Visitors

Jen, Emma, Haley and Noah came up to Portland to visit for a few days this past week, and boy did we have fun! 

They had been talking about coming to visit us since we moved here, and it was so exciting to think the time had finally come that they were here!  I went and met them on the other side of Portland to help get them to our house without getting lost.  I was so happy to see them!  And they were so happy to be here, after their LONG drive in the car.  They split it up and took two days to get here.  Jen was so brave to have driven it all on her own with 3 kids!  And Emma was such a good helper, I think she stayed awake the WHOLE time.

Once we got the car unloaded, the first chance we got we went swimming at our apartment complex. 

The kids had so much fun, even though it rained the whole time.  (The hot tub was awesome).

The next day we went shopping (while Chase was in school), at the outlet mall in Woodburn.  We found some sweet deals on kid clothes, in between trips to the bathroom, and Sammy tantrums.   It seems shopping is no longer his favorite thing to do.  We ate lunch at Pizza Hut which was delicious, and then spent a couple hours at Aunt Claire's house.  When Chase got home he convinced us to go out to eat at The Hawaiian Bamboo Grill downtown.  It was yummy and nice not to have to cook dinner! 

Friday was our Zoo day, rain or shine... unfortunately it decided to rain.  But we saw lots of
 cool animals and stayed mostly dry! 

We had a blast swimming that night at an indoor waterpark at our Community Center.  Chase got to come with us and he and Sam played water basketball forever!  Sam couldn't get enough :)  He loves to "shooot"  the ball!  The pool there is awesome and so kid friendly.  A big portion of it is only about 2 feet deep so the little kids can actually walk around and play without drowning!  They have a bunch of spraying water to play in too, which is fun, a hot tub, and... there's a WATERSLIDE!  Need I say more?  Emma and Haley went down by themselves like a hundred times!  Haley was so brave, I couldn't believe she'd go down all by herself at only 4 years old.  I decided to take Noah down and almost drowned myself and him trying to hold his head above the water.  I couldn't catch my footing.  (Poor Noah).  I can only imagine what that would have been like with Sam in my arms!  (Twice as heavy).  But Chase & Jen came to the rescue and convinced Noah to try again and he had fun.  They loved it, and we had an awesome time!

On Saturday we decided to drive down to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and go to the coast.  Tillamook was cool, I had never been yet.  We saw the whole process of cheese making and even got to sample some different flavors of cheese. 

They also make icecream and fudge and there were so many kinds to choose from!  We filled up on all kinds of delicious sweets!  SO YUMMY! 

Then on to the coast.  We went down to a place called Neskowin where my mom and her sisters always go for their yearly "sisters getaway" trip.  It's such a pretty place.  It was Emma, Haley and Noah's first time to the beach.  And Sam's first time "walking" on the beach.  We played in the sand and looked for seashells.  (Sam ate the sand and threw the seashells). 

After eating a quick lunch on the beach, we drove down a little ways to Depot Bay to see if we could spot some whales.  We didn't see any... but then we decided at the last minute to

take a ride on the whale whatching boat.



 It was cool being out in the ocean (and a little scary), and we ended up seeing a huge whale about 30 feet from the boat.  It was awesome!  Thanks to Jen for her adventurous spirit and quick decision making skillz!   On our way home we got a call from Levi.  He ended up surprising us all and flying up to Portland that night!  That was cool, wish we could have done more with him though.  He got here just in time to go to church sunday, and then help drive the 12 hours home on monday morning!  What a good husband ;)  I was so worried about Jen driving home by herself all that way.

On sunday after church, we went swimming one more time and hoped to walk around down town or go visit the Rose Garden, but it rained yet again.  So we played "hand and foot" and ate cookies instead!  Sam was so tuckered from his adventurous week that he fell asleep at 6:30pm and didn't
wake up until 6 the next morning! 

We had the best time even though it rained a bunch and can't wait for our next visitors.  ;)