Oregon Coast Trip - Days 3 & 4 - Portland

Our destination after finishing in the Columbia River Gorge was to pick up lunch at Jack in the Box. We knew that the dining room would not be open, so we also had to find somewhere to eat the food. I had hoped to find a Jack in the Box close to the freeway, but was unsuccessful. So then I tried to find one close to our Hotel. That put us right in the middle of downtown Portland. As our GPS was directing us, we hit traffic. Traffic that was not moving, at all. We were trying to make a right turn, but the cars on that street were not moving. So I climbed out of the car and peeked around the corner of the building and discovered a railroad crossing with a very, VERY slow moving train on it...a really long train. So we quickly changed our plan and looked up Voodoo Donuts instead. We knew we wanted to get some for the kids, so that became our new lunch plan. 

The line was about a 15 minute wait, but the kids said it was worth it.

We carried our donuts through a street market and ended up in a green space park on the river. There were a lot of people around us doing the same thing-eating their voodoo donuts in the park.

We got about 20 donuts and ended up eating them for the next 3 days. When we checked into our hotel, we discovered that we had to reserve the swimming pool and the only good time slot left was 9 pm. So we headed to a park so the kids could play while Alyssa got her tennis time. The courts were awful, and there were a lot of weird people around.  Oh, and it was really HOT. We had planned to eat dinner at a restaurant right on the river. But as we walked along the river, we soon discovered that we would need to make a new plan. The restaurants were either not family friendly, too expensive, or full. We headed back to our hotel and picked up dinner at the Jack in the Box that was ACROSS THE STREET FROM OUR HOTEL. Yes, after the trouble we had locating one for lunch, there happened to be one right next to our hotel. We enjoyed the private pool that night.

The next morning, we had another employee served breakfast. We headed for Washington Park that morning. It was packed. We were going to try the Japanese Gardens, but discovered that they cost money to enter and you had to have a reservation. So Danny dropped us off at the Rose Gardens and he drove a mile down the hill to park and then walked back to us. The gardens were pretty.

Since it was Sunday morning, we sat down and talked a little bit about what gospel messages we could see in the beauty around us. Danny was the only one that listened in on our home ward Sacrament meeting. The timing was really bad, so he listened through headphones as we walked the gardens. I had wanted to see more of Washington park, but the crowds took the fun away and we decided to head on to Pacific City, where we would be staying for the next 3 nights.
 

Oregon Coast Trip - Days 2 & 3 - The Dalles, Columbia River Gorge

On Day 2, we drove from Boise to a town on the Columbia River called The Dalles (we think they include "The" in the town name to distinguish from Dallas, Texas). This day of driving was one of our worst of the trip. We had traffic three different times because of crashes on the road. The worst traffic was right after I took over driving (I have really bad luck with hitting traffic on long trips when I drive). The 2 lane freeway came to a complete stop. After about 15 minutes, people started getting out of their cars. Then we started to notice people leaving the freeway and driving up the onramp. 30 minutes in, Danny decided to follow those other cars up the onramp. We ended up taking this detour that led us onto a dirt road through some windmills(we were following google map directions). It was a crazy caravan.

Eventually we made our way back to the freeway, feeling happy with our decision. That is, until 20 minutes later when we passed the truck pulling a trailer that was parked next to us on the freeway during the stop. We really wanted to continue believing that we had saved all of this time on our crazy detour. We pulled into our hotel an hour later than we should have, quickly headed out to the restaurant we had picked out for that evening-A Hawaiin BBQ place(because it closed at 8 and it was about 7:45). It actually allowed indoor dining, so that was nice. Tyler liked the Tiki's all over the restaurant (Camden was scared of them).

Alyssa was disappointed that the sun was close to setting by the time we finished eating. She and Danny were making plans to get up at 6 am to go to the courts in the morning, until he looked at a satellite view of the courts and saw lights. So they rushed off to the courts while I explored the pool with the other kids. Unfortunately, the lights had to be reserved ahead of time to turn on, so they only had about 20 minutes of daylight to play in. We were glad to have this day come to an end.

