Sandcastle Festival

OK. I think this is the last of the vacation pictures. We went to a sandcastle festival and saw some really cool sand art (I swear I took more pictures of the art but can't seem to locate them now!). It was a little cool the day we were there but this is a gorgeous beach with amazing views. The drive there was beautiful too.

Driving to the Coast

This was our ride for the first half of our trip. It was great for the girls to chill and watch movies. You can see Parker in the front seat. All of the research I did said that kiddos in carseats should be in the passenger seat (there are no airbags) so he got to co-pilot for Uncle Brad.

What a view!

Wowza

Multnoma falls in the Colombia River Gorge. Breathtaking no? I guess lots of people have weddings there and about 10 years ago, as a wedding party stood on the bridge, a huge boulder (the size of a school bus) fell into the water below and soaked the wedding party. Brad told us the bridge was built in the early 1900s which is a little freaky but it did feel very solid!

Do you see us?

Mt. Hood

We drove up the Columbia Gorge and ate lunch in Hood River. We then drove up to Mt. Hood where people are still skiiing and snowboarding. It was fun to play in the snow in June. This is the huge ski lodge that was built during the great depression. It was mammoth and quite impressive.

Parker was being wild, here he is running from Ray in the parking lot.

Nice view in the background.

Mt. Hood from the road. The lodge is about half way up the mountain (it's actually a volcano) at 5,400 feet above sea level.

Does this sweater look familiar yet? I think Chloe wore it every day!

The boys

The girls and I went shopping at Ikea on our last day in Portland and the boys had fun playing with Brad and the neighbor Burt's construction equipment. I swear Parker grunts like Tim the Tool Man Taylor EVERY time he sees a tractor or dump truck or anything larger than one of our cars. He loves heavy equipment and between Burt and Brad, there were many. Chloe did get a ride on the excevator after we got home. Parker had a blast showing us that he knew how to work the scoop.

Boat Ride

Parker and Chloe's first boat ride! This is a small freshwater lake near Brad & Lori's beach house - we had to run the boat through it to clean out the saltwater after the guys went crabbing.

Caitlin (our beautiful niece) and me - self portrait

The Gibson crew

Our other beautiful niece Courtney

The girls
The boys

Deadliest Catch

We spent a couple of days at Brad and Lori's beach house on the Pacific coast.

Brad took Ray out in the Ocean for some crabbing. They did a lot of work and only came home with 3 crab the first day as someone else emptied the traps before they got back to them. The fresh crab was delicious - my favorite was the crab omlettes that Lori made!

The second day, they had to fight pretty rough waves to get the crab pots. Ray was a little green when he got back to the house. I was happy I opted for the freshwater lake cruise as that water was nice and calm!

Our Little Cottage

Brad and Lori have an adorable little cottage on the edge of their property so we got our own house while we were in Damascus. Here are Chloe and Parker enjoying a Marionberry coffee cake during our first breakfast in Portland.

Parker's First Plane Ride

This is the first of many posts I will make on our vacation to Portland. These are from the plane ride out. Parker did very well. His ears didn't bother him at all and he was a dream on both legs of our trip!

As you can see, Chloe was an old pro. She sat by the window and enjoyed looking out during take off and landing. The rest of the time, she only wanted to watch her dvd player.

Cool Clouds

Ray took this picture over at his parent's house Memorial weekend.  The clouds look pretty ominous! This is another good shot of Parker's locks - pre-haircut of course!

I was in Red Oak working on my mom's house (as I have been three other times in the past week). Being gone so much has been difficult but I so want to get the house cleaned up and sold. There is still a lot of work to do and I don't know when I'll get to it as we leave for vacation in about a week. 

My Pretty

Chloe went swimming at our next door neighbor's house on Sunday. She even went down their big inflatable slide. Ray had our pool out on Saturday but Parker had an accident in it so the water was a little cloudy! We had to break out the Lysol. Then we left the pool out and the dogs apparently popped it today while we were gone. Bummer!

Parker's New Do

Note the before and after pictures. I loved his curls but he hates having his hair fixed in the morning. This is so much easier. He looks more boyish and less babyish no?

Ray bought squirt guns for the kids while I was out of town last weekend. I have a strict no gun rule. Yea right!. The kids love these things.