Portland's Annual Rose Festival

Yesterday we went to the annual Rose Festival at the Waterfront Park in downtown Portland. It was so much fun. I didn't know that Portland was the 'Rose' city, I thought we'd be going to see a bunch of flowers....which would have been fine too. Anyway it was this huge carnival-like thing with all sorts of food and a bunch of rides you could go on. They had this really cool dinosaur exhibit where one part of the exhibit were dinosaurs and the other part was a bunch of snakes, spiders, turtles, toads, and a bunch of animals too. Samantha loved it! She loved looking at the animals in the cages, but the dinosaurs scared her a bit. It was such a nice day too right on the waterfront you looked out and there were all these yachts and boats on the water. Some of those boats were big! They also had these pirate ships that you could walk onto and look around, and people dressed like pirates! Those are cool ships!
We had fun eating lamb gyros and greek fries, with cotton candy! There was a huge selection of food to eat! The festival was right next to Saturday's Market so you could go from one festival to the next and back! If we weren't so tired from earlier on in the day we would have stayed for the cool light parade they do later on at night. I love everytime we go to Portland, it is so pretty. If it wasn't so expensive I would live right downtown on the Waterfront. That would be perfect!
So the other reason why we were so tired was because yesterday we helped Jeff and Lacey move to Oregon City in their new house! I had the easy job of watching the kids and Dave, George, Alan, Jeff, and Mark did most of the heavy lifting. They had to get a washer and dryer up a huge flight of stairs! That took a while. But they are finally there and they love their new townhouse! It's funny to realize just house full George and Nancy's house was because when we moved all their stuff out, there was so much more space! Especially in the living room because that's where Eric's crib had been along with lacey's piano. But it was a very successful day and we are glad they finally get to live in their house, and I'm sure they are too!
The rest of this week was pretty normal. The other day we bought Samantha a bike trailer that was on sale at Target so we could go on bike rides! So once we get our tires pumped up we can go to the park or wherever, because Samantha loves to be outside! In the last week or so she has learned to give kisses and hugs, but I think she thinks that when I say "kiss!" it means she can only give me a kiss, because the other day Dave was holding her saying "kiss!" trying to get a kiss from her and she turns toward me and gave me a huge slobbery open-mouthed kiss! She's been doing that for a while, but I think she's starting to give him kisses too. It's so cute because she just opens her mouth really wide towards you and after gives you a hug.
She's also becoming a very social baby too. Today at church after sacrament meeting, a neighbor came up to see Samantha and she went right to her and cuddled with her for a couple of minutes! I was a little jealous because she hardly does that with me. But I'm happy she's not shy all the time at least. She is also the busiest baby ever! That girl cannot sit still for a minute! Not even to drink her bottle. She always has to see what's going on and move all over the place, and she can't even walk yet. I don't know, but I wasn't expecting her to be this crazy!
Last week when we were driving back from Portland I was in the back seat with Samantha, and for a long time I've been trying to get her to say "mama" so I was practing it with her. And out of the blue she puts her lips together and very slowly goes, "maaamma!" Greatest moment of my life! It was awesome. It's definitely the little things like that that make you happy. I never thought I'd be so excited about her saying that, but it was great! Of course she's been saying "dada" for a while but only last weeks the first "mama" came out! :)