Last Oregon Remembrances

We took the rest of our last week in Oregon pretty slow.  We enjoyed a dinner picnic with Jacob's aunt, uncle, cousin, and his cousins two daughters.  We ate at the Portland Rose Gardens.  They are truly amazing.  So beautiful.  I'm sad we ran out of time and couldn't explore a little more with the boys.  But, it was well past bed time and we were hoping to do a trial run of fireworks with the kids.  

We ate dinner at this cool amphitheater.  The sandwiches, chips, and cake were all delicious.

And then we walked around the gardens some before heading home.

Ben was so funny.  He would giggle every time you put his head up close to the flowers to smell.  Adorable.

Ben also loved his second cousin.  He kept grabbing her hands and dragging her places.  She was a good sport about it.  I think she liked him too.

We did do fireworks that night after getting home.  We wanted to see how Ben and Isaac would react this year.  Isaac was a little scared last year and we didn't want to take him to the party we were going to if he was going to be unhappy.  It was so fun.  Isaac was a little worried but was MUCH better than last year.  And Ben just sat there giggling and then saying "more, more" after each firework was done.  He was sitting with Grandma and she just couldn't get enough of him.  We ended up doing the whole package of fireworks and keeping the boys up way later than we thought.  It was totally worth it though.

The next day we headed out for a test drive bike ride.  We planned to bike to the parade on the 4th and wanted to see if the bike trailer would work on the tandem bike.  Answer, yes.  

But we did have a little malfunction on the way there.  Jacob didn't shift the gears quickly enough for our uphill stretch of road and we got the chain jammed pretty good.  Isaac found the camera while Jacob and I were trying to fix it.  Ben was mostly with Grandma for the several minutes of working on the chain.

The way back was much more smooth as we headed to a park near by for the kids to play.  It was a fun little outing.

I had to take a picture of this card game we played with Jacob's parents.  Any of my siblings remember this from our youth?  I totally did.  And it was still fun.

I love the 4th of July.  And we had a good one in Oregon.  We started the day with attending the "candy parade."  They toss out so much candy my kids collected more than they did at Halloween.  They are still working their way through it all and Ben quickly learned how to ask for candy.

After the parade we headed to a ward party.  I ate some of the best grilled chicken I've had.  The kids played on the play ground.  And then it was nap time.  At least for Ben.

We finished the day off at a party hosted by a family that used to be in Jacob's parent's ward.  Jacob was good friends with their son growing up and it was fun talking to him and his wife.  The parents live on a huge farm with tons of property.  They set off their own firework show that rivals some of the professional ones I've seen.  It was a lot of fun and they boys loved exploring the farm and seeing the fireworks. It was a really late night but we had fun.  Ben started not sleeping well midway through vacation.  He would wake up screaming and was inconsolable.  We had one really miserable night where he ended up in our bed.  He also learned to climb out of the pack and play.  Oh boy...rough times.  But we managed.  And he's pretty well sleeping beautifully again.

The next day we were scheduled to fly home.  We had the majority of the day to spend with Grandma and Grandpa.  They started the morning picking berries in a neighbor's yard, a true Oregon experience.  I was showering and getting things ready to pack so missed the berry picking fun.  But I hear once Ben realized what it was all about he was picking and eating as fast as he could.

This picture was from a different day.  Jacob's dad thought welding was just something every good man should experience.  I guess right up there with driving a tractor.  So he spent some time one evening showing Jacob some welding.  I guess Jacob passed with flying colors.  He did well.  They asked if I wanted a go and I respectfully declined.  I'm not sure why, but I think I was just tired that evening and not interested.  If it had been a different day I probably would have given it a go.  As it was I probably spent the evening getting more acquainted with Jacob's mom's side of the family history.  She told me stories about her parents and siblings.  I haven't heard a lot about them so I really enjoyed that.

Anyway...back to our last day in Oregon...

Jacob, Isaac and Grandpa went on a little train ride at the Portland railroad museum.  They had a really great time and took some fun pictures.  Isaac was in train heaven.  They got to sit in the top of the caboose for the ride out and then near the engine for the ride back.

They also got to explore a little more in the museum before returning for a quick, early dinner and off to the airport.

And, here we are on the plane.  It was a late flight and I thought for sure the kids would sleep.  Nope.  Not at all.  Not either of them.  It was insane.  Ben screamed, SCREAMED, the last 20-30 minutes of the flight.  He was totally inconsolable and so, so tired.  It was horrible.  And then he finally fell asleep just before we were to land and then woke up and screamed again.  Pretty much until we were on the shuttle and I could pick him up.  I guess if that was the worst of the trip we did just fine!  It all worked out in the end.

We loved Oregon and can't wait to go back again.