Portland trip

When we moved from Portland a year ago, I didn't think it would take me so long to return!

But, when my friend Melinda, from Dental school (now living in Georgia and soon to move to GERMANY) and my friend Tami, also from Dental school (currently living in Arizona) said they were going to be visiting Portland the SAME week, I knew I had to make the 4 hour drive to join the party.

Dan wasn't able to get off work, but I decided to make a mini vacation out of our trip anyway. We drove down on Wed. morning, and went straight to one of our favorite spots...the Children's museum.

They had changed things around a bit since we had last been there, but the favorite spot was the digging pit. Some things never change...


Chelsea could have spent all day molding clay, or the other craft stations, but we only had about 2 hours to spend, so I pulled her away and we made it through the rest of the museum.

They even paused to take a special picture for Dad...

I loved catching Michael lovingly changing this baby's diaper. Too bad he's not quite old enough to change a real baby's diaper yet.


After the museum, we went straight to the park that was closest to where we used to live. We met up with one of Chelsea's best friends, Kayla, who was also our neighbor.

Then our good friends, the Monahan's brought us a yummy pizza for dinner and we had fun visiting with them. (I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of your family, Tasha! ARGH!) Thanks for the pizza! It was delish!

Later, we checked into our hotel and went swimming. We had lots of offers to stay at friend's houses, but my kids LOVE staying in hotels, and the swimming pool was an added bonus. It's great to have such awesome friends, willing to let us stay with them though! Maybe next time...

The next morning, we slept in, had a great big hot breakfast (another bonus of the hotel) then headed to the zoo.

While I was unloading the stroller, Chelsea found this patch of grass and wanted her picture taken in the "flowers". Isn't she beautiful?


About 10 minutes after walking in the zoo, Michael started whining about how tired his legs were...but we were able to see most of our favorite animals:

The elephant...


The polar bear... (this polar bear is so funny! He walks through one of the rock arches, over to the next arch, but goes in backwards, swinging his head back and forth. If you've ever been to the Portland zoo, you've probably seen this dance. It was great to see our old friend performing his regular routine for us!)




After the zoo, we headed back to another favorite park for a picnic with so many of our friends. It felt like we had never left, except all the kids were strangely bigger and older! It was so fun to visit and catch up, while the kids ran around with their old playmates, just like old times.

This is Brooke, another one of Chelsea's good friends. These two are the cutest together and look like they could have been sisters or at least cousins. We really miss Brooke!

This is my friend Faye. She played the piano in primary and we had lots of fun talks behind the piano.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the many friends that were there, but didn't really think about it 'till most of them had left. These are the few that remained at the end...including Tami and Melinda. It was so great to see you both...and thanks for coming out at the same time!

Thank you everyone for coming out to see me! Okay, for coming out to see Melinda and Tami...and the new baby. :) I miss you guys! Hopefully it won't take as long for the next visit!