Our Trip to Portland Continued . . .

Ok, I am not sure what is happening, but my other post will not save any changes I make to it, so I am going to have to add more information on this post.  I hope this works.

Thursday was the Groom's Dinner.  We ate at a barbeque restaurant and stuffed our faces on fried chicken and bbq ribs.  It was delicious!  Your dad and Uncle Chad played ring-around-the-rosies with you and some of the kids, and you giggled the whole time.  Ashley's niece Alexa fell in love with you and wanted to carry you around the restaurant the whole night.  You just love being around people, so you had a great time at dinner.

Friday was the day of your Uncle Chad and Aunt Ashley's wedding.  You were the star of the show (next to Ashley of course).  Everyone wanted to take you out onto the dance floor, and you loved all of the attention. 

I stole this pic off of Ashley's Facebook.  I just love the way you two love eachother.

There's you and Alexa.  She even held you when she was giving her toast.  You two really hit it off.

After the wedding, Ashley's family invited us to go swimming at their hotel.  You had a great time swimming with dad in the pool and warming up in the spa with me.  Your Nana even bought you these cute pink water shoes that you wore the whole time you were swimming.

On Saturday, your Papa decided to take us all out on a bike ride.  I was expecting a leisurely stroll down the boardwalk, but I forgot that the Griffiths rarely do anything in a leisurely fashion.  There ended up being two bikes.  Your dad, Uncle Kurt, Papa, Everett, Reese, you, and I were all on one bike.  Aunt Jennifer, Aunt Kari, Aunt Alex, Aunt Ashley, Uncle Chad, Nana, Pa, JR, and Adelyn were all on the other bike.  Since there were two bikes, they decided that we had to race down the street.  You had fun sitting on your dad's lap bouncing up and down as he pedaled as fast as he could.  I eventually gave up and let the boys take over the pedals.  It was exhausting, but a great deal of fun too.

Sunday was your dad's birthday, and we all decided to go take a stroll down the Promenade.  You would've thought it was your birthday because you got to do so many fun things.

You had your first taste of ice cream!  It only took one lick for you to know that you did not want to share the ice cream with dad.  You wanted it all for yourself.

This is your dad's favorite picture of you from the trip.  Your Aunt Alex took it.

You rode on the carousel with JR and Nana.

You went on the train with Reese, Everett, and Papa.

There were also some old fashioned soda shops there that had many different root beer bottles.  We doubled your dad's root beer bottle collection on this trip.  Since we bought so many root beer bottles, the owner of the store gave your dad the box of "Dad's old fashioned root beer" that you can see in my hand.

On Monday, your dad and Uncle Chad went crab fishing while the rest of us went to the aquarium.  You pointed at all of the fish, and you even got to touch a live star fish.

After the aquarium, we all went on a paddleboat ride.  Again, I thought paddleboats sounded so relaxing and nice.  They were so difficult!  Your life vest was very bulky and uncomfortable, so you screamed the entire time we were on the boats.  We had planned on riding for an hour.  After 15 minutes, we were all exhausted and we returned the boats.

Alex and Ashley are only smiling for the camera.  They were pooped too.

On Tuesday the 12th of July, we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and Cape Meares. 

Moo!

We saw lots of cheese being made!

And we ate more Tillamook ice cream.  I wish we had this ice cream in Yuma.

We also gorged ourself on a variety of cheeses from garlic jalapeno cheddar to squeeky cheddar cheese (deep fried cheese).  Then we went to see the lighthouse at Cape Meares.

Someone was walking their dogs down the path to the lighthouse, and we had to stop and let you pet them.  You just LOVE dogs!

The view from the lighthouse was spectacular.  It was so lush and green everywhere.  I could have stayed there all day . . . until it started raining.

Thurdsay was our last day in Seaside.  Before we left, we stopped at a Mexican food restaurant to have lunch.  You snacked on some tortilla chips, and made a huge mess before we headed off to Portland again.

On Thursday night we arrived in Portland.  Jennifer and I both had friends that we wanted to visit in Washington, so we borrowed Ashley's car and drove about 45 minutes to Washington.  The friend that I was visiting was expecting a baby girl, and her due date was two days away.  She warned me ahead of time that she had been having some mild contractions that day, but she wanted me to come and visit anyway.  While you and I were there, her contractions started getting stronger and closer together.  We ended up driving with her and her husband to the hospital where Jennifer picked us up.  It was such a crazy night, that I didn't get any pictures of you with my friend Marisol.  She ended up having the baby, Kylie James, the next day.

On Friday, we went to the Children's Museum in Portland.  This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because you and the other kids had so much fun there.

You and your Aunt Ashley at the entrance to the museum.

This was a water bed that you were not quite sure about.

There was a little fountain that trickled out water.  You had fun splashing your hands in the water.

Your Aunt Jennifer came and played with you.

Padded stairs for you to climb up.  This was fun because when we were at the beach house, you really wanted to climb up the wooden stairs, but I wouldn't let you because I was afraid you would fall.  These ones were much safer.

I have a miniature size of this same cow in my cow parade collection on display in our house.

After the Children's Museum, we went to an amusement park called The Oaks.  You were too little to ride on any of the rides, so you just hung out most of the day in the stroller.  Your Aunt Kari, Aunt Ashley, and Aunt Jennifer wanted to go on one of the big rides.  However, the ride seated two people together, so there was one odd man out.  There was a group of 17-year old boys in line behind them, and Kari had to ride with one of the boys.  He was pretty happy to ride with her because your Aunt Kari is very beautiful.  When the ride was over, Jennifer tried to get Kari to run up to the boy and kiss him and then run away, but Kari decided not to kiss a 17-year old.  Even without the kiss, I'm pretty sure she made that boy's day.

Your Nana used to skate at this same roller rink (at The Oaks) when she was a youth.  This brought back memories for her.

After our visit to The Oaks, we went and got dinner at Soup Plantation (or whatever they call it in Oregon), and then we went and visited the Portland Temple. 

Portland Temple (Adelyn was holding the red balloon that they gave her at the restaurant.)

We drove back to San Diego on Saturday and Sunday, and you did really well in the car.  I thought it was fitting that we ended our family trip with a visit to the temple, the place where families are sealed together forever. 

Although there were a couple of spats here and there, and we were all ready to go home by the end of the two weeks, we really do love spending time together as a family.  We are so grateful that your Nana and Papa made this trip possible for everyone so that we could all spend time with each other.  I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Love,

Mom