On our final full day in Oregon visiting my brother and his family we went to the lovely Oregon coastline where we grilled lunch and spent an hour at the beach.

There was a playground next to our picnic table.

Once we arrived, while Josh and John set up the lunch, the rest of us went down to the beach so they could see the ocean. For Elizabeth it was her first time, and maybe the first time Carissa can remember. It was a nice day for the beach. The water was actually warm. Super windy, of course.

Then we ate the lunch that Josh and John carefully prepared: hotdogs and grilled pineapple. So good!

More playing on the playground!

After lunch I took my kids back to the ocean. Carissa loved running into (running away from?) the waves with her twin cousins. We had to watch Wes carefully to make sure he didn’t go too far into the ocean. He was one with the waves. Elizabeth loved the water, but we had to hold her hand so the waves didn’t knock her over.

In just the last few minutes of being in the ocean Elizabeth got knocked over a few times by waves and was unhappy. But we dried everyone off and packed into our cars to drive to the Tillamook cheese and ice cream factory about an hour away.

The scenery was beautiful along Highway 1, which parallels the Pacific Ocean.

Elizabeth was fussy in the car and crying. I tried giving her a bottle of milk. And then, about 20 minutes into our drive, she suddenly threw up. John was driving and he asked if he should pull over. When she threw up again a few seconds later I told him he’d better. Thankfully there was enough of a shoulder where he could pull over (which was not the case for much of the road). I went back to help her and she threw up again, this time a TON of sea water. I guess she had swallowed a lot when the waves knocked her over. We’re grateful, in hindsight, that the water went into her tummy and not her lungs which could have caused secondary drowning. I cleaned her and the car seat up as best I could and we continued on.

To say the Tillamook Factory was busy is an understatement. It was packed and crazy. We managed to get some lunch and walk around the factory tour, and then we stood in line for ice cream. Wes got chocolate (of course!).

The next day was Sunday. We went to church in the morning with Josh’s family. I have to give props to the Primary teachers there, because they really helped take care of Wes. Anyway we visit a different church congregation when it’s time for Primary I’m very careful to meet Wesley’s teachers and the Primary president and give them fair warning about Wes’s ability to run away quickly, and to also explain to them how to help Wes in their class. It’s kind of like an interview process. And then I usually stick around to observe how he (and the teachers) do fora little bit before heading to my own classes with a little prayer in my heart for all involved.

Well, during relief society I heard a voice that sounded like Wes’s in the hall. I left to check and there was a member of the Primary presidency with a male teacher, who was holding Wes. Evidently, Wes had escaped Primary and bolted straight outside. This sweet presidency member didn’t know if he would run into the road, so she bolted right after him and caught him before he got to the street. She had to run through a bunch of mud, which I felt bad about because she was wearing nice white shoes. I was grateful.

After lunch on Sunday our family got back on the road. We wanted to get through most of Oregon that afternoon and booked a hotel in Baker City. We tried to stop at the waterfalls outside Portland, but it was so packed on Sunday afternoon that we couldn’t even find a parking spot, so we carried on.

A couple hours into our journey we hit stopped traffic. It was a fire that had spread along the field next to the highway. We waited our turn to move for a long time.

You can see the scorched ground by the ambulance.

As we finally got to move and pass the site of the fire we saw what really happened. Just outside of my picture is the whole family and their dog standing by their burned RV.

We continued to drive towards Baker City, where we stayed in a Best Western that we got for a fair price via Priceline.com.

The next morning we ate breakfast in the nearby diner with a waitress named Shannon.

Elizabeth sneaked some Oreos as we packed the car to leave.

On the outskirts of Boise we were stopped once again with yet another fire, this time a car fire. Another long delay.

On the other side of Boise we stopped to eat lunch from our cooler at a nice rest top. Kids needed to run.

We drove through the rest of Idaho, including the part where we got a flat tire on our way to Washington. So glad we could drive right past! This time, it rained and thundered with lightening.

John and I decided to extend our vacation one last night by getting a hotel in Draper, UT. It was great. The kids got to swim in the hotel pool before bedtime. It was a Best Western, but a Best Western PLUS, which means it was about 100 times nicer than the standard BW we stayed at in Baker City.

The next morning we had a continental breakfast in the hotel and then went across the street to the mall. John got a haircut and massage while I played with the kids in the mall play area and took them on a train ride through the malls. It was actually really fun. The kids really liked the train.

We shopped a little, including in this store with Hello Kitty stuff. I let Carissa pick out a present for her upcoming birthday.

