Oregon Road Trip~ 2

We woke up in the hotel and scrambled around getting ready to go down and get the cute little breakfast buffet. It was lovely and the Bald Kid even made his own Belgian Waffle. Yummo. I had cereal because I’m just a simple gal at heart. I didn’t actually take any pictures of the hotel…except this one. So it will have to do.

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Then we jumped in the car and headed out on the road again.

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Anybody hearing old Willie Nelson singing right now or is it just me?

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As we approached Portland, I got in the habit of taking a picture of anything that was new or different or strange to me. In fact, I don’t even know what this thing is, but I took it’s picture alright.

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This spooky little guy was just sitting there minding his own business so I captured him for posterity too.

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I really loved the fire escapes too. Oh, sure the cities in Utah have them too, but these ones were very Jason Bourne-ish, or Burn Notice-y. Can’t you just picture a wild bad guy chase going on here? Well, I can.

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We were excited to go to this famous donut shop but then, after doing a bit of research, we decided that it wasn’t exactly family friendly. Plus that crazy line coming out the door was a bit much. We skipped it and ate Cheetoes instead.

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I thought for a second that we were headed straight to Chinatown, but Jacob turned left right before we got to the gateway. No Chinatown today.

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Tons of lovely lampposts made even lovelier by the hanging flower baskets. Why don’t we do this? Hmmmm? I’m calling the mayor.

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We parked the car and found that the only way to the ground floor was down allllll those stairs. Y.I.K.E.S.

But we survived. Jacob found this Hebrew inscription outside the biggest bookstore in the universe.

Yes. We went inside.

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We all pretty much went our own separate ways for about 2 hours.

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 A cute little lady was staring up at the books in the same “Crochet” aisle as I was in. She said, “Isn’t this just Heaven?”

I said, “Positively. Heaven. I’m never leaving.”

Of course, that was a fib because eventually we did leave, most reluctantly. These fun street performers were playing right outside the store.

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I would say that this is certainly a church, but since I don’t know for sure, and I don’t want someone to make a comment saying, “Silly rabbit–that’s our city hall,” I’ll just call it a tower thingy. Can’t go wrong with that.

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So charming to see the little community gardens all over town–very green and friendly looking.

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April and Jacob found a quilt shop so that was the end of them. The Bald Kid and Lily and Beck and I stayed behind resting our tootsies in the car. I spotted this sweet little flowery tree. It reminded me of the Bougainvillea trees that are beautiful but positively impossible to grow outdoors in Utah…at least for me. Maybe I’ll try again. I need a pink tree in my life.

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Oh, sure. They come in purple as well. I’ll be needing that one too.

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Total tootsie resting…

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until we found this natural food market. We went a bit wild because, well, for starters they had gorgeous fruit and so we were rendered powerless. We bought grapes, and cherries and yogurt and crackers and 9.5 water and some other stuff that I can’t remember. It was a glorious place.

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Funny name, and totally untrue, as I am not, in fact, yoga. Honestly.

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The quaint neighborhood that we parked in had colorful spots painted all up and down the street for no reason other than cuteness. I bet if we tried this at home we’d get arrested. But it was very whimsical and fun.

Might be worth a try…

sometime…

late at night.

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Scribbled on the sidewalk of the same neighborhood.  No mincing words here.

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Proof that the zombie apocalypse is totally real…at least on this street.

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So naturally, we left–for our own safety.

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After wandering around for a while, taking in the sights, we found Jacob and Lily sitting under a red umbrella eating…

I don’t even know what.

But he is brave and I didn’t ask. Go Jacob.

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A bit more driving…

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A trip to the local Costco. Yeah, we like eggs…a lot.

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A few more car games and finally, FINALLY–

We arrived at the beach house. Our home for the next week.

Ummmmm….at last.

Wanna see inside?

Be brave and I’ll show you next.