The next morning, after our hotel breakfast which the employees dished up for us, we explored the Columbia River Gorge. I picked out about 5 waterfall hikes that I thought were doable. The first was called Wahclella Falls. This was the perfect hike, and since we were there early-ish, it wasn't too crowded (we were there the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend) or hot. Actually, I think we were kind of cold to start. It was soooooo green and so beautiful.

I loved the deep blue-green pool that the waterfall fell into. 

After our hike, we continued on along the Columbia river. This Horsetail Falls was our next stop. The waterfall was right off of the road, so no hiking necessary. Unfortunately, no parking available either. The lot was packed. Danny dropped us off and circled in the car while we took a couple of quick pictures. I love the rainbow in the mist.

We were going to go to Multnomah Falls, too, but the parking lot and area looked like Disneyland crowds, so we continued on. We were getting tired by this point anyways. And my navigating skills were lacking a bit, so I didn't think I could successfully find the next hike on my list anyways. We decided to drive up to the lookout area we had visited the last time we were here. After a lot of frantic searching, we guessed it was called Vista House. The view was still amazing up there and we actually found a parking space.

After the stop at Vista House, we continued on towards Portland.

Oregon Coast Trip - Days 1 & 2 - Boise

Our family took a trip to the Oregon Coast to kick our summer off this year. There was a lot of places we wanted to visit, but we decided that we needed to simplify a bit and to spend less time driving and more time enjoying the coast. We left home right after the kids got out of school on the last day. We stayed in Boise the first night. We had a bit of a scare when the gas light went on 20 miles from the nearest town(Alyssa was driving and didn't think to check the gas to make sure we had a full tank when we started. I also forgot to fill up the day before, like I probably should have). Anyways, there were a lot of prayers said and a tense 20 minutes of driving. We made it to the next town and filled up and were on our way again. We tried our best to accommodate our budding tennis star by finding her courts nearby in all of the cities we visited. On our 9 day trip, I think we got her out to play 5 times. But the elevation changes really messed with her game. :) 

While Alyssa was playing tennis, the other kids were swimming in the hotel pools. In Boise, the Hotel was pretty normal with open swimming and self serve breakfast. The kids loved the hotel breakfasts during our trip. On the morning of day #2, we headed into downtown Boise to a place called "Freak Alley." It was this outdoor art gallery and the walls were all covered in paintings. A lot of them were weird, but we still had fun exploring it.

After "Freak Alley" we headed over to a green space park. There were trails, a river, wildlife, and wildflowers.

Ashley won the prize for best photo bomb of the trip. :) This picture still makes me laugh

Tyler and Danny had a light saber battle with the sticks they found and Tyler won on the first swing.

We had never been to Boise before and we had a lot of fun exploring the city. We weren't quite hungry for lunch when we left the city, so we headed over to the border of Idaho and Oregon and got lunch at Panda Express. The dining area was closed, though, so we had to find a park to eat our food. This was only the start of the ongoing issue of where to eat our food. Oregon was very much still in the pandemic stage and it was hard to find restaurants with open dining. This proved to be problematic when we were far from our hotel, or in between hotels(like at lunch time). One time, we ended up parking our car near beach access and just went and sat on a green space overlooking the coast. Most of the time, it was annoying, but we survived. 

All about Ashley

Ashley had a lot of big end of the school year things in May. First, she had her yearly devotional. She did a good job with her memorized part and the songs they sang were really pretty. They talked a lot about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and also about the things they learned from completing the Master Project. Ashley was one of 3 kids that had a mask on during it(since it is a private school, a lot of students stopped wearing a mask months before the state lifted the mask mandate for schools. We told her that she should continue to wear her mask until it was no longer required). 

The school also had their dance festival. This year, Ashley got to do the long awaited stick dance from the Philipines(I think)

My video was too long to post, but they did their dance to the "Lollipop" song and the sticks would bang twice on the perpendicular sticks and then once together. The girls would step in the middle with each leg and then out when the sticks bang together. Ashley even did a cartwheel through the middle, but I didn't get a picture of it. She had a lot of fun with this dance.

And then there was her master project presentation. She had 20 minutes to present the things she learned about Mother Teresa this year. She decided to do a power point and created it mostly on her own. Danny and I both went to watch her present. She did a good job and she was so glad to have the Master Project over. She got an A on it, by the way.