We also got ice cream (of course) and rode the escalator a bit.

Then we picked up Dad from the hair salon and finished our vacation with a very short drive back home. A long and wonderful and eventful adventure of a family vacation!

I really loved pretty much everything about Oregon. (John didn’t like the full-service gas stations, though.) Just look at this beautiful place:

On Friday Hannah took us on a real Oregonian experience: berry picking on Sauvie Island.

The place was really too beautiful to capture with a camera.

We mainly picked blueberries, but also a few blackberries and peaches.

After we paid for our haul and used the awful port-a-potties Hannah took us to probably the best-kept secret in the Portland area: a beach on Sauvie Island. Maybe it’s the best-kept secret because to get there you drive down a dirt road past miles and miles of adult-only nude beaches. And then, at the very end of the road, is this lovely and not-busy place on the bank of the Columbia River.

Hannah and I both really like the beach. (John does not, but the nice thing about this place was it had some shade. He didn’t want to go to the beach at all but I insisted and so he complied.) We had fun! Carissa and Elizabeth had never been to a beach before. Hannah packed us a lunch and some beach toys, even an inflatable boat that she pulled the kids around in and took Wes for a row in. Wes loved throwing the rocks, and Carissa and Elizabeth had fun in the sand. Every kid needs to go to the beach. We also saw some interesting boats pass by.

At the end of the day, Hannah made us a pie with the fresh blueberries picked that day. Pretty much heaven on earth to me (although no one else in my family really likes blueberries. More for me.)

On Wednesday of our vacation in the Northwest we left rainy Seattle and drove 2 1/2 hours through rainy Washington to Oregon, where the rain finally started to let up.

We arrived at my brother Josh’s house.

They made a special wall of photos in our guest room just for us!

We had so much fun and great memories during our few days with my brother Josh and his wife Hannah and their kids. They were so kind and hospitable and helped us enjoy every day. Hannah even provided a whole bowl of pretzels for Wes.

It was great to have cousin time. My kids don’t see their kids often, and since they are close in ages it was nice for them to play together.

Wes playing Angry Birds on the tablet was quite the event.

On Thursday morning Hannah and I took the kids (all 7) for a neighborhood walk.

Logan and Ethan would often run ahead, and Wes would run ahead with them. But the difference between them is Logan and Ethan would eventually stop and Wes wouldn’t.

It was cute to watch Carissa with her twin cousins. They are close in age. I think she especially enjoyed playing with Charlotte.

We decided to spend the day at the rose garden in Portland and then the zoo. It was a little chilly and wet, but still perfect for being outside. Carissa is usually camera shy but I made a deal with her that she could take pictures of me smelling the roses if I could take pictures of her. The result? Way more pictures than usual of both of us.

Silly faces in the Shakespeare Shrine.

Wes got bored fast in the rose garden so John walked him down to the nearby playground. It was a fantastic Oregon playground in the middle of huge shady trees.

Then it was off to the zoo for lunch! John and I and the kids were so hungry in Oregon because our body clocks were an hour faster and we usually ate lunch and dinner later than we were used to. We learned after the first day that we had to eat a big breakfast to make through till lunch. We ate a lot at the zoo!

We had a fun day. Finished up with a round of Uno.

On Tuesday, our last full day in Seattle with John’s dad, we went to the Boeing Museum of Flight. We are glad we did.

We spent a lot of time in the WWI and WWII sections, learning about how flight impacted each war. Very cool.

There is also a neat space section that explored space flight.

Then we went outside to the tarmac where they had a few retired planes we could walk through–famous ones, like the super-fast concord and an old Air Force One.

The funny thing was that just after we exited the old, retired Air Force One we heard a plane landing, we looked over and there, across the street from us in the Boeing Airport, was the REAL Air Force One with President Obama in it. Such good timing as that will never happen again.

We also walked through the final section of the museum that includes a kids’ section that the kids liked.

We met up with John’s stepmom Deanna for dinner at a buffet restaurant with the world’s dirtiest bathroom, but pretty OK food. It was the first chance we’d had to visit with Deanna since she’s pretty busy with running the bed and breakfast.

This is the front of the bed and breakfast. It has beautiful English gardens.

John’s dad is a photographer and offered to take our pictures in the garden. It was late and the kids were getting tired, but it was our last chance so we jumped on it. I mean, I did and John kindly went along with it.

