Downtown Portland

We decided our family adventure for the week was to take the "train" (the light rail) that Daddy takes to work and go see his office down town.
The kids loved hearing the train coming down the tracks before they could see it.

The short ride on the train there was really fun. It was packed on the way back so we took turns standing, which of course the kids thought was fun.

We got off at Pioneer Square. There was a walk for liver disease going on in the square so they had little booths set up that you could go to with lots of different things to see. The kids loved the balloon woman. She was dressed like a clown. She made the boys and Katie swords (Katie is quiet the "Tom Boy"), then she made the girls puppies. What a treat!

Then we had a very short train ride the few blocks up to David's office (you ride for free in the downtown area). David usually walks it, but we didn't want to tire the kids out to early. This is his building. It has over 36 floors. David works on the 14th floor. He loves it. The view is incredible.

Joelle had to sit at Davids desk before we left. Just in case she never got the chance again.

This is looking out a window of one of the bigger offices on the floor. If you look closely you can see either Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens (we are not quite sure which one :) in the background. You can see the other mountain from the other side of the floor. It was really neat.

After David's office we went down to Chapman square park that is right next to the his building. That is where I took the picture of his building. I thought I took pictures of the kids there, but apparently not. It was so pretty. It had some pioneer statues and some really fun fountains. Then we walked back down to the shopping area of pioneer square to go to the huge toy store Finnegan's. Once again no pictures. This time it wasn't because I forgot, it was because trying to keep track of 5 kids in a huge toy store was a little harder than we were expecting. Then realizing that we forgot to tell the kids we weren't buying any toys before we went in, we had to do some damage control. All in all it went very well. We walked away with a bug catcher (so they will stop using my Tupperware :), and some dollar bird whistles. Not bad.
After that we went to Mcdonalds. Hurray - my favorite (heavy on the sarcasm).

Lastly we went to Portland's Central Library. It was large and beautiful. I don't think it was as big as Phoenix's library, but it felt like it had a lot of history. The entryway was marble and very grand. It had a huge staircase going up. It was a very cool experience. I am looking forward to going back.

Fathers Day

I love Father's Day! David spent the afternoon looking for bugs with the kids.

They found a frog in the back yard while David and I were napping. He is the green spot right in the middle of the picture.

Isn't he so cute!

David also spent the evening blogging and restringing his guitar. That's what he actually wanted to do.

Since I got the house pretty clean for Father's Day I decided today was as good as any to take pictures of the house since some of my family have wanted to see how we set it up. It's not much to look at, but we like it. My boys never want to move. Today David and I were talking about the price of houses somewhere and Ben walked in and looked right at me and said "Mom, we are not moving!" It was so cute. I assured him we weren't. Even Jacob asks me frequently if we can stay here forever. I am glad they feel that way. If they were unhappy the move would have been a lot harder.

The back yard is everyone's favorite. I can hardly get my kids to come inside. If only Katie would quiet taking all her toys out there. We spend a lot of time out in the back yard.

Is anyone sick of ocean pictures yet? :-)

Yes, once again we ventured to yet another beach. It was really windy this time and the breeze was very cold, so we didn't stay at this beach for very long. This was Ocean Side beach. It was small but very pretty. This beach is about 20 min. outside of Tillamook. We went to the cheese factory first, but I forgot to take my camera in. That was so fun. The kids loved taste testing the different cheeses, and we got them each a small ice cream cone. Tillamook ice cream has to be one of the best I have ever had. That is a trip I want to make again soon ;-).

Since the beach was so chilly, we decided to check out the nearby Cape Meares lighthouse. That was very cool. Sadly though, someone had just recently shot at the lighthouse and broke some of the glass and lenses so we weren't aloud to go up into the top part. That was kind of a bummer. It will cost them 15 thousand dollars to fix it, they don't have insurance, and the State won't help them. It is all donations. It was really sad. Why do people do such stupid things. It was still very cool to see. I have never been to a lighthouse.

Jacob is really into having his picture taken lately. It is pretty funny.

I love all the huge rocks in the oceans up here. I think it is so majestic looking.

Look at those white legs of mine, I totally fit in up here, it's great! This bench sat looking over the ocean. So peaceful and beautiful. I really am in love with the area.

Oregon Zoo

We finally made it down to the zoo. It's only about a 25 minute drive from our house. We purchased our year pass and started to explore the grounds. It's actually a really fun zoo; the pictures don't do justice.

For lunch we ordered a whole pizza from one of the places in the zoo. I didn't like it at all and it was quite expensive. We'll have to plan better for our next visit.







Although the tiger was somewhat boring, he was at least looking in our direction. I didn't get a picture of it, but the leopard was actually walking right up next to the display window. We all really enjoyed that display.


The bat exhibit was one of my favorite. There were probably 50 to 100 bats in the 'cage'. Fruit had been tied to the rope and you could see the bats fly around to the different areas. Really awesome!

Indian Beach - Ecola State Park

So far this is our favorite beach along the Oregon coast. (We've been to three so far). The beach is actually kind of small, but it is absolutely georgeous. The day we went it was about 50 degrees outside, but that wasn't going to stop the kids from getting in the water.

There were a lot of surfers at the beach which was kinda cool.