Summer Vacation part 3: The Great NW

It had been about 5 years since the Seals had been out to our house! Can you believe that? We make the effort to try and get out to Utah at least twice a year and they wait a whole 5 years to come see us! So you can see why we fought so hard to convince Uncle Gavin to stay more than 2 days.

The weather cooled off again but stayed nice enough for plenty of outside ball games and light saber wars.

I don't have many toys around the house anymore, especially little girl toys, so I was happy that Mia and Morgan had so much fun with the stuffed animals, Disney figures and Barney puzzles I pulled out of storage.

Mia's second favorite toy were the flowers in the backyard. I love this picture because it shows Barney on TV in the background. As much as we miss the Seals, Barney was overdue for departure!

The big kids found plenty to do around the house between the Pinball machine, arcade games and Karaoke.

The most bitter-sweet moment of the week was when Ryan said that his favorite thing about the trip was Bailey. Ryan has severe asthmatic reactions to dogs and has to keep his distance at all times. With his medications and the fact that we had just replaced all our carpet before they came up, Ryan was able to enjoy her a little more than usual.

We took the kids to OMSI, our wonderful science museum for FHE. I think we could have all used another hour or so there but the museum was closing. Scott took them out on the boardwalk afterwards for a great view of downtown Portland and the Willamette River.

The only person that loves museums more than Scott is Layton. I love this picture. Layton is reading along side Scott all the details of Albert Einstein on this traveling exhibit. Notice all the other kids are off playing with the hands on experiements and games!

Gavin did a great job as our weather forecaster on the green screen exhibit. I was thinking though how great would it be if they had a sceen from "The Office" for the green screen and we could see Gavin in action behind Michael Scott's desk!

I have more pictures of Scott with Gavin than I do with me! They make a cute couple!

After the museum we played one of our family's favorite FHE games...the candy bar game!

It is a timed memory game where you try to get not only the most candy bars, but your favorite candy bars. The kids got so into it and hid their earned candy bars so tight in their hands that every bar was melted by the end of the game!

Gavin assured us we would not be able to talk him into staying any longer so we really had to pack in the activities their last day here.

We started off with homemade scones for breakfast and then a 40 minute drive down the Gorge to Beacon Rock for a hike.

Above is a picture of Beacon Rock off in the distance as you first see the Gorge. Then below is the rock standing right below it.

I had forgotten how much of the trail was literally hanging on the side

of the mountain! Maybe not the best choice of hikes for small kids in flip flops! At about this point, Heather turned back around with the little ones and waited in the car for the rest of to finish.

Jack, Ryan, Layton, Will, Hadley, Gavin and myself were the only ones to make it to the top.

After the hike we came back home just long enough to pack up some chairs, beach toys and towels before heading to the Columbia River beach about 20 minutes from our house.

The kids spent most of the time building the world's largest hot tub at "J" resort. Or is it "Jay resort"? All we know is it isn't "Gay Resort"! (long story behind that one!)

Then we figured since we started the day off with scones, most ate scones for lunch, then we snacked on some scones...we should finish the day off with some of Uncle Gavin's famous crepes!

Then just as planned...the Seals left bright and early at 7:00 a.m. for Utah! Well, I am sure it was bright and early and 7:00 a.m. somewhere when they left - but leave they did! And now all we have to remember them by are these blog posts and the extra 10 pounds they left me!