Parents plus Portland equals Great!!

Well what a great week we have had here in Portland! For the first time since we moved here, my parents came to visit for a week! And it was good timing for them to come. We had mostly great weather, and my dad has some..extra time off work.
They were able to stay an entire week, and I feel like I may have made them work more than relax. We did a lot of walking, but hopefully they got a lot of rest too. They say they did. I am pretty sure we met my Mom's goal of 10,000 steps on her pedometer each day. But I think we balanced ourselves out by how much we ate as well!

We did a lot this week! Some stuff I have never done or places I haven't seen yet living here! So it's good to have visitors, because then I get to go and see fun places I haven't been to!

The very first day, I picked up a Culture pass from the Library and we went to the Japanese Gardens downtown with my parents. What a beautiful place! And even better? We got in free with the culture pass! Love the Free!! It was so beautiful and felt like we were in Japan. It was a very peaceful place, and luckily Sammy was happy and peaceful too, so we didn't get kicked out. That's what I love about Portland. You drive through downtown, and all of a sudden find a beautiful garden!






Wednesday we drove to Cannon Beach to see beautiful Haystack Rock. It was a sunny, warm day so it was great to be on the beach. Later that day, we drove down the coast to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Did you know it takes them 250,000 cows in one day to produce the milk that goes through that factory??!! That's a lot of sore nipples!! :) Seriously though, it was cool to see how all the packaging and processing works. We got to sample some cheese and had fresh Tillamook ice cream. Yum!







Thursday morning, we went to the Waterfront because the Rose Festival was going on and they were supposed to be having tours of a USS Navel ship. Well apparently they couldn't come because they were put on high alert. Probably something to do with Korea. But they did have a cool Coast Guard ship that we got to tour, and that was fun. It was really nice too because my parents got to come and see one of my Indoor Socce games that night! Something I thought would never happen again. And, it was even better because we won...by a lot! A great start to a new season!




Friday we drove to the beach again, but this time to Lincoln City. It was a cooler day and a little rainy but still beautiful. Of course we ate at Mo's and then walked along the beach and took pictures. We also drove to Depoe Bay and tried to see some Whales at the whale-watching area. But, to no avail. That's okay though, we still had fun. I feel a little bad though, because we did have to do a bit of driving and with 4 adults, a baby, and a Hyundai Elantra?? Not so much room. You could pretty much hear the joints cracking as we got out of the car after an hour and a half drive. And that was just from Dave and me. My parents were probably dreading getting in the car by the end of the week. Sorry mom and dad. :)










Saturday, of course we went to Saturday's Market where we did a lot of walking and enjoyed the ambiance of the Marketplace. They also had this cool boat race going on all day where they had different heats of teams racing up the river in these awesome Dragon decorated boats. There was a team called the Dragon Buttz, and mom liked their slogan "Battle me, Paddle me, Hard!" In Portland we didn't get as much of a reaction from my mom saying that walking down the street as we would have in Utah.
That night we saw "Up" in 3D! It was a cute movie, and luckily for us, Samantha lasted through the movie! It was great, except for poor Dave throwing out his back! Poor old man! :)





These last couple of days we drove to Multnomah Falls and hiked the mile up what felt like a 70% incline up the mountain to the top of the falls. Another good workout! This morning on the last day my parents were here, I made my Dad do hard manual labor by taking a chainsaw to a couple of trees in our Apartment community. He took those babies down in record time, it was amazing! Thanks for your help Dad!








It was great having my parents here for a good week! I love being with my family all together, but having my parents all to myself was espcially nice. And they had some magic touch with Samantha too. I think they may have been nervous she would be too shy, but from the day they got here, she started talking a whole lot more. She can now say at least half the alphabet and count to 5. And she says "Ganpa" and "Ganma". She absolutely loved hanging out with her grandparents and getting so much attention from them. I think tomorrow when she wakes up and doesn't see them here, she might be a bit grumpy and say "ganma, gampa, R you???" And then we'll play a big hide and seek game until we find them and see them again in a month when we head to Utah.

Thanks again Mom and Dad for coming to visit us! We had a great time and miss you already! We love you!