Portland

Wow am I behind.  Lets go back to July 4th.  After Laura visited us, I joined her on a trip to Portland to visit Athena. It was, as she put it, "3 ladies, and a ton of kids." LOL.  We went to the Rose Garden, and that was ok.  It would have been a lot better if I had time to stop and smell the roses- but all I did was chase Gabe around the whole time. I'm sure he had a great time!

Then we went to the Pittock Mansion.  Where, I did was chase Gabe around the whole time, again, but was able to capture some things.  It was beautiful and worth going to.

"The 3 Ladies"

Me and my kids overlooking Portland.  I think the kids had just been fighting and Ellie was refusing to smile.

VooDoo Donuts.  This place is the talk of the town.  And honestly, I was disgusted by it. The environment was dirty, literately and figuratively.   I had to park in downtown Portland and go through a Zombie Apocalypse of homeless people on Meth to get there.  Seriously, it was scary- and I don't get scared very often. I felt very gross after being there.  So I got the donuts and be-lined it back to my car.

Meanwhile- Laura was at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry safely watching the kids.  It was a great museum. 

When we were ready to leave the museum for dinner, we googled, "family friendly pizza in Portland".  A place with great reviews came up .3 miles from the museum.  So off we headed.  The moment we stepped in the door we knew we had made a mistake.  Maybe it was the horrible Heavy Metal music blasting, or the terrible pictures on the walls, or just the feeling, but it was definitely not, "family friendly."  My kids hated it and wanted to leave, so we told them we would just order the pizza to go.  See Paul with his thumbs down in the picture?  And Ellie's sweet concerned face?  Yea.  The kids could tell that place had a bad feeling to it.  It was a good learning experience though.  We were able to talk about how crazy it is to not have the spirit in your life.  We were ready to leave Portland and go back to Athena's.  We put on church music immediately in the car to try and shake that yucky feeling.  I am so grateful for the Spirit.  And that my kids can already recognize it.

The next day we got up and headed to the coast. on the way there we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  It was fun, and delicious! Lot's of free samples!

Ellie, Paul, Adaline, and Isaac

Well, here we all are! Three ladies and a bunch of kids is right! It was very family friendly and we had a great time.