Portland trip

  So Jason's sister Julie (and her family) live in Portland, and ever since they made a trip to come see us about a year ago we wanted to go see them and their place and explore where they live. Brian, Julie's husband, is finishing his pathology residency there and while they're there, they're staying at Brian's parents house while they serve a 3 year mission. It was perfect timing and they have enough room for the 5 of us. Was so nice.

You know what else was nice? We brought them a gift, well Penny brought them a gift.... GASTRO! We joke it's not a Low trip without gastro and this time it was our fault. We seriously thought about cancelling. But cancelling 4 flights and so far (key word so far) Penny only had it.

I'm glad we still went. Even though "we may" have passed on some nasty pooping and vomiting. Brian and Julie are the best hosts and really their girls are just the sweetest. I think I could watch their twin girls, Anne and Faye, play all day. They kill me! Anyways sorry and thanks!

Well I'll let the pictures do most the talking...

Friday:  Travel day

 

Well we made it to the airport and Jace and Talia were troopers. They each had their own back packs and took excitement in that. Talia is a Minnie me and gets stressed that the plane will leave with out us (which our connection almost did and Talia and I were BOTH crying. I was telling her not to cry it'll make it worse... yet I was crying.) And Jace gets tired VERY easily. Borderline lazy some would say, but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's 3 enough said! So considering personalities and that Penny was SO sick. They did well.

 

 

Only had 4 poops before we go on our plane leaving from Edmonton. 2 of which were blow outs.

 

The nice side of her being sick was she cuddled and slept in my arms. I love a cuddling baby, especially my own. Look at her lashes!

The boys seat. This leg of the trip Jason for sure got the better deal. But really he wouldn't have been able to change the gastro poops in the airplane washroom. He couldn't even stand up when Jace had to go "number 2". In fact when Jace bent over for Jason to wipe him Jason's bent down slightly and he pumped open the door. Cracks me up every time. His own fault though he taught Jace to bend right in half when he needs wiping.

 

 My seat. Thankfully Penny was a sleep here. Must have been in between blow outs.

We made it! Here is my facebook post that kind of sums up our connection experience:

 

We made it. Only 6 gastro poops two of which blew out, almost missed connecting flight. Security wouldn't move us up "because there's no cutting." People were kind to let us in front. Customs wanted to search all our baby food at 12:56 when plane left at 1. I was crying and the "head" security guy made them go faster when they obviously weren't trying to go fast. Jason ran ahead to get them to hold the plane. I had baby with blow out and two other kids trailing with blankies crying. Jace actually fell and had a mini melt down on the floor. Can't remember how I got him to move passed that one. But we made it... Oh AND they lost Jason's luggage from Edmonton to Calgary. Apparently it didn't leave Edmonton!



So Julie picked us up at the air port. She was so kind to get a sitter for her kids. And we had a rental closer to their place at almost half the cost. Also it just made it so much easier after travelling to just walk up to our pick up. Another surprise is Karen and Alvin were in the van. They had just had a week of visit from them and we were crossing paths. My kids were so excited to see them!

 

 

This is Brian's parents place. So nice and we're so grateful we could come visit them there. Julie and I were saying even though it sucks to have gastro on vacation it made it so much easier where we had our own space, penny her own walk in closet, and most of all a washer and dryer. I can't thank you guys enough!



Talia and Claire. Claire is tall! And such a sweet girl. I wish we lived closer because these two would be the best of friends. They already are when we get together. And Jace and the twins would be hilarious together.


 

That night Jason and Brian went to an NBA game. Portland vs. Houston game 6. Brian grew up in Portland so he's a pretty big fan and Portland ended up winning on a buzzer beater. It was the first series win for Portland in 14 years. It was a crazy game!

Saturday: Food Trucks

 

We went downtown to these food trucks. It was too bad it was rainy because it would have been fun to go eat out at this park. Delicious food. And fun to walk around. Voodoo donuts was there but the line was INSANE so we didn't make it there.

 

Thought this ladies umbrella was funny. She left it like this forever! Eventually she did flip it back.

