Vacation FUN!!!

Chelsey and Hans invited us to go on vacation with them. First, we thought of going to the Redwoods in California, but after finding out how long the drive was for both families, as Chels and Hans live in Washington and Matt and I in Utah, we changed our plans.

Matt and I would fly into Portland, Oregon and meet up with them. We spent a couple days in Portland, a day and a half on the coast, and a couple in Yakima where Chels and Hans live. Our days were full of fun, adventure, and interesting moments.

Check out the blogs of each of the days.

 Be sure to read all 7 days. Fun stuff in each post!

Hope you enjoyed our adventure as much as we did! Thanks Chels, Hans, Arlee, and Lydia!

We spent so much time in the car...here are some photos of how Arlee and Lydia handled it.

Seating arrangements:

Hans and Chels were in the front seat. Driving and navigation

Lydia and I in the middle. Feeding and trying not to get car sick.

Matt and Arlee in the back. Watching movies and talking to each other. 

Lydia likes to suck her thumb. No Binkie for her

Arlee asleep

Lydia eating and me helping her. 

Arlee entertaining herself and Matt.
 She loved to watch different movies with Matt,
but would ask him questions about what was
happening when she already knew the answers. 

Lydia HATED her car seat!
This is what she was like most the time when we strapped her in.

Lydia smiling for the camera.

Arlee asleep again.

Vacation Day 1 - April 25th

Matt works 7 days on and 7 days off, so on his off days we enjoy as much time together. During his last days off, April 25th to May 1st. We went on vacation with my sister, Chelsey and her family, Hans, Arlee (3), and Lydia (4 months).

Wednesday, April 25th - 1st day of vacation

Matt shifts ended at 6:00am Wednesday morning, so I booked our flight to leave Salt Lake at 9:25am. Thinking, we would have plenty of time for Matt to get off work and his mom pick us up at 7:30am. 

I woke up at 7:00am and went down stairs to see where Matt was. He wasn't anywhere to be found. So I tried calling his cell phone. No answer! 10 minutes later he calls, telling me he is on his way and that his replacement was late. He got home at 7:22 and his mom arrived at 7:28am to pick us up. A little close to call.

Arrives at the airport, flew to Oregon, where it was raining, and was picked up without any further problems by the Hoges. 

We took Matt back to the hotel to take a nap. Matt had to sleep somewhere after having worked all night, so I chose for the early flight so I could hang out with Hoges, while waiting for Matt to wake up. 

We ended up going to a place called Washington Park. Absolutely beautiful! We started to try and hike, but Arlee ended up needing to go the bathroom and wouldn't go in the bushes, so we left after 10 minutes, got lunch, we to the bathroom, and went back. 

I had the adventure of caring Lydia around and Chels helped Arlee keep her footing. If you notice, Chelsey has flip-flops on and almost fell a couple of times. We walked about 2 or 3 miles through the beautiful tree covered trails. 

Me, Arlee, and Lydia

The TREES covered in moss, because it is always
so wet and never gets much sun

Arlee hanging out on some Redwoods

Arlee being her cute little self

Arlee was always picking up things, but mostly the dandelions. 

Check out Chelsey's shoes...flip-flops...really good for hiking.

Me, Arlee, and Lydia. Lydia was asleep.

Hans and Arlee

Our view from below. 

After Washington Park, we went to a park with slides for Arlee to play on until we heard from Matt. Once Matt woke up, we went back to the hotel, and went swimming. Well, we sat in the hot tub, because we were all cold. After warming up, we got ready for dinner and went to PF Changs. We got back and went to our rooms. The kids need to go to bed and Matt and I were tired too. 

Vacation Day 2 - April 26th

We had breakfast in the morning and then got ready to go to the Portland Oregon Temple. Chelsey brought up this idea a couple weeks before we got there as they have to travel about 3 hours to go to a Temple in Washington, so we decided to trade on babysitting.

Matt wanted to do a session, but we arrive 5 minutes after it had already started, so we decided to do sealings. That ended up not working out, so we ended up completing initiatories. After, we finished, we came out of the Temple to swap the kids with Chelsey and Hans.

Lydia was asleep and I didn't want to wake her up by putting her in her car seat to go somewhere. So we hung out around the temple. Matt made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we hung out outside and in the visitor center.
While we were outside, we took some pictures of Arlee. She has such a fun personality.

The Portland Oregon Temple was erected in 1989. 

Me and Lydia...who is sleeping and I was happy to hold her close

We went into the visitor center, because it got cold and
cloudy again. We walked in and asked Arlee who this statue
was of, she said Jesus. We tried to get her picture but she was shy. 

Arlee and the Sister missionary that was trying to
talk to her. Arlee was being shy, but was okay when the missionary
asked if she wanted to touch Jesus' feet. I really like this picture. 

Eventually, Arlee warmed up to the sister missionary when she asked
Arlee if she wanted to color. Well, Arlee go to color temples on this
huge TV touch screen.

Arlee likes to color everything PINK. 

Lydia and Matt watching Arlee color

Matt, Lydia, and Me. Arlee was too busy coloring.

 Chels and Hans took pictures of them temple, while we were inside. Here are my favorite ones.

This is my most favorite.

 After Chelsey and Hans got out of the Temple, we took some pictures of each other.

Matt and I were goofing off. Chels caught it on camera

Classic moment of kissing the man of your dreams and
your foot "popping".  Chels helped suggest the foot "popping."
But Matt is the man of MY dreams!

Us and the girls. Lydia is even awake and smiling

Hoge family and our vacation buddies. 

We didn't want to go back to the hotel and it was almost dinner time, so we went to ride the tram. Chelsey had seen a brochure about it and it looked like a long ride and lead to some fun things to do.

$4.00 dollars per person and a very short ride later, we found out differently. The tram only went up to the hospital and was a short 1 minute ride. The view was nice, but that was about it. Trust us, this is definitely not some to do as a tourist destination like the brochure said.

After getting of the tram, we decided to eat dinner at Shari's by our hotel. A close 20 miles away, but at rush hour in Portland it took over 60 minutes. We were all starving by the time we got there, but the food was FANTASTIC!

Vacation Day 3 (part 1)- April 27th

We packed up the car...which was interesting with everyone's stuff and went on the road. We were going to stay a night in Newport Oregon. Here is the fun for the day.

We decided to go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory on the way to Newport.
We arrived and checked out the gift shop while everyone went on bathroom breaks. I caught Matt goofing off with trying on weird hats. This Green one really matches his green eyes. Chelsey even ended up breaking a willow tree figurine too. 

 Before entering for a self guided tour, we all got on the bus. Arlee liked to drive!

Us and Arlee

Hoges with Lydia asleep. 

 Which one are you? A cow? A farmer?

Arlee is the cow and Lydia is the sleeping farmer.

Chelsey is the cow and Hans the Farmer

Lydia is a sleeping cow. Wonder if she would tip over.
Arlee is the farmer.

Matt is an interesting farmer looking at his "mooing" cow.

Packing CHEESE!

After the tour, we tasted some cheese and decided to eat lunch.

Matt hanging out with Lydia

Me and a very smiley Lydia. 

Arlee and her meal number, plus she is 3 yrs old. 

After the cheese factory, we hit the road for the 3 hour ride to Newport.

This is our first look at the ocean on our trip. Both girls were in the car sleeping, we hurried to look and get a couple of pictures in the cold wind.

We checked into the hotel, checked on local attractions, changed our clothes, went out for a night on the town...see next post.