He took some nice pictures of us. I don’t have all of them handy now, but he took some of our family, some of just Carissa, and some of me and John. This is one of our family.

Lastly, Deanna took us on a tour of the Thornewood Castle, which I always enjoy. It’s a pretty popular place for weddings, and we saw at least one while we were there. The kids were super tired by now and John took Wes and Elizabeth back to our apartment to sleep while Carissa continued the tour with me.

The next day, a rainy Wednesday, we said goodbye to John’s dad, thanked him for a wonderful visit, and we were on our way to see my brother’s family in Hillsboro, OR.

On Monday, our fifth day of vacation and second full day in Seattle, we hit up one of my favorite places in the world: downtown Seattle.

The day started with breakfast of bagels and morning TV shows:

Then we loaded up the car, with John and John’s dad in the front and me and the kids in the back.

Our first stop was my favorite thing in Seattle, Public Market. John’s dad works near this place, so we were able to park in his office building’s garage for free and walk a couple blocks here. The last time we were in Seattle (about four years ago), it poured rain. Today was sunny and warmish.

I made sure we got our Daily Dozen donuts. There is maybe nothing better than a paper sack full of warm, yummy mini donuts.

Some of the sights:

Another favorite stopping point was the Confectional, a cheesecake shop.

Elizabeth drinking a tiny cup of warm sipping chocolate, which was really good and maybe even worth the $1.

We got some cheesecakes to take home.

For lunch John’s dad took us to one of his favorite lunchtime spots, which was a mixture of pizza/Italian and Mexican food. John and I laughed about it later, that out of all the world-class eating spots in downtown Seattle, this place was probably the worst. Definitely not the best food and we’re still not sure why John’s dad eats there every week. But OK.

After lunch we decided to buy tickets for the famous “Ride the Duck” tour. Lisa, our sister-in-law in Richland, said that her kids went to Seattle on a field trip and that the duck boat ride was the highlight of the trip. It’s an amphibious bus that goes on land and then into the water. John and his dad stood in line for tickets while I tried to keep the kids entertained.

It’s such a popular tour that we had to wait a few hours until the next tour became available. To fill the time we took the train from where we were to the Space Needle. There’s a children’s discovery museum there that we spent a couple hours at. Boy, the kids had fun!

We got the kids into an art session, which they all really liked. Each kid has their own style of artwork.

Our tour time was coming up quick, so we had to go, but we stopped for some ice cream first. This stand is outside the space needle and features homemade ice cream. We nearly missed our tour, but it was so good! Wesley’s cone was chocolate and dripping all over the place. The reason I don’t have pictures is I was too busy wiping him up all the time.

Getting ready for our tour.

One signature of the Ride-the-Duck tour is the drivers wear silly hats, many of them, throughout the tour. Carissa had a fun time giggling at our driver’s many silly hats. I didn’t get photos of them all. I think her favorite was when he put underwear on his head!

Lovely Seattle waterfront.

This is the aquarium we visited last time when Wes and Carissa were much younger.

This is new from the last time we were in Seattle. It’s like the London Eye.

Beautiful Carissa.

Wes fell asleep for a little while. But it couldn’t last long, because downtown Seattle is LOUD. I think it was sirens that woke him up.

Getting ready to enter the water as a boat. This was pretty cool!

Another boat near us:

Seattle. The water was beautiful, and busy. We saw lots of boats, both big and small, plus kayaks like this one.

There are tons of houseboats lining the Seattle harbor, including the famous one from “Sleepless in Seattle.” I thought I took a picture or video of it but I can’t find it. Only a certain number of houseboats are allowed at a given time, so they are prime property. The tour guide said they are coming up with crazy new designs, such as houseboats with basements, and windows in the basement.

We took the monorail back to where we were parked. It exits into a small shopping mall. As we passed a candy store I pointed out to John a whole wall of Hello Kitty stuff. He must have been feeling pretty generous, because he took her inside and let her pick out something to take home. She was a happy girl.

On Saturday night, our first night visiting John’s dad near Seattle, I sent John out for groceries (because I felt too tired). He and his dad went together and came back loaded up with frozen meals that would last us a lot longer than our scheduled three days. But they also brought me back some ice cream, so I wasn’t complaining.

Since it was Sunday we visited John’s dad’s ward in the morning and just relaxed in the afternoon. After dinner we met up with John’s dad for a boat ride around American Lake, which is next to their bed and breakfast. This was the kids’ first boat ride. They liked it, especially when John’s dad went fast! Elizabeth fell asleep.