Vacation Day 3

Saturday dawned with sunny skies and thus began the longest trip home..... EVER!!!

We went to the Portland Aquarium in Milwaukie. It was in a remodeled Angus Steak restaurant. Kinda weird, and I was skeptical, but we decided to go ahead and try it.

Xander loved how the fish exhibits were down low enough that he could stand up and look right at them. 

He was LOVING it!

Over half of the fish exhibits were open topped so that you could feed or touch the fish. It was great!

Gabriella and I by the jellyfish

Matt and Xander by the scuba diver

Watching the shark tank

Xander watching while Gabriella and I were trying to pet the manta rays, bat rays and sharks

I got to touch several rays and a shark! It was SO fun! Plus we got to feed them and a bunch of fish. 

Gabriella wanted a picture of Nemo 

Matt feeding some Lorakeets

Xander having one on his arm. He is crying in this picture because Matt was holding his hand so he couldn't grab the bird. He really liked them a lot!

Me holding one!

(Gabriella was too scared to hold one but got really close to them)

Playing in a touch pool

Cute kiddos!

Xander with his wooden deep sea diver toy he picked out

(Gramma and Grampa gave him and Gabriella some money to pick a treasure with)

Gabriella showing me "sharkie" that she picked out. 

We stopped at the Clackamas Center mall for lunch at Chipotle (my favorite restaurant!!) 

The mall had a mini carousel and Ferris wheel inside it and Gabriella wanted to ride them. Daddy let her do that while I took Xander to the car and cleaned up a major poo-explosion!

Here she is waiting to get on the carousel!

Then we hit the road at naptime expecting to make it to Eugene before the kids woke up.....

Wrong! 

We stopped in Eugene at Cabelas to use our free $50 gift card we had couponed ;)

We got $75 worth of stuff for free!! Woo hoo!!

Then we went to the other Eugene mall to let the kids run around some more

Gabriella playing in the baskets at Build A Bear. 

Then we stopped in Cottage Grove (at Walmart so the kids could run around and play in the toy section and stop screaming in the car). 

Then we drove home from there. It took us over 9 hours to get home from Portland (normally a 4 hour drive). 

But we were happy to be home and sleep in our own beds!!

We had a great vacation (minus the drive home) and were so blessed with staying at great friends' house, visiting our good friends the Agnews and getting to see and experience lots of new things!

It was so nice to get out of town for a little while and be together as a family!

Vacation day 2

We woke up Friday morning, had breakfast with Meredith and then headed out to some thrift stores. Gabriella had a lot of fun trying on dresses with me at Goodwill in Beaverton.

It started raining pretty hard and getting in and out of the car wasn't very fun so we headed to a Gluten-Free Bakery called Tulas. 

The kids got to sit at a little table that was just their size. 

Gabriella picked out a chocolate chunk cupcake with coconut frosting. 

Xander very happily shared my pomegranate almond flax tart. 

Matt after his "Lava Roll"

Gabriella showing me she ate all her cupcake. 

Then we were off to go see our friends, The Agnews!

Xander and Victory played together so well! It was cute. They kept kissing or patting each other. 

The kids in their swimsuits ready to go for a swim in the hotel pool!

Gabriella ready to go

Xander trying to climb up the chairs

Xander and daddy in the pool

Ryan and Victory. 

(it was her first time in a swimming pool)

Me and Roo

Victory having fun!

The pool was freezing so we tried the hot-tub. Normally I would never take my kids in one, but it was actually barely warmer than a bath so we had a lot of fun playing in it. 

Emily was feeling a little under the weather so we took a rest back in the room. 

My kids obviously love her!

Fun play time in the pack n play.

Emily and I made a quick trip to Fabric Depot. 1 1/2 acres of fabric!! Yowza!! We could have stayed there all day! Plus it was awesome of the guys to keep all the kiddos so we could have some mommy time. 

Friday was a lot of fun. It was so great to see our friends and watch our kids play together. We can't wait to get together again!!

Vacation Day 1

We had to take Xander up to Portland to Doernbecher Children's Hospital (again) to get his hernias checked. We decided to make a mini-vacation out of it and stay for a couple days.

We got the kids up at 4 am on Thursday morning and hit the road.

They were surprisingly cheerful for how early they were getting buckled into the car. 

Sleepy girlie!

We stopped in Albany for breakfast and so Matt could have his conference call with his mentor from school. 

Organic blueberries and granola, yum!!!!

The kids had lots of fun crawling around in the back of the car while we ate.

Then it was back on the road. We decided to go to the Lloyd Center in Portland and let the kids play in the play area. 

Then it was time for an early lunch..

Gabriella begged to go ice skating so we decided to let her try it!

She did really good and even asked me to let go of her several times. 

Then it was off to Doernbecher Hospital....

They called us back to the exam room really fast but then we had to sit there and wait for awhile. We got pretty bored and were trying to keep the kids happy since it was naptime. 

The dr finally came in and took a look at Xander. 

She said that he has an epigastric hernia. It isn't terribly big, just big enough for fat to get trapped in but not intestines. They don't want to put him in surgery now since there are anesthesia complications on both sides of the family so we will be keeping an eye on it for now. She said that they never heal on their own (but we know that Jesus can heal them!) and that some people live their whole lives and are never bothered by them and others have to get them surgically fixed. She was very helpful and gave us a bunch of information on what to watch for and how to know when there is a problem. 

We were happy to hear no surgery for now but it is stressful knowing he has a problem that can't be fixed right now. We will just believe that Jesus will heal our little man!

After that we headed to my friend, Meredith's house. The kids and I took a little rest while Matt went and hung out with his buddy Matt and fiance Genevieve. 

Gabriella having fun making puppy paws at Meredith's house. 

It was so fun to see Meredith and meet her fiance. I didn't realize how much I missed her until I spent time with her again. Such a great friend!!