregnancy that I would be uncomfortable with travel!  So, we decided to head up to Portland and visit our friends up there.  We didn't tell the kids about it, so they were totally surprised.  The morning we left, Seth was up early (of course), so I told him first, as I was finishing packing up the van.  Then I woke up Carey and the girls and we were on our way!  The kids were all super excited, and the extra bonus was that I had gotten "Frozen" for them, and we had it all ready to go on the portable DVD player!

We drove for a while, stopped at a McDonalds with a play place, and then drove some more!  We decided to stop for a longer break in Redding, and went to the Sundial Bridge (which is a suspension foot bridge that is also a working sundial).  As we were pulling into the parking lot, we saw Aunt Kelly and Uncle Rick pulling out!  We live in the same town, and randomly were at the same place in Redding at the same time!  They were on their way to lunch, but came back and hung out with us for a while.  The kids had a blast running and climbing and being out of the car!

You can see the giant sundial across the bridge!

They all loved climbing up the suspension wires!

We saw lots of geese, which thrilled our animal lover!

So happy to be out of the car!

With Aunt Kelly and Uncle Rick:)

After stretching our legs and getting fresh air, we went and got some lunch and then hit the road again.  We stopped at a couple rest stops (you'd think that I, being pregnant would be the one who constantly had to pee, but Seth actually has the world's smallest bladder, so it was mostly him!) and finally made it to our hotel in Medford.  Another surprise we had for our kids was that the hotel had an indoor pool...with a twisty, tunnel water slide!  That's were we spent the rest of the day, and a lot of the next morning!

Seth was the first one to go down and LOVED it!

Haley went down SO fast that it was nearly impossible to get a picture of her coming out!

Abby would always slow herself down a little, so she didn't make a giant splash!

Carey went down the slide once and said that was enough for him!  I really wanted to, but wasn't sure if I should or not, since I'm prego, so I erred on the side of caution (for Kacie's sake)!

After some fun in the pool on Sunday morning, we got back in the car for our trek up to Portland.  We stopped for lunch at Abby's Legendary Pizza, and the kids managed to scrounge up 9 quarters from under the machines in the arcade, so they each got 3 quarters to use!

They crawled on the ground, reached in the cracks, and Abby even managed to MOVE one of the machines in order to find change so they could play!

 We made it to Portland by late that afternoon and found our friends, Eric and Stacey's, house with out any problems.  Eric, Stacey and their kids were actually in CA when we first got there, so we got settled in without them there.  After dinner we were all exhausted and pretty much went straight to bed!

Two days of travel is exhausting!

 The next day we played at the park in the morning and then I headed to the airport to pick up Eric, Stacey, Titus, Eliana and Josiah, while Carey stayed with the kids for some naps/quiet time.  Once we were all in the house, it was pretty much controlled chaos the whole time.  Between the two of us we have 6 kids (including two sets of twins)!  It was so fun to get to spend time with Eric and Stacey and their sweet kiddos.  We went to a bounce house place, played at their house, went to some parks and hung out around the house.

Since Eric and Stacey's kids are still little and aren't up for all the things our "big" kids can handle, we ventured out for a few adventures on our own through the week.  We rode "the Max" (Portland's public train system), which was REALLY exciting to my kids who never "get to" ride public transport, ate some yummy food, went to some fun museums and saw some fun friends.  We had a really great time in Portland!

Seeing the train coming to our stop!

Abby ordered "the monstrosity" which was two burger patty's and four strips of bacon with grilled cheese sandwiches made with Texas toast for the buns!  She ate almost an entire half of it!

While Carey met a friend at a music store downtown, the kids and I went to the World Forestry Museum, which was Seth's highlight of the trip.

We had breakfast at a restaurant called "Slappy Cakes" where you order your pancake batter (we got buttermilk and sweet potato) and whatever mix-ins you want (we got chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, apples, bananas, blueberries and bacon bits) and you cook them right on your table, which has a griddle in the middle!  So much fun:)

This is what happens after a breakfast at Slappy Cakes!

Haley and Josiah

Abby and Elliana

We met my friend Robin and her three girls at the Portland Children's Museum.  It was so fun to see them and explore the museum!

Abby and Seth loved the grocery store area, especially that the grocery scanner actually peeped when they scanned the groceries!  They were so cute in there!

The vetrinary area was a hit!  The kids loved it in there and were so funny.  I heard Abby tell a little boy, as she handed him a stuffed animal dog, "If he's not better in a week, bring him back in.  And here's some powdered sugar to help him get better!"  Seth handed me a stuffed bunny and told me "You need to pet it more gentle.  It was all broken to pieces inside.  But don't worry, I glued it back together with body glue".

Construction Area!

They loved seeing Amalea and Maya.

Introducing Titus to Frozen!

We had a great time visiting Tim and Ashley and their sweet girls.  We crossed over the bridge into Washington and had a delicious dinner with them in their home.  We loved meeting their daughters and getting to catch up with friends (Cambria was already in bed when we took this picture).

Seth and Elliana

Saying goodbye:(

We also got to see our friends Paul and Gina, and our friend Rob Namba.  Stacey and Eric were SO kind to let us come and invade their house and lives for a week and we had a blast.  We can't wait to go back and visit (although next time we'll go in the summer)!