portland spring break adventures

you know by now that portland has become our favorite weekend destination while we've been living in seattle. it doesn't hurt that we have family friends who live there and are so generous to host us each time. we actually hadn't been down there since july, which is hard to believe. azalea started kindergarten, which made it harder to pop down for more than a night. also, last time we experienced a torturous 6 hour drive with the kids (it's normally 3 hours, but summer traffic between the two cities is crazy). azalea is on spring break this week, so we thought it would be the perfect time to go! 

we left saturday morning and made it down there in 3 hours (hurray!). we had plans to meet up with thatcher's cousins and their spouses for lunch, but we were about 45 minutes early, so we popped into a cute little coffee shop and then came across a historic fire station with a donation-based museum inside. it was a perfect place to kill time! it was super kid friendly, too! 



 

we headed down the street to "dick's kitchen" for lunch. it was nice to see lloyd & jammie, and jade & ben! the kids were a bit squirrly at lunch, but we managed to have an enjoyable time. the food was great too! here is our family with the (biological) cousins: 

not sure what ashford was up to. ha!

after lunch, we drove over to the pearl district because thatcher wanted to go to rei (he had a coupon that was about to expire and oregon doesn't have sales tax). by the time we got there, both kids were asleep in the car! so, i stayed in the car and read my book while thatcher went shopping. it was quite relaxing :) we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some stuff for dinner at kathy & garry's



then drove to their house for the night. they made a delicious chicken and salmon dinner and we enjoyed catching up with them. the kids had a ball playing with their kids' old toys and chasing their cat around (poor cat...). i think our family was in bed by 9pm. haha!

sunday morning they made us eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, and toast and then we all took the kids to the elementary school playground a couple blocks from their house. 



our family took the train into portland (they live just outside of the city). we went to "hot lips pizza" for lunch, which we've been to many times before. yum! the kids also played pinball for the first time and thought it was the greatest thing ever.


we had couple hours to kill before we were planning to meet thatcher's cousin's wife jammie to take family pictures. we rode the train around some more and headed to the oregon rail heritage museum a little early. 



our family + trains is like peanut butter + jelly, so it was a great location suggestion from jammie. we explored the museum for a bit before she arrived. then we spent the next hour taking pictures inside and outside with her. the kids were mostly cooperative, but they were definitely "done" by the end. here is a preview of one of the pics: 



i will do a whole post once we get the rest of the pictures back. i can't wait to see them. she did such a great job! 

after pictures, we went to get the kids a treat, as promised. we ended up going to a deli downtown and getting a cookie and a brownie to split and ashford fell asleep on the way there. 



he slept through the whole thing and even slept through a trip to powell's bookstore. thatcher carried him the whole time and we got so many "awwws" from people walking by. my giant baby :) we were all tired by this time and decided to take the train back to kathy and garry's. they took us (and their daughter london) out for dinner at "laughing planet cafe". it was a good quick-casual meal and we enjoyed it! we went back to their house after and just hung out until bed time. 

monday morning we had another delicious breakfast and relaxed at their house for a couple hours. then we packed up our stuff to head out for the day (and eventually out of town). we drove to park they recommended called "crystal springs rhododendron garden." it was a beautiful place!





 then we went to have lunch at "hopworks brewery", which is a great kid-friendly place we've been to a couple times before. i feel like that's how i judge every restaurant these days, but any parent of small children knows meals out are slightly more relaxing when you are in the company of other families with young kids (and extra points when places have toy areas!). we made one last stop at "back to eden" bakery for a treat before hitting the road back to seattle. the ride back took about the same amount of time, so that was a relief. 

a few other things i want to remember about this trip: we lucked out when it came to dodging the rain. it rained on and off while we were there, but it was usually when we were indoors. it also was abnormally cool, just like seattle has been. 40 degrees in the mornings and around 50 in the afternoons. going on a trip at the end of the second week of potty training was...interesting. there was definitely some regression over the weekend, but now that we are back, he seems to be getting back into the groove again. whew! sleep was also not the greatest. late nights and early mornings for the kids. finally, it was so nice to spend time with kathy and garry (and london) and stay in their beautiful home! i realized there are no pictures of them from this trip. oops! 

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