Around the end of school, Ashley was playing outside during a wind storm and something blew into her eye. She was complaining about it and Danny and I were thinking she was being overdramatic about it. Finally, we showed her how to flush it with water. Unfortunately, that still didn't work and she didn't sleep well that night. She was crying around 5am, so I got her in the bath and tried using the bathtub faucet to flush it out of her eye. I took her to the doctor that day and they put numbing drops in her eye and something that made her eye glow under a black light.

The doctor found something small in there and flushed her eye with some saline drops. She said it came out and we went on our way. She started complaining about it again that night when the numbing drops wore off. So we went back to the doctor the next morning(this was with our pediatrician). He did the same thing with the numbing drops and the glow in the dark drops. He said that the eye lid looked swollen, so that was probably the cause of the irritation and that it should get better over the next 48 ours. He said there was a small possibility that there was something stuck to the inside of her eye lid and that if she still felt irritation after a couple of days that we should go to an eye doctor. When she complained about it 2 days later, I called an eye doctor. I didn't see what he did differently, but he found something small in her eye, removed it and told us to keep her eye moist with eyedrops for a few days until it heals all of the way. She has been fine since then. Who knew something could get so stuck in your eye. 

Camden's 6th Birthday

Camden turned 6 this year. He requested a super mario bros cake, so I looked up some ideas and showed them to him. This is the one he chose. The layers were fairly easy to decorate, but I was a bit nervous about having it stacked so high. It was also tricky to back 4 different sizes of cakes, but I think it turned out pretty well. He was happy with it, anyways.

Camden's birthday fell on a Saturday and he requested that we go to Boondock's so that he could play some mini golf. We let him invite a couple of friends since we knew we would be doing a birthday party for Tyler this year and I don't do multiple parties so close together. He invited his friend, Cameron, and his friend, Pierce. Boondocks was a mistake, for Saturday. I have never seen it so busy there. We basically did everything they could do, once, and called it good. 

Pierce fell into the water getting off of the bumper boats. I felt so bad for him.

Danny had a Karen moment when the lady in front of us on the 4d ride decided it was okay for her to wait in line while the rest of her family went off to do other things. And then when it was her turn, she called them over and they all went in front of us, delaying our wait time 10 minutes. He gave her and the employee a piece of his mind, though it didn't change anything.

We also had a few mishaps during mini golf because the kids thought they were playing actual golf and the clubs hit others during their swing.

After boondocks, we headed back to our house for presents and cake.

He had a fun birthday, celebrating with his friends and family.
 

Tulip Festival

We went to Tulip Festival on the last Monday in April. We were going to go a week earlier, but the weather was cold and rainy that day so we changed our reservation. The weather ended up being perfect. The tulips were beautiful.

The kids had fun finding the wooden shoes hidden throughout. I think we only found 4 of the 15.

 

We love the Thanksgiving Point Gardens and the fun events they put on to encourage us to get outdoors and enjoy the beautiful world around us.

Lula's Third Litter of Puppies

Lula had another litter of puppies in February. Usually the breeders are pretty on top of things and they check her often when they think she is getting close. On Thursday, Feb. 4th, I was eating lunch and heard her whimpering. As I looked closer to see what was bothering her, I noticed some fluid in her crate. I called the breeders and they came right over to check her. They said she was in labor and they took her back to their house. She had the first puppy 2 hours later. Then another one shortly after. We were worried that Ashley was not going to make it home from school in time, but we got her there to see number 4 born. And that was the last one. She only had 4 puppies this time. But they were still cute and fun to watch grow up.

This is Alyssa with one of the puppies right before they went off to their new homes. It is 8 weeks old.

We should only have to go through one more pregnancy and litter of puppies and then they are done breeding her. That will be nice to have her with us full time.
 

Spring Soccer

Camden played spring soccer. He was so excited to play because soccer is his favorite sport. His first game was amazing. He scored 3 of his teams 6 goals. We thought it was going to be a great season. And then he fell off of the monkey bars a week later and pulled a muscle right above his knee. He was not able to run after that which is kind of a necessity to succeed at soccer. It didn't get better until after the season was over. He still had fun, but we would have liked to see a bit more of what he did in the first game. We will probably sign him up for fall soccer and have another go at it.