 

 

Sunday:

 

There ward goes from 1:30- 4:30 so before we went to the temple and visitors center. The temple was beautiful and the kids loved touching the replica statue of the Savior. It was neat. Penny and I didn't go to church since she was still have excessive poops.

 

 

Monday: Bounce house and feeding ducks:

 

The bounce house was great. The kids love running and jumping for a couple hours. There was this obstacle course that Jason and I definitely tried. We might have been the only two adults going hard on it but that's ok.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday: The beach.

It was a 40 minute drive which driving in Portland it's beautiful! Brian stayed home with Claire because the night before she puked... and puked. So as we were driving we noticed Julie book it up this hill. Jason thought she was on cruise and didn't take it off during the hill. He's very hmm what's the word... cautious to take cruise off during a hill as to not wreck the engine *wink*

Anyways she pulled over and Anne had puked all over her self. Poor them, they wanted to show us around and have this wonderful vacation, Penny was just finishing her last day of the runs and now we were passing it onto them. Sorry guys!

Anyways we still went so they could rest and get their space, and we got the kids out doing stuff.

 

The beach was beautiful. Obviously not swimming weather and it was a bit windy. But the sand was awesome, it was warm, and the kids could run and play. How often do we get to play at the beach?

 

 

 

So I've decided my children are genetically born nervous or scared of things. Penny is by far the worst. She hates the grass, sand, or gravel. She refuses to walk because she's nervous. But she can hold her own at home and has a serious temper if something is bugging her. BUT this is what happens when you leave her on the edge of the blanket with her feet touching the sand. She was not impressed! 

Tried to make mermaid legs. Needed more wet sand but it was so far away...

Cute little carousel in this strip mall by the beach. Some might say ghetto but I say vintage. It was cute and rustic.

 

 Then we got ice cream

Then we got a little toy at this toy store. AND we didn't buy Penny a present... She's our little klepto.

So we took it back....

Cranky little girl. It was her last day of being sick and the bath was the only thing that made her happy.

 

Wednesday: The zoo

So Faye had got sick this day. 3/3 of their kids were sick. And I think Brian was feeling a little sick. We basically infected all of them. How fun :(

So we gave them their space and went to the zoo. Thankfully Julie lent us her awesome stroller that fit all of our kids. It made our trip doable. And the kids loved the zoo. It was nice to get out, and the day was perfect, not to hot and not to cold.

 

There was a little construction happening and while we were looking at the goats/ petty zoo area, Jace wondered off to this and was just looking at it forever. Then he screamed to Jason, s "come here Dad want to show you this, it's so cool!" haha This was his favorite part of the zoo.

 

 

Thursday: The Children's Museum

It was a rainy day, and it's close to the end of the school year so it was packed. I would love to have a museum like this in Edmonton. We'd go all the time. It had a little grocery area where kids shopped for food, and rung in their groceries. A building area, diggers area (mud etc, it was closed. would have been Jace's favorite place). Had a crafts area with clay, face paint section (Talia's make up area), a theatrics place, trains & cars area, and  water place like the one at the telus centre. It was awesome. Would have stayed longer if it was so packed and Penny's wasn't restless.

 

 

 

 

Friday: Amazing Duck Pond

So Claire seemed to be hit the most with this illness. So she was still feeling tired. Anyways Julie took us with the twins to the duck pond. It was about 10 minutes from their house. It was amazing how "friendly" these ducks were. One I think got Jace's hand or well scared him pretty good. Jason got a kick out of the kids playing and chasing them.

 

 These two are so funny! We just love them!

 

Also that day Jason took the kids to krispie kreme.

Yum!

 

Well it was a great trip. Julie is such an amazing host. We haven't ate so good in awhile. Thank you so much. Wish we had got more photos of the Brinkerhoffs but we got them sick. What I'll also remember is visiting at night with Julie and Brian, & showing each other "funny" clips on utube. We probably laughed more about how different our humor is. Just couldn't find the right clip ;)

 

 What a fun trip and we loved visiting. Thanks for hosting and sorry for bringing gastro!