Portland

Chris grew up in Portland.  He has always wanted to take me to Portland to see where he grew up.  His friend got married and had a reception, so he decided that it was a perfect opportunity to go see friends.  We left on a Wednesday and came back on Sunday.  It was a very fun trip.  There was a lot of driving, which drove Davis and I a little nutty at times, but we did well overall.

We stopped on our way in Ontario, Oregon.  My mom grew up in Ontario, so it was fun to see the sights.  Her house was up for sale, so we knocked on the door and asked if we could take a look.  It was very fun to see the place where I have so many memories from childhood.

 We also went to the cemetery to see the graves of my family members.

 Davis was bribed to come take a picture with a cracker.

We spent the night in La Grande on Wednesday, and then went the rest of the way on Thursday.  Davis had a hard time getting to sleep, so Chris helped him.

What a great daddy.  In the night, I got up to use the restroom and was worried that Davis was cold.  I went to pick him up, and he was shivering.  Chris said we should put him in bed with us. 

The next day, we drove the rest of the way to Portland.  We stopped to stretch in Arlington, Oregon. There was a cute little park just off the side of the road.  Davis decided that the cool thing to do was to roll down the hill(he learned that from Grandpa the week before), then run to the stairs and walk up and then roll down the hill again.  And then he found the water.  It was SO MEAN of us to not let him soak himself in it!

 We saw Chris's old house (and the infamous place where a bush used to live until it was burned by the Rusch boys)

We went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and ate some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches, then went to the coast.  Here we are at the coast.

Here is Chris with his friend, David Weiler

The walk to the coast was beautiful!

Davis found some puddles that he thought were very cool.  He put his forehead in one, just to try it out

When we got to the coast, he was amazed by the sand.  And threw it all over himself.

And then there was the ocean:

The clothes that I thought he would wear to the wedding reception that night?  Yeah, didn't happen.  He was so tired that he took his 2nd nap on the way home.

This is actually a picture of the first nap.  You can tell, because his clothes don't have sand all over them.
Then we went to the wedding reception and saw all of Chris's friends.  Davis made a friend too.

The reception was at a place that reminded Chris of Lord of the Rings:

After the reception, we headed to Pendleton, Oregon and spent the night there so we could go to sacrament meeting.  Then, on Sunday, we made the long drive home.  It was a great and much-needed vacation!