Oregon Road Trip~ 1

Well, it has been such a long, LONG time since we’ve taken a vacation that we made a break for it this last week. We booked a beautiful beach house on the Oregon coast for nearly a week! EEEEeeeeeee! All my kids and their families took a different route–depending on when they were leaving and where they wanted to stop by the end of the day. The only common goal was to meet at the beach house by Tuesday. The Bald Kid and I jumped in with April and Jacob and the Littles and off we went.

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Now you need to know that whenever you take a trip like this, it is mandatory that you pack a ton of good, healthy snacks. I know what you’re thinking, but I solemnly swear the there are apples and mandarins and bananas in that box. They just sunk down to the bottom because all that goody-goodness is much, you know, heavier. Oh, and there are carrots in the cooler too. I swear.

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It’s also highly recommended that you bring lots and lots of word games and puzzles…

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and bingo cards so that you can keep the short people occupied. And our sweet little Beckham, did very well with his card, by the way, despite the fact that there are absolutely no tole bridges from Utah to Oregon. He got positively everything else so we let him slide on the tole bridge. It was either that or redirect out trip through Pennsylvania.

You see my point.

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We watched a movie…

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stopped and readjusted the seating arrangements…

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and found a few unexpected creatures along the way.  Can anybody say, “RANDOM?”

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We drove and drove through the mountains and hills of beautiful Idaho…

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and watched another movie. The kids had the headphones of this one so we go to watch the no sound version of our dear Harry Potter. Our made up dialogue was better than theirs’ anyway. Heh, heh.

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More mountains, more valleys and then…

who should drive right up next to us but…

Lyle Lovett!!

Ok, we didn’t actually ask him his name, but that’s pretty much because we didn’t need to. This guy was totally Lyle Lovett.

Trust me.

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And just when we thought we just might perish from all the beautiful mountains and valleys…

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we found a park for the wee folk to play in for a while. April and Jacob rested on the grass. Lily climbed the jungle gym.

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Beckham slid on the zip line.

The Bald Kid–who is a bit of an over achiever–ran around the whole park twice to stretch his muscles. I sat on a bench and wiggled my foot around to stretch mine. Hey, we each do what works.

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Then on we drove through the prairie…

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with one more movie in the background.

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Our first stop– The Dalles, Oregon and a wonderfully soft, cool, fluffy bed.

Perfect start, I’d say.

Our World Traveler

Our sweet Jillian was sent to Ireland this month for work. I think it’s fair to say that she had an incredible time. Driving on the other side of the road like a champ and everything.

What a gorgeous adventure!!

 

So glad you’re back home safe and sound!!

Love you honey.

Ahhh…Logan

Sometimes we have “official business” to take care of in Logan–the sweet little town 2 hours north of our place.

And sometimes the only official business is finding the most beautiful raspberries in the State–and buying them two flats at a time.

This time was a mix–April had some fun “official” places to go and I’m always up for the drive…and the raspberries.

We always visit the “cookie store” when we’re in town because it borderlines criminal behavior…not to. We got off easy this time though because it wasn’t a cookie day. Today was Parmesan Goldfish day so we each grabbed a bag–for the kids and got out of there with our lives. Sometime I’m going to figure out when Milano day is…THEN there’ll be trouble.

We took turns saying, “Can we just live here?” about twenty times in the first couple of hours. It would be perfect–just enough town, just enough country.

~sigh~

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We made a new discovery this time around…a truly wicked discovery. Let’s just say that the next stop was for dry ice–lots of dry ice.  :}

Gossner’s Cheese store grabbed us next–and I think we behaved very, very well for a couple of cookie, Creamie, cheese freaks.

Someone should be clapping for us.

Speaking of well behaved–the little dudes were pretty darn good sports as we drove merrily along in one of our favorite, beautiful places.

Yeah…pretty sure I love this town.

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Fingers Crossed

This cute girl who simply loves to travel and see the world has just done and awesome, brave thing.

She has applied for an intership that would let her do tons more of that which she’s already is so good at–traveling and seeing the world–of course!

Praying that she gets this incredible opportunity.

She is, after all–the perfect candidate…

and we all know it!