I have finally found some time to document our fabulous VACATION!
We headed out to Portland, Oregon for 6 days and let me tell you, we had a blast...
Here we go...
Our littlest traveler was well-behaved and very curious - she did wonderfully on her first airplane ride. The pilot even came out to give Avery some Delta wings!
Our first impression of Portland was not what we expected. The second the airplane hit the runway to land, sun streamed through the window, warming our faces. Wha-what? A sunny, beautiful day in Portland? We EXPECTED rain. We PLANNED for rain. Even after looking at the cheery weather report, we were skeptical. We just knew it was to rain the entire trip. Not so, my friends, not so. We had a partly sunny, mild weather backdrop which just allowed us to enjoy our time out on the West Coast ever so much more!
We stayed with our dear friends the Wyatts (Kent, Kirsten & Eleanor) and had an amazing amount of fun seeing there home, visiting Portland highlights, finally meeting Michael Jordan the Dog (AKA "Mr. Mike" or "Mikey")... along with lots of sight-seeing and visiting with more friends.
The little girls, Avery and Eleanor, enjoyed playing with one another (for the most part).
Elle's new slide was a huge source of enjoyment:
As were stickers:
Bathtime with the daddies was especially fun...
...because the daddies don't stop the girls from drinking dirty bath water. Blech!
One day after exploring Portland by car, we went downtime to the Pearl District to have some lunch at Brideport BrewPub, walk around, shop and visit a fun bookstore, Powell's.
We also took a road trip up & out to the Oregon coast, which was beautiful! We started in Astoria, where we had another fun brewery-lunch and got to see some movie highlights from films that were shot in the area - most notably Goonies and Kindergarten Cop.
Yes! The house from Goonies!:
School from Kindergarten Cop:
We then headed down to Cannon Beach to play in the sand, watch Mike dig holes, and see Haystack Rock (also seen in the movie The Goonies).
Another highlight of our trip was hiking Multnomah Falls. One again, we couldn't have asked for better weather! We met my BFF Amanda from college and her hubster Chris to hike and hang out.
Me and Amanda!:
Amanda and Chris:
Avery loved being way up high in the carrier:
So many beautiful sights to see, after all!
This was not an easy hike for a chick that's 6 months pregnant and a daddy with a 30+ lb baby on his back, but we made it to the top!!!
The last morning in Portland was Easter Sunday. Kirsten was so sweet to prepare Easter baskets for the girls, and though Elle wasn't feeling to great (sad face), Avery was thrilled with hers. She enjoyed finding the eggs that were hidden around the family room and playing with them in her purple camouflage Easter bucket.
The trip home was a long one, but aside from a delay heading out of Portland, everything went pretty smooth. The delay shortened our 2-hour layover in Minneapolis, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing!
Our tired traveler...
What a fun trip, with the best of company. We hope to get out to Oregon again sometime as we just couldn't get everything in we wanted to see. Still, an action-packed trip, with plenty of relaxing built in too, is the perfect way to spend time with good friends.
